Shiho awoke the next morning with a burning desire to punch the next person that crossed her. She couldn’t exactly explain it, but it felt as though she had been wronged and she needed to punish someone.
“Good grief… the start of the day and I’m already miserable.” She pushed out of her futon and got to her feet.
She looked to her right where Daring Do was still snoring away, sucking a fly into her mouth only to blow it away. This kept on going and Shiho watched it three more rounds before shaking her head and walking to the bathroom.
Daring Do had introduced herself to her family the night before after their little scuffle. Her grandmother had been extremely excited to meet her, but Shiho didn’t understand it. Sure, she must’ve read those Daring Do novels, but she didn’t know how meeting the next Daring Do could be as good as the books. In her opinion, books were always better than real people.
Her mother also knew about the book series, but she was also surprised to learn that Daring Do was an actual person who went on actual adventures.
“No wonder they’re such good stories! You’re just telling them from experience!” Summer Shine had said happily.
Shiho had simply shook her head and retired early. She had planned on getting all the strength she could muster today as they began their planned destruction of Die Die Riches. She was never going to forgive them for killing Ban Kai. After killing one of their Stand users, she had likely painted a target on her back now, but Shiho wouldn’t want it any other way. The more they came after them, the more they could learn about Die Die Riches’ base of operations and whoever was pulling the strings.
She didn’t care if people were rich or poor, good or bad, but Die Die Riches had made the mistake to get on her bad side and because of that, they were going down.
After cleaning herself up for the morning, Shiho headed downstairs where she found her grandmother sipping from a cup of tea, dressed in a floral shirt and beige shorts.
“Ah, Shiho, you’re finally awake.” Sunset Shimmer put down her mug and grinned. “I hope you’ve enough strength for our little adventure today. I couldn’t sleep, so I went for a walk around your lovely neighborhood. You have such nice neighbors. One of them even offered me something called a ‘moo-shi?’ I still don’t know what it is, but it was quite delectable.”
“Good grief, this old woman…” Shiho shook her head and sat down opposite her grandmother. “So, I take it you have a plan to find these fools?”
“For sure,” Sunset said confidently. “We simply need to find someone who is in this Die Die Riches group and squeeze them for the information.”
“And how are you planning on finding a member of Die Die Riches?” Shiho asked, not feeling very impressed.
“Well, that’s where Daring Do comes in,” Summer added, walking over from the kitchen with a pan of eggs. “She’s a well known and wealthy person. If she organizes a public event with her star power, I don’t think Die Die Riches would be able to resist showing up and causing trouble.”
Shiho thought about this. “I’ll admit, it’s not bad as far as plans go, but how long would it take to get an event like this started?”
Sunset and Summer shared a look. “She’s Daring Do. I’m sure she can handle something like that.”
Shiho shrugged. At least it sounded viable. Die Die Riches would surely come calling if there was an event full of rich people. And if they were to show their faces there, they would also certainly draw them out, seeing as they would be out for their blood for taking out Hu Hur Dur. Everything looked like it could work just fine. But that’s what made Shiho doubt that their plan would work. Nothing ever proceeded as planned when there was a plan as grand as this.
“Not like we have anything else to go on…” The girl planted a hand on the table. Since she couldn’t come up with anything better, this would have to do. “We’ll just beat the crap out of anyone that decides to attack us.”
“Now that’s the spirit, Shiho.” Sunset slapped the table and folded a newspaper she had been reading on the side. “Ah, here comes our star of the show now.”
Shiho turned around and frowned at the adventurer as she descended the stairs. Her hair was still in a mess, but she had already changed into her safari clothes she had on the night before.
“Goooood morning, Kantarijji!” She waved before taking a seat beside Shiho. “Are we ready for our grand plan?”
“Don’t you have to set everything up?” Shiho eyed the adventurer as she received a plate of eggs. “You can’t just have an event magically appear.”
“Then you know nothing about Daring Do,” she tapped the end of a fork against Shiho’s forehead. “I’ve made a few calls. The ‘Star of Fuji Awards’ will begin at twelve noon.”
Shiho shoved the utensil aside, but she didn’t believe what she had heard at first. “Twelve noon? How did you do that?”
“Don’t underestimate the connections of Daring Do. I have contacts of three generations ready to roll.”
“Right. I guess we should prepare.” Sunset got up and finished her cup of coffee. “Shiho, put something nice on. You can’t be going to the event in your disheveled school uniform like that.”
“Watch me, granny.” Shiho pointed a finger at her.
When she was done with breakfast, Shiho retreated back upstairs and didn’t come back down till it was twenty to twelve, where Sunset and Daring Do were getting ready to leave.
