Burning Anecdotes

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Edited by RedPandaChick

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Thus, the concert frenzy began.

We barely had time to celebrate the start of the tour as the next concert took place the very next day in the same city, though it was in another venue. Most of the venues were similar in size—around two thousand people. In this case, the venue had seven hundred less capacity.

The girls' performance kept improving throughout the following shows, making them less prone to mistakes. However, although we were more than happy to add a second date to many of the venues, they used up half of the days we had planned to take a break. It didn't seem like a problem at first, but it slowly burnt everyone out.

A drop spilled the first glass eleven shows into the tour. The girls had already shown signs of fatigue, but it was nothing serious and they did everything they could to prevent any injuries. They did everything except for one thing.

Only two songs remained in the setlist when Umi slipped out of the choreography for a second. She recovered swiftly, but her movements had become sharp and out of sync at times. Although the crowd didn't seem to mind, a quick glance was enough for me to know that something was wrong.

Satō ran from the green room to the exit of the tunnel, where I was watching the show from.

"Did you notice it too?" I asked her.

Satō nodded. "She's struggling to move her left leg. Might be a cramp."

"You think so? How can she keep dancing?"

"I'm surprised too. I know this and the last song are back to back, but we should give her time to recover when possible."

"I agree. I'll tell everyone." Using the staff Talkie channel, I said, "Umi seems to be struggling with a cramp. Postpone the next song for fifteen seconds to give her time to recover."

Both Miki and the lighting technician replied a second later, "Got it."

I switched to the emergency channel and told the girls, "Fifteen seconds to rest after this song."

I was as quick and concise as possible since the emergency channel lowered the volume of the girls' in-ear monitor cues when used. Obviously, they didn't need to reply.

"Only fifteen seconds?" questioned Satō.

"I know it's nothing, but we shouldn't make the crowd wait too long. And we don't want to upset Umi."

Satō sighed, "She's going to blame herself, isn't she?"

There was no need to answer.

A minute later, the song ended. Most of the spotlights were turned off, save for a couple to light the stage with a dim pink.

Umi turned around quickly and approached the fence on the side of the stage. She grabbed her bottle of water and drank from it, then the rest of the girls drank from their bottles of water as well. They tried to be as discreet as possible when talking to Umi, and I couldn't hear what they were saying.

Umi and I exchanged gazes for a split second while she drank water. She didn't seem angry, but she didn't seem happy either.

Astra and Sanae talked to the crowd for a few seconds and then made them cheer when they introduced the next and last song of the night. The show resumed and Umi was performing better, although her movements weren't as smooth as before.

Finally, the concert ended. The girls said goodbye and waved as they walked off stage. However, Satō ran out of the tunnel and tried to help Umi walk toward the tunnel, but she refused instantly. She kept waving and smiling at the crowd until she reached the tunnel, where her limping became evident. This time, she accepted Satō's help.

I handed the towels to the girls as we walked to the green room. Once inside, Satō helped Umi sit down on an armchair and started massaging her calf. Umi couldn't help but groan.

"Can you get a bag of ice, please?" Satō asked the assistant, who nodded and rushed out of the room.

About to ask how bad the situation was, I stopped myself; she had barely begun to assess the state of her leg. That didn't stop Risa from asking, however.

"Is it bad?"

Satō took a moment to answer, "It's nothing serious."

Most people in the room let out a breath of relief, but Umi's groans cut the relief short as Satō stood up and pushed Umi's leg up to stretch it.

"That doesn't mean it isn't painful," continued Satō. "The pain should be gone by tomorrow, but there might be some discomfort still. Three days will be barely enough for her to rest, and it could happen to any of the girls if they don't do the same."

Umi punched the armchair then threw her hands onto her face to cover it. Satō lowered her leg carefully.

Astra began to say, "It isn't your—" but I interrupted her by placing my hand on her shoulder.

Instead, I asked Satō, "What do you suggest?"

"I already mentioned it before: ice baths."

She had suggested the girls take ice baths every now and then before, but they weren't very fond of the idea. However, judging by their thoughtful frowns, they were considering it now that they had seen the consequences of not taking them.

"Fine," Umi's muffled voice said from behind her hands. She brushed her face with her hands and then continued, "I'll take those damn baths."

"We should all take them," added Sanae.

And so they did.

Despite feeling like torture at first, they noticed the benefits right away. Their muscles recovered more quickly and they were less exhausted overall. Still, hearing their screams come out of the bathroom every time they got into the ice bath never got less weird.

Umi still felt some discomfort when it was time for the next concert, so we added more time between songs so the girls could rest. We filled that time with the girls chatting with the crowd. Both the girls and the crowd seemed to enjoy it a lot, so it stayed for the rest of the tour.

The next anecdote happened halfway through the tour.

The concert was going as planned until a big commotion at the front of the crowd made the girls stop the song halfway through. Two people were fighting and, despite the security guards' best efforts, they couldn't stop them.

Seeing the problem getting bigger, Butcher walked away from his position at the side of the stage and headed to the spot where the conflict was taking place. However, one of the bodyguards we had hired arrived from the other side of the stage before Butcher.

She went straight into action by lifting one of the two people to pull them out of the crowd and place them behind the barrier. He tried to fight back at first, but he couldn't do anything once Butcher held him. The bodyguard lifted the other person up and brought them both into the tunnel, where yet another bodyguard and I were standing.

As soon as they entered the tunnel, the girls turned serious to ask the fans not to do things like these, then restarted the song from where it had been interrupted. They handled the situation perfectly by not giving it too much attention.

Although the two guys had stopped fighting, Butcher and the bodyguards remained alert as I talked with them.

"What happened?"

Both of them answered at the same time.

"He pushed me out of my spot!"

"He didn't let me go back to my place!"

"That's not true! You were never in front of me."

"Yes, I was, but I had to go to the bathroom!"

"Enough," I interrupted them. "There's an easy way to solve this."

I opened the video feed of the camera with the best angle and my glasses recognized both of their faces instantly. I played the video from the start of the concert and skipped several minutes at a time.

To no one's surprise, the guy that claimed to have gone to the bathroom was considerably further back from the spot where the conflict took place. He slowly made his way through the crowd by pushing people aside until meeting with the other guy. He tried to push him aside for several minutes until the other fought back to keep his spot.

I sighed. "Get him out."

"What?!" the liar yelled. The bodyguard was quick to grab him and take him away, although the liar kept fighting back. "You can't kick me out, I paid for my ticket! Give me back my money!"

You paid to watch a concert, not to be a dick, smartass.

Obviously, I kept that to myself to not inflate his ego even further. I also planned to ban him from ever buying another ticket to our concerts.

About to ask Butcher to help the other guy go back to his spot, I caught him smirking weirdly at the bodyguard as she dragged the liar out. It wasn't the first time I caught him smirking at her from afar.

"Butcher."

"Yes! What is it, young man?"

"Please escort him back to his spot."

"Right away."

"Thank you!" the guy smiled.

They both walked out of the tunnel.

I didn't expect Blostars' fans to be the trouble-making kind, but one could never know where those people would show up.

With only five concerts to go, we thought the worst had passed. Then, Risa's voice was gone overnight.