Disclaimer: Ranma ½ and any part of it doesn't belong to me. It belongs
to Rumiko Takahashi and whatever video companies and such. DoCo probably
doesn't directly belong to Takahashi, though, because it wasn't mentioned
in her manga. Gravitation belongs to…er…some female (I forgot her name!!!)
and whatever companies. Just not me.
There is no romance, all right? No yaoi, no nothing! So those of you who think you should back away, don't, because this story is completely clean!!!! All flames will be absorbed by my Pokemon Starr, who in turn will fry the flamer to a crisp (sic 'em, girl!). And for those of you who don't know what DoCo is, it's a band formed by Nabiki, Akane, Kasumi, Ranma, and Shampoo.
About my other stories: I fandom-hop. Check my bio for details.
Extra note: Please look at Chibi Akane-chan2's stories! You'll regret it if you never do (everyone likes at least one of her stories…)
Nabiki Tendo was bored, even more so than usual. When she got bored, the cleverest Tendo sister usually devised ways of increasing her already- abnormally-large income. The work was fun, and she always got away with at least a couple hundred yen in the end. That day, however, all of usual tactics that she fell back on to erase her listlessness seemed…well…listless. Her stocks were doing superbly well (which was average for her) and she had already squeezed every last yen out of all the people that owed her money (she also made sure that the amount of money that they still owed her was increased). Although free-loading off of Kuno was an entertaining activity, she felt too bored to even pick up her camera, much less blackmail Ranma. It was a lazy day, but there was too much left of the rest of the day to be lazy. So it resulted in her boredom. Yup, it just came to a full circle.
To tell the truth, Nabiki had kind of already been bored with what she was doing for a while. Her income was almost always the same, and her stock intake was too regular for her. She used every last technique that she had to get as much money as she could, but they were all getting old. All of her new ideas were too…plain for her. Too close to what she was already doing. Although Nabiki had what seemed like half of Japan eating out of her hand, she needed some excitement. But, of course, that excitement had to result in cash.
She sighed. Nabiki was resting her head on her desk and staring at the printout of her latest list of people that she was leeching off of simply because they needed the money to pay off someone else. When they asked for a loan for Nabiki Tendo, they had no idea what had been in store for them, heh-heh. Anyway, all of her other printouts of lists of people who owed her money for various reasons were piled nest to her. They did not need any updating. Everything and everyone that she had working under her was going at its maximum efficiency, including her various internet shops. One of her friends was out sick and the other was halfway across the country, visiting relatives. Oh well, if she had nothing better to do and did not feel like exerting that much effort, she could always charge admission fee to the people who wanted to visit her sick friend. But she knew that she wouldn't make any money off of that, because the people who would visit her friend would know her crowd and weren't desperate enough to pay money just to see a person. Maybe she would start a zoo. Wait, she had already done that. Two small zoos and a-heck-of-a-lot of advertisements to keep them going. Maybe an amusement park… but it would be just like the zoos, she knew, and she wanted diversity. Something that she hadn't tried, and was different and worthwhile. But, for something to be really worthwhile to Nabiki Tendo, she had to make a lot of money and really take part in it, too.
Nabiki shifted her head to her arm, her always-perfectly-styled brown hair falling across her face. However, she felt too lazy to even brush it out of the way.
"Oh, look at this! Look at this! Hey, everyone, look what I've got!"
The squeal came from downstairs, with the voice of her youngest sister, Akane Tendo.
Nabiki stood up. If she was lucky, Akane won some sort of contest, and Nabiki would be able to swindle her gullible sister out of the prize. She was still bored, and could barely summon the will to walk down the stairs. But she knew that the best way to get rid of boredom was to take action, so, trying to clear the cobwebs out of her brain, she got to the entrance area of the house. But instead of Akane, as she predicted, Nabiki saw only Kasumi and Ranma.
Kasumi was smiling serenely, drying a dish. She had obviously come out when Akane called for everyone to see what she had. Ranma, on the other hand, was staring blankly at the door.
"Where's Akane?" Nabiki asked.
Ranma gave Nabiki a point-blank stare and pointed at the door. Ah. Apparently, when Akane called for everyone, she got carried away and rather than getting everyone in the house, as was sensible, she went out to get everyone in town.
Or so it seemed, when Akane returned later with Kuno, Kodachi, Shampoo, Cologne, Mousse, Ukyo, Tsubasa, Azusa, and several other people, miraculously including Ryoga, who by some result of dumb luck had been in Nerima long enough for Akane to grab him as she passed by.
Nabiki raised an eyebrow as Ranma gawked. He started stuttering about what all the people were for, but Nabiki knew that they would find out very soon. Apparently, the various citizens of Nerima that Akane dragged in had no idea what they were doing there also. Some of them began heading out the door, some of them glomped Ranma, some of them began attacking Ranma, some of them stared at Akane and then started to attack Ranma.
"Everybody, look, look, look, I got a copy of the video of all of us from the song contest!!!" Akane shouted, waving around a black tape.
Suddenly, all of the people who were trying to leave came back inside and sat in front of the television.
As Akane tried to get the attention of the Ranma, who was fighting off about fifteen people, Nabiki frowned. Wasn't she the one who filmed the contest and sold off the copies to various people? She was certain that she sold one to every person who wanted one, and that she was the only person who filmed it. A person who bought one of her videos probably recorded copies and sold them off at a cheaper price to other people. And she had a "copyright Nabiki Tendo" label on it, too! Oh well, she had id numbers both on and in each video she sold, and in order to tape one of her videos and get rid of the id number, a person would have to skip over a certain part or parts of the video to get rid of it. In order to satisfy their customers, the person would have had to keep the tape complete and the number recorded. She would keep an eye out for the number, trace it back to the owner and demand all of the recorder's profit off the video (plus a bit more) later. Akane gave up on trying to get every person in the room to settle down, and put the video in the VCR. Nabiki kept her eyes on the screen for the number. She could have done something else until Akane was done watching, take it and fast forward it until the number appeared at the bottom of the screen, but she had nothing better to do and decided to stay. Gradually, more and more of Ranma's attackers began to pay attention to the show. Though Nabiki was looking for a number, she just couldn't help but smirk at some of the ridiculous voices and stupid songs. When her and Kasumi's commercial was just about to start, Nabiki came up with an idea. A very amusing idea. A very profitable idea…
A few months later…
"Hey, everybody-!" K announced as he walked into the recording studio.