During her time upstairs, Shiho had gone to the rooftop outside her window and lit up a cigarette. She took out a can of beer, opened it with a hiss and poured it out onto the ground.
“Here’s to you, Ban,” she muttered. “Those dastards with Die Die Riches are going to pay for what they’ve done. In blood.”
She was going to give it to Die Die Riches, no matter what. They were all going to pay for messing with her life.
Back downstairs, Summer was making sure that her mother was all set for the coming trap. She had taken the hat she had bought for her before putting it on Sunset’s head.
“Are you sure you want to stay here, Summer?” Sunset held her daughter’s hand.
“I’ll hold the fort here, mom.” Summer gave her hand a squeeze. “Bushido and I will be here in case they come knocking. We’ll be sure to give them a beating if they’re here. It’s been a while since I’ve used Pegasus Forever in a fight, but I think I still got it. Bushido even more so.”
“Yes, well…” Sunset thought of her son-in-law and she wanted to grumble. She didn’t like it that he brought her only daughter all the way here, but what was done is done, and they had more important things to worry about now. She could at least trust that he would do what he can to keep Summer safe. “Take care. And keep an eye out.”
“I will, mom.” Summer pulled her in for a hug, then pushed her away. “Go on. You’re going to be late. Shiho!”
“I’m here.” The girl descended the last step and groaned. “Good grief, can’t you give me time to walk downstairs?”
“Shiho, what do you call this?” Sunset asked, panning a hand from her legs to her head. “What are you wearing?”
“I’m wearing what I always wear.” Shiho stood there in her school uniform. She hadn’t changed from earlier. “And I’m not changing into something fancy.”
“Bah, we don’t have time for you to change anyway.” Sunset grumbled further and walked for the door. “Come on. The fundraiser awaits.”
On the way there in Summer’s car, Daring Do briefed them about the event they were about to go for. It was a fundraiser for deer awareness and people from all over the world had been invited to attend, not just the Japanese. From the sound of it, it was going to be quite the crowd, even if it had only been arranged yesterday. Shiho blamed it on faster travel times. Someone could fly over from Russia in about two hours nowadays. Travel was more expensive than ever, but everyone flying here for the event was rich, so they probably wouldn’t think twice about it.
They eventually passed out of Kantarijji, heading on towards Tokyo, where the convention was being held. Kantarijji was small and was too suburban for something as big as a convention. The largest building they had here was the town hall, and even then, it was nothing compared to the convention hall they were going to.
As they neared the building, Shiho could already see that it dwarfed their town hall by at least two times, and it even had glowing lines going down from the top of the building, along with a huge glowing sign that told everyone around that the convention was in progress.
The convention hall that they had rented was already decked out with posters of Daring Do outside, along with images of various types of deer, and for some reason, a moose. Living in Japan all her life, Shiho knew that the deer population here was declining as well. With less tourism from outside the country, less people were coming here to feed deer and they had begun wandering out into the cities and some of them even met fateful ends at the front of cars and other motor vehicles.
The afternoon sun glinted off the building’s stark white panels, giving off a brilliance like nothing in Kantarijji could. Shiho had rarely left her hometown, seeing as she was still young and in high school, so everything out here was new to her.
Daring Do herself had been to Tokyo before, as with most places in the world. The only countries she had yet to visit were Hungary and Croatia, but she vowed that she would get to them one day. She just needed to find the time in her busy schedule of adventuring and making sure that ancient artifacts didn’t land in the wrong hands. She was a little disappointed that the Nugget People hadn’t appeared in her time. They had decided to show up when her mother had the mantle of Daring Do, and her mother was a different kind of Daring Do. She never went on adventures like her great-grandmother did. She simply stayed home, researching history through books and the internet.
“Out of curiosity,” Sunset asked Daring Do. “At what point does it stop being grave-robbing and start to become archaeology?”
“Oh, that’s a good question,” Daring Do replied. “There’s no real time requirement, but grave-robbing generally is for self interest and profit, while archeology is more for the learning and appreciation of ancient cultures.”
“Then I guess Weather Alternate would’ve been grave-robbing when they found the tomb of the Nugget People,” Sunset said.
“Please don’t bring them up…” Daring Do groaned. “I hate it that I missed the greatest adventure of a lifetime, because I wasn’t born yet. I would kill to get to see one of them up close. Did you know their ancient name was the Herrakries? People just called them Nugget People because of the gold nuggets that formed from their blood.”
“Yeah, I knew that,” Shiho sighed as she pictured her family around the dining table night after night when she was younger. “My mom and dad love telling that story. Good grief, I’ve heard this story at least three thousand times by now.”
