Ch.1- The Opera House
The two new managers smirked as the vast building before them. They had recently bought the most famous opera house in France, the Opera Populaire. With its majestic gargoyles, surrounded by pillars of gold. The building had a giant, white marble, grand staircase, but what was even more amazing was the opera room itself, masked statues of gold lined the walls just like toy soldiers, a humungous crystal clear chandelier hung from the ceiling. The ceiling was a painting of the afternoon sky, sun gleaming in all its glory. Even with all this glamour the old manager wanted to give up this beautiful building for some odd, unexplainable, reason…
I mean who would want to? The greatest ballerinas, actors, and actresses of their day were gathered in one place…this opera house.
The managers pranced in and were greeted by the old manager, who escorted them to the opera room, all the while appreciating the objet d'art around them.
On stage, the famous star, Kikyou, was rushing, bossing everyone around, all the while being pampered by two lady minions that seemed to trail her everywhere she went like lost puppies. (a/n yaaaaa! Puppies! Puppi-chan). As they sauntered unto the set, Kikyou stopped what she was doing to flounce over to them in all her starry grandeur. Everyone else on stage assembled round them.
"One and all," began the old manager, "You know how I've been absent lately?" he paused and gazed as some heads nodded in agreement. "Well…I have sold the Opera House."
Every body gasped. A wave of voices washed over the managers as all started asking questions. The old manager put his hands up, effectively silencing the performers.
"Now everyone, I would like you to meet your new managers," he gestured for the two men (if the little one was old enough to be considered a man) to step forward.
"Miroku Kazaana, and Shippou Kitsune." The men, who were wearing very extravagant clothes, bowed. Miroku who had amethyst eyes and shiny, black hair pulled back into a small ponytail at the base of his neck, glanced up, winked suggestively at the ballerinas, who tittered and blushed at his proceedings. Shippou had light ginger, velvety hair, pulled into a high ponytail by an adorable blue ribbon. He had emerald eyes, which at the moment…were rolling back in his head. At the same moment he whispered, 'Idiot.'
"Now, sorry to leave you gentlemen so quickly, but, I really shouldn't stay any longer. O! And Jankotsu the conductor will show you around and whatnot, go to him for help!" rushed the manager as he hastily sped out the big oak doors that provided as the entrance. Everyone could hear the manager whoop with bliss on exiting the opera room.
Miroku turned to the group of performers in front of him, who stared at him unwavering.
"Uhhh…everyone…uh…get back to rehearsal!" he said clapping his hands. The performers went straight back to what they were doing. While Miroku and Shippou stood pride fully watching their performers, when suddenly a woman pranced up to them waving around a stick and a booklet. She suddenly stopped and gawked at them.
"OMG! I didn't know the new managers were going to be THIS gorgeous!" she squealed with surprise. Miroku grinned smugly.
"Why thank you my beautiful young lady, you're as elegant as the full moon." Miroku said taking her hand and suavely kissing it. But at the mention of 'young lady' the look on the women's face turned from pure pleasure, to pure disgust. She took back her hand with a snap.
"Icky! I'm not some gross woman!" she (or now we know is a he) exclaimed. Shippou's mouth dropped open. Miroku gaped at the person in front of him.
"So…you're…a man?" asked Shippou. His mischievous grin returned.
"Of course, my cute, little, silly, I'm Jankotsu!" he said putting his hands on his hips and puffing out his flat chest. Miroku looked like he would drop dead right here and there. Unexpectedly, someone called for Jankotsu.
"Awww…sorry my handsome monsieur and my foxy monsieur…I've got to go." He purred saddened before turning away giggling. Miroku and Shippou stood there in distress before realization hit.
"Ewww…you KISSED a man's HAND!" Shippou exclaimed extremely pleased.
Miroku glared at him, "Don't laugh, I could be scarred for life!"
Then he noticed that the ballerinas were wearing India outfits and were doing salsa dancing. Mesmerized, he pursued the bunch of striking girls. Shippou shook his head sighing in defeat, and began watching the actions of everyone else.
Shippou was watching as a giant elephant was brought out, oblivious to his surroundings. He failed to notice someone approaching him at a rapid space, until that someone ran into him causing the both of them to plummet to the hard stage floor.