"Big News," Hiro calmly finished for him as he grabbed another Pocky from Shuichi's stash.
K frowned and seemed to contemplate whether or not putting a gun to Hiro's head was worth it. He obviously decided to let it slip, and continued where Hiro left off for him. "You're all going-"
"Oh, I forgot!" Suguru Fujisaki spoke up. "My cousin organized a battle of the bands for N-G Enterprises!"
Shuichi and Hiro stared, Sakano cried, "Whaaaaaaaaaaaat?!!!" and instantly began slamming himself into the walls, and K whipped out his gun, put it to Fujisaki's head, and hissed, "Never, ever, steal my big news!"
Since Fujisaki couldn't turn his head from the pressure of the gun, he stared at the wall and said, "Alright, then, you tell them the rest."
"What does some band battle have to do with us?" Shuichi asked.
K reluctantly withdrew his gun, and delivered the information. "Bad Luck is going to participate in it!"
"Whaaaaaat?!" Sakano came to stop at K's feet. "Why wasn't I informed of this? Isn't Bad Luck above some band battle? Aren't those for small-time bands?" Then he stood up. "Is Bad Luck being insulted?!!!!!!!"
"Ah, but Sakano-san, Seguchi-san put a twist into this," K winked. "It's a publicity stunt, a battle-of-the-bands for the big time music groups. ASK and Nittle Grasper are also participating. This event is going to be on national television."
"It's a chance to prove once and for all that Bad Luck can be and is better than Nittle Grasper!!!!!!" Shuichi yelled, jumping up onto a table and pumping a fist into the air.
"What is this battle going to be like, K-san?" Hiro asked.
"Though the battle is going to be recorded all at once, it will premiere on television as a series. Each band will battle another band, and the winner gets to ascend to the next level, battling a band that won it's own first battle. Then the winner of that battle gets to the next next level, and so on, until there are two bands and one battle left. The band that wins the last battle will win the contest and fifteen-hundred- million yen. The battles are short. Each band sings one song and the one that the audience and the judges like best will win. If the bands somehow get a tie, they will each sing a different song and have those songs be judged. And if those get a tie again, they will sing different songs, and so on," K explained.
"Oh, yeah, we're going to show them what Bad Luck's made of, right, Hiro?" Shuichi was saying, evidently having not paid a word to what K had just told them.
"Right," Hiro answered. Then he turned back to K. "So this is going to be big? For it to be this big, we have to be going against some other bands, right?"
"Right," said K. "And I have the list of participating bands right here."
Hiro and Sakano grabbed it and stared. Shuichi was still ranting and Fujisaki evidently already knew all the details.
"Nittle Grasper, Bad Luck, ASK, DoCo, Three Lights, Cocoa, Latte…"
And the list went on to total about sixteen bands, including Bad Luck.
"There are only three bands here owned by NG," Sakano observed.
"I said it was a publicity stunt, I didn't say for what company," said K.
"Hey, some of these bands have more people," said Shuichi, who had finally decided to focus on something other that Bad Luck's prospective victory. "Five, six, five, five…"
"And some of these don't even do their own instruments," Hiro pointed out.
"They all do different types of music, too," Fujisaki decided to throw in. "Rock, techno, American style, country, old-type music, ethnic-"
"What's the deal with this set-up?!!!" Sakano yelled as he began rocketing around the room again.
"Hey!" Shuichi cried as his ever-present box of strawberry Pocky was knocked from his hand.
Fujisaki found himself wondering how come the room didn't sport cracks all over the walls from Sakano's forced weight, and the ceiling's considerable lack of holes for the number of times K fired his gun into the air. But he decided to ignore that for the moment, as Shuichi started going ballistic from the loss of his Pocky, and Hiro began to get edgy.
"With all of these different types of music, and all of these different types of bands, will the judging be fair?" Hiro asked.
"Sure, sure," said K. "The judges that Seguchi-san appointed are all very unbiased. This battle is a joint effort from NG Enterprises and some other rival music companies. They will make sure that the tickets are evenly sold to a mixture of different types of music fans. As for the number of people in each band, does that really make a difference on how good each band is?"
Shuichi and Hiro then both turned to Fujisaki. Actually, the quality of their songs had somewhat improved with the addition of Tohma's cousin…
"And does it really matter if the bands do their own instruments or not?" K asked.
'Yeah, if you want to determine the actual talent level,' they all wanted to say, but decided to keep their mouths shut if it involved other companies.
"YES IT MATTERS IF EVERY BAND DOES THEIR OWN INSTRUMENTS!!!!!!"
As for Shuichi, it wasn't possible for him to keep his mouth shut.
*Bang!*
Shuichi and company ducked as plaster and chipped paint rained down on their heads. When they were all able to safely open their eyes, they were greeted with the sight of K still holding his gun pointed into the air. Fujisaki blinked at the ceiling. There was another hole in it.
"What determines the winner is song and voice quality. Quality is all they want. Also, you would have a better chance of winning if every song that you use in the competition is different. Singing it a second time lowers the first and initial impression, and results in a lower score," K continued. "Since you don't know if you're going to tie with anyone or not, it's best if you start coming up with more songs to fall back on now."
"What? Shouldn't we just work on the songs that we already have, so that we could improve on them and have a better chance of winning with them?" questioned Shuichi.
"Ah, but we don't know how many times we are going to tie if there are any better bands," said Fujisaki. "All the other bands have been told to go on a songwriting spree right now to fall back on should they tie. Singing a new song gets better results than doing another one over again. We can improve on them later, but now we need back up. We have a good chance of tying with a couple of the bands on that list."
