Page 94 of Light Leech

“Back to business,” Koro said after a sip.

Kyo groaned. “Come on, give us a second to breathe.”

“I’m not going to until we know if we can let our guard down.” She pointed at me. “I don’t know you, like, at all.“ Then, to Naoma, “And you’re different already.”

“Can I explain myself?” Naoma asked.

“Didn’t Anton die when you left?” Kao asked.

“Can I explain or not?”

Koro smiled. “There is the upfront Neon Idol I remember.”

Naoma looked at Kao, while running her finger around the rim of her steaming cup of matcha. “What did you hear about Anton’s death?”

“I thought it was a stunt to promote your next album, especially after the lack of footage following the supposed disaster.”

“It was in the Red District, right?” Kyo said.

Koro swirled her drink in her hand, the ice clinking against the glass like subtle chimes. “Still doesn’t excuse the footage they should’ve had.”

“Did the assailants delete the footage or did you?” Kao asked.

“I don’t know, justice wasn’t my focus then. Survival was all that mattered. Now that I’m on the other side, I can’t find anything about the people who did it.”

“Then what happened?”

“I think Crimson Phantom had something to do with it.

Koro scoffed. “I thought they backed off our market after their last flop?”

Naoma shrugged. “Apparently they have some new artists lined up, but they haven’t produced much yet. That being said, their sabotage hit them just as bad. Glowbones and other fiends in the Red swarmed us, but Petya actually helped me out of there.”

Kao ripped her glowing drink towards me. “So what brought you there?”

Naoma spoke for me. “He was a social strategist visiting to oversee the meeting between rival producers. He entered on neutral ground, but you can see that he chose a side.”

“But you’re not really Reef anymore.”

“Not really?” Kyo said. “Not at all. You’ve been off the grid, girl. Without weekly songs and some random Nichley project in Arabasia, people have been asking us too many questions that we can’t answer.”

Koro hissed after a sip. “Not gonna lie, Naoma. We all saw you as a friend but after disappearing without a word, we wondered what that meant.”

Kyo touched Naoma’s hand. “I was more worried about your well-being.”

Kao nodded. “That being said, we had a lot of thoughts when you came to see us.”

“Right during one of our largest pop-ups,” Koro said.

“We were near the end anyway.”

“Oh, I’m not complaining. I was sick of it by then.”

“So what did you want from us?” Kyo asked. “Just friend stuff, right?”

Koro held a finger up. “I want the rest of the story first.”

Naoma nodded. “Anton died, as far as I know, as well as most of our crew. There was something… other than just glowbones. Not sure how to describe it, but it was a massacre.“ She glanced at me. “Petya and some of his friends saved me. Then, I didn’t really know what to do. Without Anton, I didn’t have ties to Reef.”