"Watch where your going." said the man arrogantly as he untangled himself. He then glanced down at Shippou, and his eyes grew wide.
"S-s-sorry boss, I was in a hurry…and…" he stuttered, but Shippou waved his hand dismissively, as he picked himself off the ground.
"Its okay, monsieur…?" Shippou asked the person who had azure eyes with chocolate colored hair in a long, high, ponytail.
"Kouga Ookami." responded Kouga.
"Yes, would you mind showing me around?" inquired Shippou.
"Sorry, but I'm quite new here myself." answered Kouga curtly, his aqua eyes glaring down at Shippou. Shippou suddenly found himself feeling nervous.
"I…better go…" he faltered before darting away from the dazed Kouga who was raising an eyebrow at Shippou's quick departure.
Shippou, after exploring the whole building and feeling reassured that he knew were every room was and every storage room was, he returned to the set. Among all the voices, he heard one the crystal clarity.
"PERVERT!" a voice yelled out, a loud smack followed, echoing throughout the huge room. Everything became still. Shippou sighed.
"Stupid Idiot…can't keep his cursed hand to himself." He mumbled incoherently, before heading toward center stage.
Arriving at the scene of this particular episode (for many like this were sure to follow). Shippou saw his perverted friend lying on the ground with a hefty handprint on smacked into his face. A group of ballerinas surrounded his lifeless form, but standing in the center of the circle, were two ballerinas. MAD ballerinas.
One of the ballerinas had bright cobalt eyes and slightly curled raven hair.
The other one had toffee eyes bordered by maroon eye shadow and a fair skinned face with an ample flush (presumably from the embarrassing incident) encircled by long black hair pulled into a high ponytail, was about to kick him in his family jewels when Shippou spoke.
"Now, now…what's seems to be the problem…?" he asked, even though he knew.
Both girls whipped their heads around to look at him.
"He…asked me…to bare his child…and on top of that groped me!" the girl with maroon eye shadow shrieked. All the ballerinas in the circle nodded their in unison heads.
Shippou sighed dejectedly.
"That's in his nature…" he said simply. Everyone stared at him like he was stupid.
"What a bunch of shi-" the maroon eyed dancer was stopped by the girl next to her who had blue eyes with black hair. She laid a hand on the frustrated girl's shoulder, and glanced up at Shippou.
"Sorry boss…"she began.
"Shippou." Shippou assured her.
"Shippou…we were just practicing……and…well you know the rest." She ended smiling. Shippou grinned back.
"And your names are?"
"Kagome Higurashi." stated the girl with blue eyes.
"Sango Taijiya." stated the maroon eyed girl who seemed to have calmed down.
"Nice to meet you two." Shippou said bowing. He felt someone tug on his fluffy ponytail; he turned to find Miroku standing there with his eyes closed.
"Now, now Shippou, stop harassing these charming ladies…" Miroku chided with his eyes still closed. Sango glared at him. Before Sango was able to lunge at Miroku though, one of the musicians ran up to them, out of breath, holding a violin, handed Miroku a letter which had New Managers written on it. Delicately Miroku opened it, tilting the letter toward Shippou so that they both could read it.
New Managers,
I welcome you to my opera house. You can enjoy your stay here but you must follow these rules.
1. Reserve Box 5 for my viewing.
2. Pay me my annual fee 25,000 franks. (that's a lot of money!)
3. Follow the rules above.
If you break any of these rules, very bad things will happen.
Phantom of the Opera
"HIS Opera house…PHANTOM!" Shippou exclaimed.
"You, where did you get this from?" Miroku turned to the musician, who was getting nervous under the new manager's steady gaze.
"I found it, sir, o-on the ground." He answered nervously. Miroku stared at him, the musician getting nervous, ran away to join the rest of the orchestra. Miroku stared after him. Sango, in the meanwhile, stole the letter out of Miroku's grasp and read over it, Kagome read it over Sango's shoulder. Shippou watched as Kagome's face went pale.
"What's wrong Kagome?" he asked. Kagome looked at him, smiled nervously and shook her head.
"I'm alright! Yes! Perfectly OOOkay-!" she said quickly, a little too quickly. Shippou stared at her suspiciously, and was about to say something else when they heard….