"These guys are from all over the country," Hiro frowned. "Crossroads, Nerima, Sakarani…Some of those bands have popularity here. This is going to be an interesting competition."
"Whoo-hoo! And if we win, it means we're better than Nittle Grasper, and the number one band in Japan!" shouted Shuichi, once again exuberant. He had started ranting again.
"Oh, but look at this one," said Hiro, tapping his finger at the paper. "We might have to go against this band."
"Which one?" Shuichi stopped hopping around and once again peered at the paper.
Sakano looked at which band Hiro was concerned with. He stared at the paper for two seconds before jettisoning himself off the ground.
"Whaaaaaaat?! What are they doing on the list? They're too new! How can we be going against them?!" Sakano let loose with a storm, whirlwinding the spillen Pocky sticks into the air.
Fujisaki calmly held up his keyboard, and Sakano crashed into it before deciding to obey the laws of gravity and physics, and slumped to the ground. The Pocky clattered back onto the tile, and Fujisaki replaced his keyboard.
"DoCo, right?" he asked.
"Right," said K. "They are a relatively new girl band, but have rapidly gained popularity in the last month-and-a-half."
"A lot of people like them," said Hiro. "They have pretty much a free style, but I don't know how we're going to do against them. They're too new and popular to really tell."
"I have an idea," said Fujisaki, dropping Sakano where he had dragged him into a corner to make more floor space. "We should just start cranking on some new songs to work with. If it gives us a better chance, I'm all for it."
"Yeah, let's start right now!" cried Shuichi.
Flashback to a few months earlier…
"Come on, come on, chop chop, everybody in," said Nabiki, herding a small group of girls into a stand-alone recording studio that she blackmailed someone into letting her borrow.
The girls that were with her were Akane, Ranma (girl-type, and not too happy about it), Ukyo, Shampoo and Kodachi.
"Why are we in here?" Ranma grumbled. "I don't have to do this."
"Oh, yes you do," said Nabiki nonchalantly, giving Ranma the look—the look that said, 'Do you want me to tell Akane about ~~~~, or Kuno that ~~~~?'
"Shut up," said Akane. "We're all going to be stars."
This was Nabiki's brilliant idea. While she was watching the hot song contest video, she noticed how many of them were able to sing well. So she grabbed a gaggle of them and made them come. Sure, the reason that she grabbed some of them (for example, Kodachi) must have been out of delirium, but here they were.
Ranma, Nabiki had blackmailed into. All Akane needed to know was the possibility of her becoming famous and admired by a considerable amount of people. Shampoo and Kodachi were there because Ranma was there, and Ukyo was just there because she heard about it and was a little bit interested, it was just a little fun thing to do.
Nabiki stationed the girls at microphones, and locked herself into a room where she could hear each of them clearly. First, she was going to have them go one at a time. They had the lyrics and had heard all of the tunes before, so they would know what they were doing. She pressed a button that turned on a speaker into the other room.
"Okay, Ranma, you first. But put up a decent effort, or else I'm going to the double the amount of money you owe me."
"But you can't do tha-"
"Just shut up and sing."
Nabiki began playing the music, listening and judging if the girls were anything decent or not. She had heard songs from all of the currently popular bands, and they didn't seem to be too hard to overcome. All she needed were people that sounded decent, and she would be able to take care of the rest.
When it was Shampoo's turn, Nabiki was surprised that the Amazon's voice wasn't as earsplitting as she had initially thought. It was high- pitched, but in a handle-able sort of way. Ukyo seemed to have a bit of a tone problem, but was otherwise okay. Ranma was great, and getting him—er, her—to cooperate was as easy as making one thousand yen. As for Akane, there was a reason that everybody loved her during the contest. She was in. But then Kodachi…
As soon as the first few words were out of the heiress's mouth, Nabiki jammed a pair of earplugs into her ears. Now that was earsplitting. She cut off the speaker that allowed her to hear what the others were singing, but Kodachi's voice was so loud that it could still be heard with no trouble in the other room. And the walls were supposed to be soundproof…she must have accidentally had some sort of drug that day when she brought up the topic to Kodachi. Nabiki saw the other girls that were in the room with Kodachi cover their ears, restraining the desire to just hit the girl. If they had actually hit her, she would have wanted to start all over, and they would rather have just gotten it over with. When Kodachi stopped singing (if that's what she called it), Nabiki took out the earplugs and turned on the speaker again.
"Okay, Kodachi, good. Could you come in here for a minute?"
Kodachi went into the room with Nabiki while the others were left to their own devices.
"Kodachi, you're great. Stupendous. You really have the makings of a star. You're in," said Nabiki.
"Ha! Of course I am. Kodachi 'The Black Rose' Kuno can take on anyone and anything, and win. I am much better than these peasants," she chortled, before letting loose with a short version of her famous laugh: "Oh, hohohohohohohohohohohohoho!"
Nabiki internally winced. She should have left the earplugs in…She made sure that her face was kept passive, though.
"Yeah, Kodachi, so rather than spare you the agony of listening to these amateurs, you can leave right now. I'm sure that a rich and beautiful young woman like you has better things to do," said Nabiki.
"There is nothing better for me to do than to stay here and be with my Ranma-sama!" Kodachi replied.
Uh-oh. She was getting that famous "Kuno" look. Any second now she was going to get all starry-eyed and make a big dramatic speech about how she and Ranma were destined to be together. Nabiki had to kick her out. Now. It was a good thing that she had already thought about Kodachi not leaving because of Ranma beforehand.
"Not even cooking for him after he's done trying out?" Nabiki asked, coyly.
"Oh, yes, I'll go cook dinner for my Ranma-sama," said Kodachi, blinking at the idea. "After all, I'm his fiancée. I'm going to be cooking dinner for him every night after our marriage. Might as well give him the privilege of tasting my cooking beforehand. It's better than what that Tendo girl can give him anyway. Heh-heh, a romantic dinner for two, me and my Ranma-sama…"
Kodachi left the building, starry-eyed and saying something about the right combination of love potion and paralysis powder.
