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"Ammy, I thought Augito was just having us over at his club!" Ceena sighed in exasperation. "Why do I hear everyone else inside, and why's that AI that kinda got us banned in there too?!"
"One, you mean XYNADA, and two, guess we'll find out once we're i-"
Ame was cut off by a burst of laughter from inside the anime song club as the door finally pushed open.
"Huh? What's so funny?" Ame asked as she approached Augito.
"Hey, Ceena! Hey, Ame!" the otaku DJ beamed as he greeted them. "Honami's been telling some really funny stories while we waited for you to get here!"
Ceena's eyes lit up with curiosity. "What kinda funny stories are we talking about?" she yelled.
From across the club, Misora, still in her usual riff on Reimu Hakurei's outfit, shouted loudly enough for the whole club to hear, "She just finished talking about the time she booked with some garbage airline."
Right then, Honami waved for Ceena, Ame, and Augito to gather around her. "Thank goodness I saved this one for when Pupiccolo got here - I bet this is gonna be the highlight of their day!"
Ceena held her breath, while Ame shuffled in her spot impatiently, then both settled down as Honami cleared her throat.
"I want to tell you this one story - it's about the best meal I've ever had in my life," she began, "This happened a few months into my career at OVAZ Inc, and it took place at a little restaurant called the Salt and Pepper Diner, which is a family restaurant right here in town…"
Several of those in attendance, including Nakago (using his trademark kappa avatar as always), Bingo, and Misora, nodded in acknowledgement as Honami continued her tale. "Yeah, you've heard of it, you know about the Salt and Pepper Diner. It's a wonderful family restaurant here, and that means it caters mainly to teenagers and XYNADA."
The whole group laughed at this remark - even XYNADA, despite it being an AI - but only for a few moments out of curiosity as to where she was going with this.
"Now I went into this place that day with Demi. I want to say this was shortly after he and I became friends. Now we walk into the Salt and Pepper Diner that day, and they had a jukebox. And the jukebox, it was three plays for 25 Beat Coins."
"Didja play anyth-" Ceena began, before Honami cut her off with more of the story.
"So we put in 175 Beat Coins, and selected twenty-one plays of 'Love Colors' by Snail's House featuring vocals by Ayumu Kotomiya and Yukiko Motoyoshi - and then we ordered and waited."
Ame let out a big, yet quiet yawn as she cracked open a can of her favorite energy drink, only for Ceena to lean in and tell her, "C'mon, Ammy! I want to see where this is going!"
"Now here's the thing about when Love Colors plays over and over and over and over and over again," Honami elaborated. "The second time it plays, your immediate thought is not Hey, somebody's playing Love Colors again… - it's Hey, Love Colors is a lot longer than I first thought, and it has like a dip in the middle… - you know how some songs have a dip, like t+pazolite's Tempestissimo? You're like Hey, Tempestissimo's over! No, it's not. There's more."
By now, everyone was laughing again, so Honami had to yell to get them to settle down.
"The third time it plays, you're thinking, MAYBE someone's playing Love Colors again. The fourth time it plays, you're thinking, WHOA - someone just played Love Colors four times, or at least someone played it twice and it's a really long song. So… the FIFTH time is the kicker."
"Why? This has to be good!" Ceena and Ame asked in unison.
"Now," Honami responded, "we're watching the entire diner at this point - most people have gotten wind as to what's going on - and we're staring at Futaba, she's sitting in the booth, and like, her hand is shaking while Misora infodumps to her about Touhou Project, and like, she's been onto us since the beginning. She's staring at her glass of chocolate milk like this, and she has this look on her face like, oh… like she just got a thirty day chip from anger management - and she's sitting like this, and the fourth play fades out. It's dead quiet-" more laughter erupted from the gang before Honami kept going.
"And then, I dunno if you know this, but the song begins very suddenly: ♪Ai no uta de / kokoro tsunagou / hora, irozuite yukunda♪ - and Futaba goes 'GODDAMNIT!' and pounds on the table, and silverware flies everywhere, and it was FANTASTIC!"
And Honami's retelling of the events was at least equally so, judging from the others' cheers - though Honami wasn't done yet.
"But a word about Demi, and what a genius he was, because when we were first up at the jukebox and we were punching in Love Colors… I'd punched in about seven, and then Demi said to me, 'Hey, hey, hey, wait - before we drop in another play of Love Colors, let's put in ONE play of Ready Set Q!!!…' And that is when the afternoon went from good to great!"
An excited hush fell over the club.
"After seven plays of Love Colors - in a row, mind you, suddenly: 'Junbi OK? Itsudemo come on!' - and the sigh of relief that swept through the diner…! People were ecstatic… it was like the final match of the Prismarock Regionals in the Groove Cup…" Honami effused. "Yanno, for years, scientists have wondered, could you make grown adults weep tears of joy by playing 'Ready Set Q!!!' by Yoshimi Youno and Yuya Kobayashi from IOSYS featuring vocals by Ayumu Kotomiya and Yukiko Motoyoshi? - and the answer is 'Yes, you can, as long as it is preceded by seven plays of Love Colors.' …and on the other hand, when we went back - holy shit."
Everybody was laughing again, even as Honami proceeded with the story.
"Ready Set Q!!! fades out-" the laughter settled down slowly… "It's dead quiet."
At this point, all that was left of the once uproarious laughter of seven humans, a businessman taking the guise of a kappa, and a sentient AI were the quiet chuckles coming from Ceena and Ame.
"♪Ai no uta de / kokoro tsunagou / hora, irozuite yukunda♪- People went fucking insane… no one could handle it." Honami recalled. "No one could handle it!"
At this point, Demi chimed in. "And they were surrounded by this seemingly indifferent staff, y'know, that was just like-"
"'Yep, same shit as always!'" Honami cut him off and continued from there. "My only wish is that XYNADA had stood up and been like-"
This was when XYNADA piped up. "Now YOU know. Now YOU know what it's like to live in my brain," it shouted before letting Honami wrap up her story.
"They unplugged the jukebox after eleven plays," Honami concluded, "and that was the best meal I've ever had."
"That was a really good story!" Augito, Ceena, and Ame cheered.
"Thanks, you guys," Honami said with a wink.
"In fact, I think I know what to queue up now!" Augito smirked as he approached his DJing spot, already setting up a new playlist with 20 plays of Tom Jones's 'What's New Pussycat, with the seventh and eighth separated by one play of 'It's Not Unusual', also by Tom Jones.