“Speaking of Weather Alternate, I wonder how they’re doing,” Sunset said. “The last I heard they had formed a joint effort with the Crusaders’ Foundation to do more philanthropy work.”
“I’m sure they must be a target from Die Die Riches as well, judging by how successful they’re doing ever since they came into the spotlight.” Daring Do pointed to a giant poster of herself with her whip out, standing atop a sharp triangular rock in the African savannah.. “Ooh, I know this picture. That was the time I saved the last rhinoceros in the world from poachers who wanted its horns. Can you imagine how greedy they are? They were willing to kill the last rhino ever to get a bit of quick cash.”
“If it’s the last rhino, doesn’t that mean the species is doomed anyway?” Sunset asked, worried. “It really makes you wonder how it all got this bad. It wasn’t like this back when I was your age.”
“Well, we can always grow a clone or something,” Daring Do tapped her chin. “Though I don’t know if the science is all there yet. Give it a few years. But no matter what, I’m just glad I was able to do a bit of good for the natural world.”
“You must be proud of your daring work.” Sunset grinned and placed two fingers against her nose as they began walking into the building. It had five front doors, all of them fully glass with automatic sensors. “Your great-grandmother must be proud too.”
“Maybe. But everything I’ve done cannot compare to the legendary adventures she had.” She looked up at the sky and remembered a tale her mother had told her. “My great-grandmother once delved into an ancient temple at the bottom of the ocean and had to stop a rich oil baron from digging through the crust for more oil, because an evil creature lay slumbering below and if it awoke, the world would be destroyed.”
“Is this even true?” Sunset raised her hat a little. “An ancient evil creature?”
“Hey, I’m just retelling the legendary stories of Daring Do. And she didn’t even have a Stand. That’s how great my great-grandmother was.” She looked at the time on her lightphone and snapped her fingers. “I’ve got to go get ready for my appearance. You two stand around, keep an eye out for anyone that looks suspicious. I’ll keep my eyes out from the stage.”
Saying their temporary farewells, Shiho and her grandmother headed for the main foyer where clusters of rich people were already standing around. One of them even had a gold suit, which was a bit much, Shiho thought. She had been so focused on its glaring image that she almost failed to see two people carrying a red and blue parrot in a cage.
“Hey, watch it,” the man barked at her.
“You watch it! Good grief…” Shiho watched them go. “What do they even need a parrot here for?”
Sunset shrugged. “Who knows? I’ve never been to one of these. Maybe they’ll use it to draw the lottery or something. Parrots are smart.”
“There’s such a thing as rich people, but then there’s also all this…” Shiho shook her head. Event or not, it was crazy how some people just needed to show how much richer they were to the common rich person.
“Well, at least we know these people here aren’t Die Die Riches. At least not yet.” Sunset panned her head around the hall. Everyone here looked like they were actually here for the deer event. “I haven’t accounted for the fact that DDR could maybe wear some richly clothes to blend in, but I don’t think they will. No, I think they’re craftier than that.”
“Well, whatever it is, you keep at it, old woman.” Shiho leaned against the wall and breathed out. “I need to sit down.”
“Sit down?” Sunset raised an eyebrow. “Are you alright?”
“Nothing you need to… concern yourself with.” Shiho panted. For some reason, it felt as though something decided to take a seat on her shoulders. She was having difficulty keeping herself up.
“Honestly,” Sunset sighed. “I’m four times your age and I’m less tired than you are. Come on, we have to stay vigilant.”
“You stay vigilant, granny.” Shiho just sat down against the wall. “I’m going to sit here.”
Sunset frowned at her. Her voice had lost its usual edge and she wasn’t putting in as much effort to insult her. Something was amiss here.
“This looks to be the work of an enemy Stand…” Sunset surmised. “Something seems to be draining Shiho’s energy.”
Sunset began to look harder at each person in the foyer, even as more began to pour in. However, there were a lot of people and Sunset wasn’t sure what to look for. Usually Stand users tended to dress somewhat flamboyantly, but with all the rich people and their outrageous costumes here, an enemy Stand user could blend in very well indeed.
“Where could this enemy be?” She looked around. “There’s not enough information to go on about. The Stand user could have a long range Stand or a short range Stand. Perhaps it could disguise its user as someone else. Right now, there was no way of knowing what they were up against, except that the enemy was already here.
Sunset was about to go on through the foyer to inspect every table, but for some reason, she didn’t really want to. “Maybe I should just… sit down.”
Her eyes widened and began darting around. “No. This is the enemy Stand’s work. Where is it? Alicorn Fantasy.”
Sunset tried to summon her Stand to reset herself, but as she stretched a hand out, she didn’t see her Stand there. Instead, she just sighed and sat down on a nearby chair, not feeling like doing anything in particular.