"I'll call you when we're done!" Nabiki called after her, and then closed the door, knowing that Kodachi was too lost in her own world to hear her.
Now that that was taken care of…
"Ranma, Akane, I want you to try this one together…" she ordered, ignoring the scene that had occurred while she had been away. Akane bonked Ranma one more time with the mallet before starting.
Nabiki had to admit that they weren't bad. Ranma and Akane were automatically in. But Shampoo needed some consideration, and Ukyo sounded too much like Akane
"Here, next one. Shampoo, I want you to sing this one with Ranma and Akane. Now, remember Ranma, cooperation is all I need if you want to keep some certain secrets secret."
Ranma turned her head so that her grumbling wouldn't be heard over the mike, but Nabiki saw it.
"Now, now, Ranma, be nice."
Ranma continued grumbling.
Nabiki just played the music and listened.
Akane, Ranma and Shampoo actually made a good team. Shampoo's accent made them sound more unique and certain people would classify her voice as "cute," and would definitely want to hear it. Shampoo was a bonus. She was in, and Nabiki realized that she had found her main voices. The only problem was that even though they sounded nice, they sounded a bit too much like a group of young children. The addition of Ukyo's voice wouldn't help that very much.
Even though Ukyo came, Nabiki had pretty much written her off as a back-up member. The okonomiyaki chef was interested all right, but Nabiki knew that Ukyo was too dedicated to her profession to do something else full-time. Ukyo would be okay with the arrangement as a substitute singer. Besides, Nabiki needed to make sure that Ucchan's stayed in business so that Ukyo would be able to pay her off (in the form of food or money, she didn't really care).
There was a knock on the door. Great timing, too, because the sixteen-year-old trio had just finished up with the song. But who would come to see them? It had better not be Kodachi.
Nabiki opened the door.
"Hello sister, I just came to see how you and everyone were doing. Here's a little something for your lunch—you really should have three square meals a day, Nabiki—there's enough for everyone. You're all growing girls, you know. I brought some roasted chicken--"
It was Kasumi at the door. As she listed the contents of the rather large picnic basket that she had at her side, Nabiki ignored the words and listened to the voice. Smooth, melodious, gentle, soothing…and not too high either.
Nabiki smiled. "Sister, could you come here…?"
It wasn't long before Nabiki had Kasumi stationed by a microphone. Ranma, Akane, Ukyo and Shampoo were jammed into the other room, because Kasumi wanted them to all start eating, and Nabiki didn't want to let Ranma get all the food. So they were all packing it in when Kasumi started singing.
She wasn't bad. A little airy-sounding, but people would like her. It would be like Shampoo's accent. Something different but likeable. Combine those two with Ranma's impressive diaphragm, the normalcy and general niceness of Akane's voice, and…
Meanwhile, we fast-forward a few months to Shuichi and company… it's a very short time after where we left off, but still before the contest…
"These were a bit hastily done, but we have five more songs," said Fujisaki. "Do you think that these will be enough?"
"I think so," said Shuichi. "We just have to develop on them, and we should be safe."
"Yeah, Shuichi, you work on those lyrics and Fujisaki-san and I will straighten out the actual music," Hiro stated.
The Bad Luck group had worked day and night to improve their chances of winning the competition. When they weren't at the studio, they were at Hiro's place, trying to come up with more ideas and work with what they had. The result was five crude songs, but the number was good and hopefully all they needed. It had only been a couple of days (less than a week). Their speed was good, and they hoped that they wouldn't need any more songs. The newer songs had great potential, and they were going to use the time that they had to make them battle-worthy.
So once again, it was night, and they were at Hiro's.
Fujisaki fiddled with his keyboard and stared at what they had. He was a little worried. Some of the songs from those other bands were a little intimidating, but what they used for their songs, Fujisaki could use for Bad Luck's songs. The problem was, after listening the competition's CDs, they made him a bit edgy. Hiro was preoccupied, too. He and Shuichi were also listening to other CDs to analyze what they were up against, and Hiro was worried about DoCo. Such rapid popularity and varied music…DoCo could pull the strangest song out of a hat, and it would be good.
Shuichi wasn't worried at all. He kept his focus on the songs and the prospect of winning. He never thought about losing. His confidence worked on the other two. Hiro knew that Shuichi would never worry until the moment he had to step onto the stage.
A lot of the bands that they were going up against had around twelve songs or more. To know that groups with that number of songs were working their butts off to make more made Hiro think. About how the other bands felt, about how they thought they were going to do…
Fujisaki experimented with the synthesizer. He was testing out background beats, and at the same time, fiddling around with the main music. That alone showed how rushed he felt. The contest wasn't coming up too soon, but they all knew that it was soon enough. Especially Sakano, who would go wild about the contest as soon as he saw any one of the trio, and would keep yelling and stressing them with depressing possibilities, facts and opinions. That was also part of the reason they were working a Hiro's: with Sakano hovering over them and causing much distraction and anxiety, they didn't get that much work done in a regular work day at the studio. They didn't go to Shuichi's, because, though it was bigger, it was technically Yuki's and asking Yuki if they could use his place was suicide. Fujisaki said that he didn't want them to work at his place, so that left Hiro's. Though it was small, it had enough electric outlets and an atmosphere that was just right for coming up with good songs. It was comfortable and relaxed, and just seeing the instruments around them made them want to get to work right away. However, the size…
The window was kept open, so that way they didn't all suffocate. Even though the outside noise of dogs and cars wafted in, they had no problem concentrating. It was no problem compared to working with a human tornado who wouldn't shut his mouth and a Yankee (literally) who looked for every excuse to pop off his guns.
Hiro glanced up as he heard the sound of a pencil frantically scribbling across paper. It was about time. Shuichi had spent about two hours without coming up with any ideas about how to improve on one song. He did that often. He would do nothing for along time before inspiration suddenly took hold on him and Shuichi became a best-selling CD just waiting to happen. The eraser moved just as fast as the pencil, and Hiro was surprised when the paper didn't rip.
