A CYOA in Worm or I think my name is No No

[Rajvik]

**
You say you were wrong,
To ever leave me alone,
Now you’re sorry,
you’re lonesome and scared.[/url]
Kagome Kuno groaned a bit as the strains of a six-string guitar woke her from her sleep. It took a minute for her to realize where she was and why she was hunched over a kotatsu. Looking around she saw two of her cousins equally passed out, face down in their books from the late-night cram session they had endured last night. Why do I hear Akane?” she asked herself mentally as her mind wound itself into wakefulness. Suddenly she threw the top of her laptop open to see the girl in question sitting in a chair with a blank wall behind her singing along with nothing but her six-string. “Megumi, Ayame, wake up!”
 
“Purple pinwheels in Paris,” Megumi snapped out, sitting up completely as she spoke, then blinking once before faceplanting back into her math workbook.

Meanwhile Megumi’s twin-sister Ayame snuggled deeper into her own arms while muttering, “But I don’t have to go to school today Auntie Nabiki,” before dropping back into unconsciousness.
 
Kagome facepalmed at her cousin’s antics and then sighed. Because it was Sunday, which was their only day off from school, it was the only day that the old man was not allowed to wake them up. Because of that, Saturday nights tended to be the night that they did group things such as sleepover study sessions, which they usually also took to the Kuno estate. (This was also partially because Genma-oji would not raise the ire of Mr. Green Turtle AND her mother at the same time.) That all said and done, this time the study session was only amongst family, and only amongst their age group, but while Aunt Ran’s other daughter Mayumi might have broken up with Akane, Kagome still thought of the younger girl as a friend.
 
“Souske-oji?” she said sticking her head out of the small study building’s only window.
 
“Yes, mistress Kagome?” the old family retainer said from above her on the roof.
 
Looking up, Kagome found the head of the elder retainer and that of his eldest son sticking over the roofline. One of the things Takahashi-sensei had gotten right in her story was the level of devotion that Souske’s family held toward the Kuno’s. (That and the fact that they were probably one of the last remaining ninja clans in existence.) “Akane has shown up on our groups video chat server,” she said mimicking her mother’s usual business tone. “Please inform the rest of the band that we will be proceeding with practice as fast as everyone can arrange.”
 
“As you wish young mistress,” the elder retainer said and then vanished.
 
“Momo-kun,” Kagome continued, smiling at the boy who she had grown up with. “Please tell the kitchen staff that we would like breakfast out here in the study shed. All three of us, please.”
 
“Yes Mistress Kagome,” the young man said, his head snapping back over the roofline and disappearing. He wasn’t quite as experienced as his father, and she could hear his footfalls as they raced across the length of the shed roof.
 
Now, she thought. Now to wake the twins. Perhaps a bucket of water from the pond. It should be sufficiently cold. Besides, there’s no reason to upset Mr. Green Turtle.
**Katie**
When we reached the Wards area Akane was dead silent as she stormed to the back, “That’s where the rooms are,” Taylor told me. “She’s probably getting something.” Sure enough, a couple of minutes later the enraged teen came storming back out, a guitar case in one hand, and a laptop bag in the other. Quickly and surely, she shifted the coffee table and an easy chair from how they had been setup to ensure a blank wall behind her before setting up the laptop and plugging it into the wall for power, and the television for display. A handful of keystrokes and the TV only showed her along with a bundle of empty image slots, and then the guitar came out. It was old, dinged here and there from being roughly handled at times, but seemingly loved. Some slow plucks and strokes and then the turn of the guitar’s keys to tighten the strings and it was in tune, then she softly started to play.
 
Angie, Angie
When will those dark clouds all disappear
Angie, Angie
Where will it lead us from here
With no lovin' in our souls
And no money in our coats
You can't say we're satisfied,
 
I knew the song, an old Rolling Stones tune, but the way she played and sang it, it was haunting. There was real loss, real pain in the words, more than what could have possibly happened in the conference room, This is older than that, I thought as listened. Whatever was said in the conference room pissed her off, but backing off like that, it reminded her of another pain, something that isn’t healed yet.
 
