Alright, so, this wasn't actually.. supposed to happen. xD; Nor be so long. I was going to make it a one-shot at first, but I just kept writing and writing... and it got so long! I decided to make it a sort of side-project. Don't worry – I'm still writing More Than You Think You Are, just experiencing a bit of a creative block on that story. However, between writing this and working on a roleplaying site for BSSM (AU, excellent plot, and I nabbed me a Rei... hee hee... mind you, roleplay hasn't started yet, and I don't know when it will. We're waiting a bit, it seems? Nobody's claimed Mina-chan yet, though. ;D), and it's really helping to alleviate the writer's block.
That said – hee hee... happy present, WITS? XD;
Disclaimer: I do not own the characters presented in this fanfiction, nor any lyrics you see throughout it. Oh, and of course, do us a favour and imagine Reiko/Minako singing the choices? I didn't want to stick to an all-Japanese song selection. ^^; Thanks!
Prologue: Mr. Jones
November 3rd
It was not a good year for idols – which, of course, made it an excellent year for the media.
Late last December had brought the tragic end of country sensation Watanabe Tai when his private jet had fallen from the sky. The hydrolics had given when the plane was a good twenty-thousand feet up in the sky. No survivors, as if that came as a surprise to anyone.
Shortly thereafter some upcoming rock band had been found doing a number of illegal things – drunk driving, drugs, forcing themselves on girls who weren't quite of age. Only one of the members evaded jail time, and with his deeds made so public, had been murdered by 'vigilantes' in his apartment.
Owari announced their retirement from the techno scene in March (the irony was not lost on anyone in the industry).
Zoisite, classical genius, announced that his AIDS had progressed too far for him to continue playing, and took his retirement in May. Come August, he was dead.
The pop music industry (indie pop, bubblegum pop, pop-rock, you name it) thought it had escaped unscathed. With hard rock bands, techno groups, country artists and various others being lost by the bucket, they clung to their artists like flies to honey.
Aino Minako snorted, flicking off the television in her more than spacious room as she felt another swell of rage boil up. She wanted to be out there, singing and dancing, signing autographs. She wanted to be getting some face time with the cameras, not watching as that... that half-assed 'talent' made an even bigger name for herself. With virtually every other Japanese idol out of the running, it was just too easy for her.
And she had never been one to approve of letting other people take the easy way out.
Miyuki was, however, the only true 'pop sensation' left. She'd been trying to make it for years, not that the trying had ever helped her any. She was a talentless wannabe, a rich snob who'd paid her way into the industry.
Rolling over in white sheets, she scowled at the thought of the two people who had overshadowed her for so long both being hospitalized. What were the odds, exactly, of both herself and her rival falling ill? Granted, from what she understood, hers was a bit more out of place – Mars Reiko had something small, nothing to worry about, she'd been told.
Brain tumour? Yeah, a bit worse.
But who was bitter? Certainly not her! Honestly, she loved having to quit doing the one thing she enjoyed the most to get numerous scans of her brain taken. She loved knowing there was some foreign thing in her body stopping her from living a normal life. Or at least, living a life as normal as an idol's could be.
Her illness had been announced to the public in late October. Mars Reiko's was all over the news today, though the limited information they had on it left them sounding like bumbling idiots with just another story. For all they knew, she could've canceled the tour because she was superstitious. Maybe she just took a look around her and said 'hey, all the other idols are dropping like flies – maybe I should chill for a while'.
It would've been a smart move on her part. Minako certainly wouldn't have blamed her.
Her manager flit into the room at this point in time, all flamboyant gestures and smiles, as per normal. Good to know that one of them was feeling up to snuff. For a moment, she felt that she hated him. Of course, it was not so. Saitou was like an uncle to her. A deranged, squawking uncle, but an uncle nonetheless. Even at his most annoying, she was forced to look at him as another member of the family and then move on with a mildly irked acceptance.
"Ooooh, Minako-chan! How are you feeling today? Good? Better? If it's not so, tell me what I need to do to make it such! Anything for my favourite little starlet, after all!" he crooned, patting his charge's shoulder and head as he made his way over to her with a smile.
A smile that betrayed just how worried he really was. She held in her sigh and swallowed the fear that had threatened to overwhelm her the past month she'd been in the hospital. "I'm fine, Sacho. Just a bit tired."
Seemingly content with her less-than-stunningly-honest answer, he nodded to himself, obviously none the wiser.
She felt... alone. Bitter and alone as she sat in her hospital room, listening to her manager go on and on about the things she would do once she was out of there. Didn't he understand? She had a brain tumour, not a belly ache. Things would not be fine come the morning. It wasn't going to magically disappear. And, if Minako wasn't completely incorrect in assuming so, she most likely wouldn't get to perform again.
Yes, it was all memories from here. For the... what? Two years, year, half a year that she had left? The doctors had determined the tumour to be fatal, after all. They hadn't given a time, but they hadn't exactly made it sound like she had much left.
Frowning to herself, she felt her hands grip thin arms with a downward glance at the perfectly white comforter on top of her bed. Unbeknownst to the young idol, she was watched carefully from a distance. The man, though he kept up his talking, turned to speaking of trivial things like his pet chihuahua, and how he had found a new kind of hair gel that made him look just fabulous. There was, however, no bringing her out of her funk.