"Fujisaki-san, can we change the tune of this one a bit?" he asked, sticking his paper in front of the boy's face. As he demonstrated how he wanted the song altered, Hiro tilted his head back against the wall and absently plucked a few strings on his guitar.
The contest seemed so close, and yet so far. Sort of like their chances of winning. He had no idea how they would do, especially against a band as good as Nittle Grasper, and a band as unpredictable as DoCo.
"Hm, I think you might actually have something here…" said Fujisaki, re-arranging some notes on his handwritten sheet music.
"Well, of course I have something! I always have something, right Hiro?" Shuichi said in his regular state of high excitement. Hiro regretted that he didn't hide his boxes of Pocky, because Shuichi found them and was quickly eating his way through Hiro's stash. He was going to have to snatch them off of Shuichi more frequently.
"Right," said Hiro, offhandedly, knowing that it was no use to disagree with the pinkette.
"I'm gonna try another one!" Shuichi announced, and took out another set of lyrics.
Well, as long as he was getting the work done…
That's when Hiro realized that he wasn't doing anything. Fujisaki alone was working on the music, but from the look on his face, it was best not to bother him. Shuichi was scribbling at his paper with amazing speed (all the sugar from those strawberry Pocky had to be good for something) and Hiro knew that if he tried to bother him, the force of voice would embed Hiro's body into the wall.
He stood up and decided to clean a bit. There was barely any walking room, and after awhile Shuichi would start smashing things. It probably wasn't possible for Fujisaki to get cramped though, he was too small. Hiro tossed out what was left of the take-out dinner that they all had earlier. Fujisaki never liked the takeout food that they had been getting while they ate on the job, but he never complained.
As he leaned some random discarded instruments against the wall, he felt bad because there was nothing more he could do. And here Fujisaki and Shuichi were working their butts off.
Some of the bands that were on the list of competitors were hard to find. They were easy to look up and research on the Internet, but getting the CDs were a bit difficult, as certain bands were only popular in certain parts of the country. Getting DoCo's had been rather easy, however, for starting out on the other side of Japan.
Hiro couldn't shake the feeling of strangeness he got from the band. Besides the varied music, rapid and widespread popularity, it was backed by the only company that only sent one band. Since the band was so well- known, Hiro had assumed that it was owned by a big company that had more than one band at its disposal.
Nabiki Tendo Enterprises. It made a lot of money, that was for sure. A lot of the money seemed to come from thousands of small operations, and DoCo was the only band. There were a couple of movie theaters and two zoos. Zoos! The company was just so unusual to Hiro, and he couldn't get it off his mind. He couldn't figure out how they operated or anything. The other companies and bands had patterns in what they did, but this DoCo and its founder were just too…wild.
Then Hiro's head snapped up. He grabbed a certain set of lyrics from Shuichi's pile and it's corresponding sheet music from Fujisaki. He had an idea…
Author's notes: I believe Nabiki needs a little excitement in her life. She didn't turn down Kuno's vacation in the second movie, did she? She loves money, but she also loves fun. Although just getting money is fun for her, getting money for fun is something she wouldn't mind…or fun for free. I don't think Ukyo would mind something a little different either, but she's too dedicated to the art of making okonomiyaki. So what if I made Akane a little too over-enthusiastic in the beginning? This isn't beta-ed, I have problem getting people's characters down. I made Hiro a thinker, because, well, he thinks a lot in the series. And all I know about Fujisaki is that he's small, quiet, and completely dedicated to his job. I tried to type about each group evenly. It didn't work out (obviously). Sorry about the time-jumping stuff, I do that a lot. Half of this story is about the formation and success of DoCo, but I want to write about the two bands evenly, so I focused on Bad Luck's anxiety before the contest. In the corresponding time, DoCo won't do much anyway. I just noticed that I have a considerable lack of glomping and general energy. Well, my Ranma-expert ain't beta-ing this, so I don't know what to do with the characters. (Right, Chibi Akane-chan2?)
Help me decide who will win!!!!! DoCo, Bad Luck, or Nittle Grasper!!!! You guys choose ( 'cause frankly, I have no idea who will get to the top).
There is no romance, all right? No yaoi, no nothing! So those of you who think you should back away, don't, because this story is completely clean!!!! All flames will be absorbed by my Pokemon Starr, who in turn will fry the flamer to a crisp (sic 'em, girl!). And for those of you who don't know what DoCo is, it's a band formed by Nabiki, Akane, Kasumi, Ranma, and Shampoo.
About my other stories: I fandom-hop. Check my bio for details.
Extra note: Please look at Chibi Akane-chan2's stories! You'll regret it if you never do (everyone likes at least one of her stories…)
Nabiki Tendo was bored, even more so than usual. When she got bored, the cleverest Tendo sister usually devised ways of increasing her already- abnormally-large income. The work was fun, and she always got away with at least a couple hundred yen in the end. That day, however, all of usual tactics that she fell back on to erase her listlessness seemed…well…listless. Her stocks were doing superbly well (which was average for her) and she had already squeezed every last yen out of all the people that owed her money (she also made sure that the amount of money that they still owed her was increased). Although free-loading off of Kuno was an entertaining activity, she felt too bored to even pick up her camera, much less blackmail Ranma. It was a lazy day, but there was too much left of the rest of the day to be lazy. So it resulted in her boredom. Yup, it just came to a full circle.
To tell the truth, Nabiki had kind of already been bored with what she was doing for a while. Her income was almost always the same, and her stock intake was too regular for her. She used every last technique that she had to get as much money as she could, but they were all getting old. All of her new ideas were too…plain for her. Too close to what she was already doing. Although Nabiki had what seemed like half of Japan eating out of her hand, she needed some excitement. But, of course, that excitement had to result in cash.