She played through “Angie” and then through other songs. Nothing held firm about what she played except that the slow haunting melodies were all ballads, and all were sung with the same pain that had filled the first song. It wasn’t until after an earie rendition of “Beth” that something else started. An almost thunderous crash came from the television and took our attention from Akane to it and the people who now populated it’s screen.
**Akane**
The thunderous downbeat of drums and keyboard snapped me from my introspective playing of various ballads and love songs first to the big screen and then to Taylor and Katie looking first at the TV, and then at me. My problem had been that I wanted Mayumi, I had wanted that one person who had been there for me when my grandmother and grandfather had died, and while she hadn’t been there after mother’s death, I could understand how much I had scared her. With me in Brockton Bay, there was a 13-hour time difference between me and Tokyo, there it was Sunday morning, and I had not expected anyone to be awake quite this early. Still, as what had become one of our signature songs thundered through the room, I smiled, and then I started to sing.
**Taylor**
I've got a dream 'bout an angel on the beach
And the perfect waves are starting to come
His hair is flying out in ribbons of gold
And his touch has got the power to stun
I've got a dream 'bout an angel in the forest
Enchanted by the edge of a lake
His body's flowing in the jewels alive
And the earth below is starting to shake
But I don't see any angels in the city
I don't hear any holy choirs sing
And if I can't get an angel
I can still get a boy
And a boy'll be the next best thing
The next best thing to an angel
A boy'll be the next best thing[url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6eln48BCELk]
 
Akane’s sang, the song was slow, haunting, just like the ballads she had been singing before, and maybe that is why the people on the screen had chosen it. But as it hit a point, the music changed. No longer the slow, haunting but loud ballad type of song, but a hard, driving rock and roll song that I found myself drawn into smiling. After the first chorus I found myself remembering the Aleph import movie, and the soundtrack that my parents had loved. What was more, these people had the sound to pull it off. Akane’s image sat at the center of the screen, this time doing pure vocals. A boy, with messy brown hair sat at the drums above her, keeping up with the dark-haired girl that was on a separate screen below Akane’s playing a keyboard. Finally, there was two more girls whose screens sat to either side of the Akane, both were identical redheads that were playing guitars. It took a moment of watching but while at first one could think that maybe there was a video glitch showing two screens of the same person, a closer look showed that one was playing lead guitar, while the other played bass. This made it clear that they were different people.
 
The song came to an end and the lead guitarist said something in Japanese that I couldn’t understand, but Akane was there as always to help things. “Kagome,” she said still smiling, “there are others here that don’t speak Japanese, could you please all speak English?”
 
“Sure, sure, Akane,” Kagome answered. “I take it you’re making new friends?”
 
“Somewhat,” Akane answered, and with opposing hands the two redheads facepalmed on the screen.
 
“You’ve been being your usual stoic, Takamachi self haven’t you Akane?” the one on the left of the screen grumbled out.
 
“I think she probably made friends in her usual style,” the right-side redhead countered. “Beating the hell out of troublemakers and or bullies.”
 
“She did that,” Katie and I chimed in simultaneously, followed by us sharing a look and laughing before stepping around behind Akane and getting into the camera’s view.
 
“This is Taylor, and Katie,” Akane said pointing at each of us in turn. “Girls,” she continued, “on keyboard, we have Kagome Kuno, and on guitar, her cousins Megumi and Ayame.” As Akane named each girl, the girl bowed at their respective camera. “on drums we have Kyon,” the boy waved, and behind the cameras and the technical details we have his girlfriend Haruhi.” A brunette girl with a yellow hair ribbon stuck her head out into the view of Kyon’s camera and waved.
 
“So Akane, what have you been up to for the past week?” Kagome asked, “get into a skating school like you planned?”
 
Akane just blew a raspberry at the camera causing everyone to laugh. Katie broke in, “Oh she got in, and then was promptly kicked out when she embarrassed the administration and caused the entire school to be shut down, what, maybe thirty minutes after you arrived?”
 
Akane shrugged, “Maybe, I was already on my way to jail by that point.” A statement that caused the girls on the TV to all gape.
 
“You’re joking right?” one of the redheads asked, causing Katie to shake her head no. “Damn Akane, that’s faster than mom ever managed.”
 
“Or dad for that matter,” the other redhead chimed in. “How did you manage that?”
 
Akane didn’t say anything so Katie continued. “She took out a pair of bullies, rescued a damsel in distress, and in doing so exposed a hellacious cover up that the school administration had been hiding for years once the investigative team was done searching the building for the various code violations that they found.” I noticed that Akane’s gaze had shifted to Katie as mine had. I had only known that they had shut Winslow down, not why, and Akane’s eyes had gone wide as Katie had listed off what had happened. Katie was suddenly the one getting all the attention as everyone on the screen chimed in at the same time asking questions. Shifting her gaze from the laptop’s camera to Akane and myself her face went from smiling to a total deadpan. “You didn’t know?”
 
“They expelled me before I even got to Aunt Emily’s office.” Akane answered.
 
“I was in the hospital, and then here,” I answered slightly shocked.
 
“Well that’s what happens when a Takamachi makes an impression.” Kagome said quelling the babbling on the screen and causing Katie to smile. “So what kind of music do you two like?”
**