"Hey, I know," he exclaimed loudly after a moment, praying that something here could get this whole ordeal off of her sweet mind. Talk of tumours and disease was never fun when so many idols had been dropping throughout the course of the past twelve months! "A little bit of radio is sure to cheer you up!"
Though she wanted to refuse him, there was a desperate gleam in his eye that did not allow the woman to do it, leaning back and nodding to him with a forced smile. "Arigatou, Saitou-san."
The music that came through the radio was not, however, a comfort. Instead of hearing one of her own songs, or even one of Miyuki's pieces of glorified shit, it was hers. The one other semi-pop idol who had recently fallen ill. Supposedly. Of course it would be her music all over the radio. It had to be. Whenever an idol made the front page, it was bound to be them who ruled every single facet of the media.
"Sha-la-la-la-la-la, la.
Uh-huh. I was down at the New
Amsterdam.
Staring at this yellow-haired girl,
Mr. Jones strikes up a conversation
With this black-haired flamenco dancer.
You know, she dances while his father plays guitar;
She's suddenly beautiful.
We all want something beautiful.
Man, I wish I was beautiful."
So true, Mars Reiko. Her lyrics had always had a bit more meaning to them than her own, however – just one of the points the media and their fans made when arguing which of the idols was better. It'd been like that since the girl on the radio had appeared. Aino Minako or Mars Reiko? The fans had debated it long and hard for years.
Though they'd never reached a finite conclusion, she felt bitter towards the other idol. At least this song helped her feel some kind of kinship with her, or at the very least, that last line had – who didn't wish they were beautiful?
"So come dance the silence down through the morning.
Sha-la-la-la-la-la, la.
Cut Maria!
Show me some of them Spanish dances.
Pass me a bottle, Mr. Jones!
Believe in me.
Help me believe in anything,
Because I want to be someone who believes."
And thus, their similarities ended. They may have both wished for beauty, but she never wanted to be a believer. The words 'screw that' came to mind concerning that particular topic. More disturbing yet was that it seemed very much that her manager was mostly enjoying the song instead of noting her obvious discomfort given its content. Given the voice driving it.
Smoother than hers. Deeper, in both tone and feeling. She sighed. Perhaps it was best that this tumour had come along. Sooner or later, she would've had to pass the torch to this particular talent. Heh. At least it wasn't Miyuki.
Anything was better than Miyuki.
"Mr. Jones and me
Tell each other fairy tales,
Stare at the beautiful women.
'She's looking at you;
Ah, no no... she's looking at me.'
Smiling in the bright lights,
Coming through in stereo.
When everybody loves you,
You
can never be lonely."
As her voice hit the 'Jones', Minako felt herself agree that this was someone who deserved the media attention she got. Not Miyuki. Horse dung would've made a better story. But this one... there was a talent there. Shame she was apparently so superstitious, taking to her hiding out.
Oh, sorry. So 'desperately ill'.
"Can we turn this off now? My head's beginning to hurt," she lied, feeling as though she just might be physically sick knowing that she was going to lose more than one fight thanks to this disease. The fight for her life? That had been over the moment she had been diagnosed. And now she was going to lose this idol war to her rival.
Yes, it was enough to make her head hurt, though she was blatantly lying, saying that it was.
Her kindly Manager-san, however, obeyed, an arm clad in a painfully bright pink shooting out as he flicked off the radio apologetically. Like a good dog, he then allowed her the silence she craved, leaning back with a sigh of relief into her pillow. If she could die like this, that would be fine. Thinking about what she had had instead of what she couldn't have.
All of a sudden, the comfortable silence was broken by the door slamming open, nurses and doctors rushing in shouting medical terms back and forth, a rapid beeping noise violating her ears as they hastily wheeled someone else in on a bed. Her manager did his part and acted ever indignant, hands on hips so that she herself would not need to direct her anger at them. "What is the meaning of this! Do you not realize whose room this is? Aino Minako pays a good deal to ensure her privacy at this hospital - "
"Please, we need to work," a doctor snapped, his face hard as the beeping turned to a flat line, cursing before he turned back to the body they were all crowded about. Minako did her best to swallow the lump of anger in her throat as her manager continued to sputter. She peered around at the large paddles the doctor who had so effectively silenced her manager wielded, demanding a certain number of 'cc's before yelling a firm "Clear!"
The body on the bed jumped, the beeping noise returning at a much slower pace.
Several of the doctors seemed to visibly relax, shoulders dropping a bit as they filed out of the room without so much as a glance at the occupant of what had once been a single room. It was not the doctor from before who explained the situation to them, but a shaking, female, rather young one. Apparently, the go-fer. "Ah, my deepest apologies, Aino-san... I know you pay well for a single room, but the bridge collapse has us at maximum capacity. This was the only room in the hospital left that could possibly hold such an important person. We wanted to ask you beforehand, but Mars-san went into cardiac arrest when we were discussing her options..."
Wait. Mars-san?
Caramel eyes widened and scanned the slackened jaw of her manager as they both looked across the room to the 'peacefully sleeping' young woman. Sure enough, there she was – Mars Reiko, in the flesh.
x0x
Alrighty, so... reviews are nice. ^^; I love them. =D You should maybe leave me one, yes yes. *excited* Sorry for the less-than-stellar prologue. I have the next few chapters written up, though, and can promise that they're better. x3; Next chapter will appear... whenever I decide to put it up, I suppose? AKA when I'm feeling guilty for not giving you guys anything for so long again. Until then... ja! ^^