She sighed. Nabiki was resting her head on her desk and staring at the printout of her latest list of people that she was leeching off of simply because they needed the money to pay off someone else. When they asked for a loan for Nabiki Tendo, they had no idea what had been in store for them, heh-heh. Anyway, all of her other printouts of lists of people who owed her money for various reasons were piled nest to her. They did not need any updating. Everything and everyone that she had working under her was going at its maximum efficiency, including her various internet shops. One of her friends was out sick and the other was halfway across the country, visiting relatives. Oh well, if she had nothing better to do and did not feel like exerting that much effort, she could always charge admission fee to the people who wanted to visit her sick friend. But she knew that she wouldn't make any money off of that, because the people who would visit her friend would know her crowd and weren't desperate enough to pay money just to see a person. Maybe she would start a zoo. Wait, she had already done that. Two small zoos and a-heck-of-a-lot of advertisements to keep them going. Maybe an amusement park… but it would be just like the zoos, she knew, and she wanted diversity. Something that she hadn't tried, and was different and worthwhile. But, for something to be really worthwhile to Nabiki Tendo, she had to make a lot of money and really take part in it, too.
Nabiki shifted her head to her arm, her always-perfectly-styled brown hair falling across her face. However, she felt too lazy to even brush it out of the way.
"Oh, look at this! Look at this! Hey, everyone, look what I've got!"
The squeal came from downstairs, with the voice of her youngest sister, Akane Tendo.
Nabiki stood up. If she was lucky, Akane won some sort of contest, and Nabiki would be able to swindle her gullible sister out of the prize. She was still bored, and could barely summon the will to walk down the stairs. But she knew that the best way to get rid of boredom was to take action, so, trying to clear the cobwebs out of her brain, she got to the entrance area of the house. But instead of Akane, as she predicted, Nabiki saw only Kasumi and Ranma.
Kasumi was smiling serenely, drying a dish. She had obviously come out when Akane called for everyone to see what she had. Ranma, on the other hand, was staring blankly at the door.
"Where's Akane?" Nabiki asked.
Ranma gave Nabiki a point-blank stare and pointed at the door. Ah. Apparently, when Akane called for everyone, she got carried away and rather than getting everyone in the house, as was sensible, she went out to get everyone in town.
Or so it seemed, when Akane returned later with Kuno, Kodachi, Shampoo, Cologne, Mousse, Ukyo, Tsubasa, Azusa, and several other people, miraculously including Ryoga, who by some result of dumb luck had been in Nerima long enough for Akane to grab him as she passed by.
Nabiki raised an eyebrow as Ranma gawked. He started stuttering about what all the people were for, but Nabiki knew that they would find out very soon. Apparently, the various citizens of Nerima that Akane dragged in had no idea what they were doing there also. Some of them began heading out the door, some of them glomped Ranma, some of them began attacking Ranma, some of them stared at Akane and then started to attack Ranma.
"Everybody, look, look, look, I got a copy of the video of all of us from the song contest!!!" Akane shouted, waving around a black tape.
Suddenly, all of the people who were trying to leave came back inside and sat in front of the television.
As Akane tried to get the attention of the Ranma, who was fighting off about fifteen people, Nabiki frowned. Wasn't she the one who filmed the contest and sold off the copies to various people? She was certain that she sold one to every person who wanted one, and that she was the only person who filmed it. A person who bought one of her videos probably recorded copies and sold them off at a cheaper price to other people. And she had a "copyright Nabiki Tendo" label on it, too! Oh well, she had id numbers both on and in each video she sold, and in order to tape one of her videos and get rid of the id number, a person would have to skip over a certain part or parts of the video to get rid of it. In order to satisfy their customers, the person would have had to keep the tape complete and the number recorded. She would keep an eye out for the number, trace it back to the owner and demand all of the recorder's profit off the video (plus a bit more) later. Akane gave up on trying to get every person in the room to settle down, and put the video in the VCR. Nabiki kept her eyes on the screen for the number. She could have done something else until Akane was done watching, take it and fast forward it until the number appeared at the bottom of the screen, but she had nothing better to do and decided to stay. Gradually, more and more of Ranma's attackers began to pay attention to the show. Though Nabiki was looking for a number, she just couldn't help but smirk at some of the ridiculous voices and stupid songs. When her and Kasumi's commercial was just about to start, Nabiki came up with an idea. A very amusing idea. A very profitable idea…
A few months later…
"Hey, everybody-!" K announced as he walked into the recording studio.
"Big News," Hiro calmly finished for him as he grabbed another Pocky from Shuichi's stash.
K frowned and seemed to contemplate whether or not putting a gun to Hiro's head was worth it. He obviously decided to let it slip, and continued where Hiro left off for him. "You're all going-"
"Oh, I forgot!" Suguru Fujisaki spoke up. "My cousin organized a battle of the bands for N-G Enterprises!"
Shuichi and Hiro stared, Sakano cried, "Whaaaaaaaaaaaat?!!!" and instantly began slamming himself into the walls, and K whipped out his gun, put it to Fujisaki's head, and hissed, "Never, ever, steal my big news!"
Since Fujisaki couldn't turn his head from the pressure of the gun, he stared at the wall and said, "Alright, then, you tell them the rest."
"What does some band battle have to do with us?" Shuichi asked.
K reluctantly withdrew his gun, and delivered the information. "Bad Luck is going to participate in it!"
"Whaaaaaat?!" Sakano came to stop at K's feet. "Why wasn't I informed of this? Isn't Bad Luck above some band battle? Aren't those for small-time bands?" Then he stood up. "Is Bad Luck being insulted?!!!!!!!"
"Ah, but Sakano-san, Seguchi-san put a twist into this," K winked. "It's a publicity stunt, a battle-of-the-bands for the big time music groups. ASK and Nittle Grasper are also participating. This event is going to be on national television."
"It's a chance to prove once and for all that Bad Luck can be and is better than Nittle Grasper!!!!!!" Shuichi yelled, jumping up onto a table and pumping a fist into the air.
"What is this battle going to be like, K-san?" Hiro asked.