"YOOHOOO! BOYS!" yelled an annoying voice. Kagome tilted her head to see whatever it was. She shut her eyes and let out and exasperated groan. Miroku and Shippou turned around to see, none other then Miss Kikyou. Miroku, seeing her, seized the paper, and quickly tucked it into the right pocket of his coat.
Kikyou was standing there with her hands on her hips, wearing a silk India outfit. Bangles on her arms glittered in the sun, and had on a large amount of makeup and perfume on. She lifted one of her arms and pointed at herself.
"Do you want me to sing?" she asked simply.
"Sing?" Miroku asked puzzled.
"So that you can hear my FABULOUS voice!" she said aggravated. Kagome and Sango snickered glancing at each other. Kikyou glared at them in disgust.
"Uhhh…of sure, my not." agreed Shippou.
Kikyou opened her mouth…and a not to bad, but squeaky voice, started singing a song that was going to be sung in the play.
Think of me, think of me fondly, when we say, good-bye…
Remember me-e, once in awhile, please promise me you'll tr-y,
When you find, that once, again, you long-g to take…
Up, above in the rafters, where the lights are and where ropes lowered and raised the backgrounds, someone was glaring down at the "star" actress.
The person untied one of the ropes that was tied to the railing that the person was leaning on and watched as one of the backdrop fell to the stage below. Right above the unsuspecting star.
The two new managers were enjoying Kikyou's performance until a background fell down, missing Kikyou by a few millimeters. Kikyou was laying on the ground acting like she had actually been hit by the background, moaning and squealing. Her two drones, Yura and Kanna, were trying to calm her in any way possible. Everyone else was either gasping, or glancing at the rafters from which the background had fallen.
"Whose up there?" asked Sango, searching the rafters for signs of human life, she saw none.
"That's it!" yelled Kikyou, getting to her feet abruptly. She stormed over to Miroku and Shippou.
"I have had enough of this!" She squeeled.
"Mademoiselle…it was an accident…" Miroku said, unsure of himself.
"Well I have had enough of these 'accidents'…the last manager said he would fix it, take care of it, but NO! It has not been fixed, it will never be fixed! SO I QUIT!" she yelled stamped away, followed by her followers, Yura and Kanna.
"B-But…Kikyou…"started Shippou. Kikyou stopped at the oak doors.
"If you want this beautiful voice to sing…you fix it!" she screamed opening the door, allowed her drones to exit, and slammed the door shut behind her. Everyone watched as the lead star left. Sudden cheers erupted from all the class and crew, surprising both Miroku and Shippou.
"Thank KAMI-SAMA! She left, she finally left!" cried Kagome happily, spinning around on the tips of her toe shoes (ballerina slippers).
Sango smirked at her friend's antics.
"But…who will take her place?" asked one of the dancers.
Everyone looked around at each other. Nobody had an answer.
"Kagome can do it."
Everyone glanced at Sango.
"Kagome is quite good at singing." Sango continued; Kagome was staring at her friend with her mouth dragging on the floor.
"Ok, Kagome, give it a shot." Shippou said. Kagome was shocked, but timidly stepped forward. She opened her mouth and out came a beautiful voice. She performed the same lines Kikyou had.
Think of me, think of me fondly, when we say, good-bye…
Remember me-e, once in awhile, please promise me you'll tr-y,
When you find, that once, again, you long-g to take...Sorry, I don't remember the rest right now.
Everyone gawked at her when the song was finished. Kagome fidgeted and shifted from foot to foot under their stares and couldn't take the pressure so she turned to exit.
"That…was…AMAZING KAGOME! Announced Kouga, starting to clap. "Not that I'd expect anything less of my woman." He mumbled mostly to himself. Soon everyone else started clapping once they picked up their jaws in favor of praising how beautiful their friend's voice was. Kagome face flushed under the extreme praises .
Above in the rafters…a person watched the scene below. Golden eyes flashed from beneath a white mask. The person smirked at Kagome's blatant show of embarrassment.
"Damn, is she going to be mad at me…" the person murmured amused. The person turned and left just as silently as the person had entered, all the while, the smirk never leaving the person's face.
Sigh…second story started so far…sigh…LOL! Til' next chapter! BYE!
Scyco Sphinx