"Though the battle is going to be recorded all at once, it will premiere on television as a series. Each band will battle another band, and the winner gets to ascend to the next level, battling a band that won it's own first battle. Then the winner of that battle gets to the next next level, and so on, until there are two bands and one battle left. The band that wins the last battle will win the contest and fifteen-hundred- million yen. The battles are short. Each band sings one song and the one that the audience and the judges like best will win. If the bands somehow get a tie, they will each sing a different song and have those songs be judged. And if those get a tie again, they will sing different songs, and so on," K explained.
"Oh, yeah, we're going to show them what Bad Luck's made of, right, Hiro?" Shuichi was saying, evidently having not paid a word to what K had just told them.
"Right," Hiro answered. Then he turned back to K. "So this is going to be big? For it to be this big, we have to be going against some other bands, right?"
"Right," said K. "And I have the list of participating bands right here."
Hiro and Sakano grabbed it and stared. Shuichi was still ranting and Fujisaki evidently already knew all the details.
"Nittle Grasper, Bad Luck, ASK, DoCo, Three Lights, Cocoa, Latte…"
And the list went on to total about sixteen bands, including Bad Luck.
"There are only three bands here owned by NG," Sakano observed.
"I said it was a publicity stunt, I didn't say for what company," said K.
"Hey, some of these bands have more people," said Shuichi, who had finally decided to focus on something other that Bad Luck's prospective victory. "Five, six, five, five…"
"And some of these don't even do their own instruments," Hiro pointed out.
"They all do different types of music, too," Fujisaki decided to throw in. "Rock, techno, American style, country, old-type music, ethnic-"
"What's the deal with this set-up?!!!" Sakano yelled as he began rocketing around the room again.
"Hey!" Shuichi cried as his ever-present box of strawberry Pocky was knocked from his hand.
Fujisaki found himself wondering how come the room didn't sport cracks all over the walls from Sakano's forced weight, and the ceiling's considerable lack of holes for the number of times K fired his gun into the air. But he decided to ignore that for the moment, as Shuichi started going ballistic from the loss of his Pocky, and Hiro began to get edgy.
"With all of these different types of music, and all of these different types of bands, will the judging be fair?" Hiro asked.
"Sure, sure," said K. "The judges that Seguchi-san appointed are all very unbiased. This battle is a joint effort from NG Enterprises and some other rival music companies. They will make sure that the tickets are evenly sold to a mixture of different types of music fans. As for the number of people in each band, does that really make a difference on how good each band is?"
Shuichi and Hiro then both turned to Fujisaki. Actually, the quality of their songs had somewhat improved with the addition of Tohma's cousin…
"And does it really matter if the bands do their own instruments or not?" K asked.
'Yeah, if you want to determine the actual talent level,' they all wanted to say, but decided to keep their mouths shut if it involved other companies.
"YES IT MATTERS IF EVERY BAND DOES THEIR OWN INSTRUMENTS!!!!!!"
As for Shuichi, it wasn't possible for him to keep his mouth shut.
*Bang!*
Shuichi and company ducked as plaster and chipped paint rained down on their heads. When they were all able to safely open their eyes, they were greeted with the sight of K still holding his gun pointed into the air. Fujisaki blinked at the ceiling. There was another hole in it.
"What determines the winner is song and voice quality. Quality is all they want. Also, you would have a better chance of winning if every song that you use in the competition is different. Singing it a second time lowers the first and initial impression, and results in a lower score," K continued. "Since you don't know if you're going to tie with anyone or not, it's best if you start coming up with more songs to fall back on now."
"What? Shouldn't we just work on the songs that we already have, so that we could improve on them and have a better chance of winning with them?" questioned Shuichi.
"Ah, but we don't know how many times we are going to tie if there are any better bands," said Fujisaki. "All the other bands have been told to go on a songwriting spree right now to fall back on should they tie. Singing a new song gets better results than doing another one over again. We can improve on them later, but now we need back up. We have a good chance of tying with a couple of the bands on that list."
"These guys are from all over the country," Hiro frowned. "Crossroads, Nerima, Sakarani…Some of those bands have popularity here. This is going to be an interesting competition."
"Whoo-hoo! And if we win, it means we're better than Nittle Grasper, and the number one band in Japan!" shouted Shuichi, once again exuberant. He had started ranting again.
"Oh, but look at this one," said Hiro, tapping his finger at the paper. "We might have to go against this band."
"Which one?" Shuichi stopped hopping around and once again peered at the paper.
Sakano looked at which band Hiro was concerned with. He stared at the paper for two seconds before jettisoning himself off the ground.
"Whaaaaaaat?! What are they doing on the list? They're too new! How can we be going against them?!" Sakano let loose with a storm, whirlwinding the spillen Pocky sticks into the air.
Fujisaki calmly held up his keyboard, and Sakano crashed into it before deciding to obey the laws of gravity and physics, and slumped to the ground. The Pocky clattered back onto the tile, and Fujisaki replaced his keyboard.
"DoCo, right?" he asked.
"Right," said K. "They are a relatively new girl band, but have rapidly gained popularity in the last month-and-a-half."
"A lot of people like them," said Hiro. "They have pretty much a free style, but I don't know how we're going to do against them. They're too new and popular to really tell."
"I have an idea," said Fujisaki, dropping Sakano where he had dragged him into a corner to make more floor space. "We should just start cranking on some new songs to work with. If it gives us a better chance, I'm all for it."
"Yeah, let's start right now!" cried Shuichi.
Flashback to a few months earlier…
"Come on, come on, chop chop, everybody in," said Nabiki, herding a small group of girls into a stand-alone recording studio that she blackmailed someone into letting her borrow.
The girls that were with her were Akane, Ranma (girl-type, and not too happy about it), Ukyo, Shampoo and Kodachi.
"Why are we in here?" Ranma grumbled. "I don't have to do this."
"Oh, yes you do," said Nabiki nonchalantly, giving Ranma the look—the look that said, 'Do you want me to tell Akane about ~~~~, or Kuno that ~~~~?'
"Shut up," said Akane. "We're all going to be stars."
This was Nabiki's brilliant idea. While she was watching the hot song contest video, she noticed how many of them were able to sing well. So she grabbed a gaggle of them and made them come. Sure, the reason that she grabbed some of them (for example, Kodachi) must have been out of delirium, but here they were.
Ranma, Nabiki had blackmailed into. All Akane needed to know was the possibility of her becoming famous and admired by a considerable amount of people. Shampoo and Kodachi were there because Ranma was there, and Ukyo was just there because she heard about it and was a little bit interested, it was just a little fun thing to do.
Nabiki stationed the girls at microphones, and locked herself into a room where she could hear each of them clearly. First, she was going to have them go one at a time. They had the lyrics and had heard all of the tunes before, so they would know what they were doing. She pressed a button that turned on a speaker into the other room.
"Okay, Ranma, you first. But put up a decent effort, or else I'm going to the double the amount of money you owe me."
"But you can't do tha-"
"Just shut up and sing."
Nabiki began playing the music, listening and judging if the girls were anything decent or not. She had heard songs from all of the currently popular bands, and they didn't seem to be too hard to overcome. All she needed were people that sounded decent, and she would be able to take care of the rest.
When it was Shampoo's turn, Nabiki was surprised that the Amazon's voice wasn't as earsplitting as she had initially thought. It was high- pitched, but in a handle-able sort of way. Ukyo seemed to have a bit of a tone problem, but was otherwise okay. Ranma was great, and getting him—er, her—to cooperate was as easy as making one thousand yen. As for Akane, there was a reason that everybody loved her during the contest. She was in. But then Kodachi…
As soon as the first few words were out of the heiress's mouth, Nabiki jammed a pair of earplugs into her ears. Now that was earsplitting. She cut off the speaker that allowed her to hear what the others were singing, but Kodachi's voice was so loud that it could still be heard with no trouble in the other room. And the walls were supposed to be soundproof…she must have accidentally had some sort of drug that day when she brought up the topic to Kodachi. Nabiki saw the other girls that were in the room with Kodachi cover their ears, restraining the desire to just hit the girl. If they had actually hit her, she would have wanted to start all over, and they would rather have just gotten it over with. When Kodachi stopped singing (if that's what she called it), Nabiki took out the earplugs and turned on the speaker again.
"Okay, Kodachi, good. Could you come in here for a minute?"
Kodachi went into the room with Nabiki while the others were left to their own devices.
"Kodachi, you're great. Stupendous. You really have the makings of a star. You're in," said Nabiki.
"Ha! Of course I am. Kodachi 'The Black Rose' Kuno can take on anyone and anything, and win. I am much better than these peasants," she chortled, before letting loose with a short version of her famous laugh: "Oh, hohohohohohohohohohohohoho!"
Nabiki internally winced. She should have left the earplugs in…She made sure that her face was kept passive, though.
"Yeah, Kodachi, so rather than spare you the agony of listening to these amateurs, you can leave right now. I'm sure that a rich and beautiful young woman like you has better things to do," said Nabiki.
"There is nothing better for me to do than to stay here and be with my Ranma-sama!" Kodachi replied.
Uh-oh. She was getting that famous "Kuno" look. Any second now she was going to get all starry-eyed and make a big dramatic speech about how she and Ranma were destined to be together. Nabiki had to kick her out. Now. It was a good thing that she had already thought about Kodachi not leaving because of Ranma beforehand.
"Not even cooking for him after he's done trying out?" Nabiki asked, coyly.
"Oh, yes, I'll go cook dinner for my Ranma-sama," said Kodachi, blinking at the idea. "After all, I'm his fiancée. I'm going to be cooking dinner for him every night after our marriage. Might as well give him the privilege of tasting my cooking beforehand. It's better than what that Tendo girl can give him anyway. Heh-heh, a romantic dinner for two, me and my Ranma-sama…"
Kodachi left the building, starry-eyed and saying something about the right combination of love potion and paralysis powder.
"I'll call you when we're done!" Nabiki called after her, and then closed the door, knowing that Kodachi was too lost in her own world to hear her.
Now that that was taken care of…
"Ranma, Akane, I want you to try this one together…" she ordered, ignoring the scene that had occurred while she had been away. Akane bonked Ranma one more time with the mallet before starting.
Nabiki had to admit that they weren't bad. Ranma and Akane were automatically in. But Shampoo needed some consideration, and Ukyo sounded too much like Akane
"Here, next one. Shampoo, I want you to sing this one with Ranma and Akane. Now, remember Ranma, cooperation is all I need if you want to keep some certain secrets secret."
Ranma turned her head so that her grumbling wouldn't be heard over the mike, but Nabiki saw it.
"Now, now, Ranma, be nice."
Ranma continued grumbling.
Nabiki just played the music and listened.
Akane, Ranma and Shampoo actually made a good team. Shampoo's accent made them sound more unique and certain people would classify her voice as "cute," and would definitely want to hear it. Shampoo was a bonus. She was in, and Nabiki realized that she had found her main voices. The only problem was that even though they sounded nice, they sounded a bit too much like a group of young children. The addition of Ukyo's voice wouldn't help that very much.
Even though Ukyo came, Nabiki had pretty much written her off as a back-up member. The okonomiyaki chef was interested all right, but Nabiki knew that Ukyo was too dedicated to her profession to do something else full-time. Ukyo would be okay with the arrangement as a substitute singer. Besides, Nabiki needed to make sure that Ucchan's stayed in business so that Ukyo would be able to pay her off (in the form of food or money, she didn't really care).
There was a knock on the door. Great timing, too, because the sixteen-year-old trio had just finished up with the song. But who would come to see them? It had better not be Kodachi.
Nabiki opened the door.
"Hello sister, I just came to see how you and everyone were doing. Here's a little something for your lunch—you really should have three square meals a day, Nabiki—there's enough for everyone. You're all growing girls, you know. I brought some roasted chicken--"
It was Kasumi at the door. As she listed the contents of the rather large picnic basket that she had at her side, Nabiki ignored the words and listened to the voice. Smooth, melodious, gentle, soothing…and not too high either.
Nabiki smiled. "Sister, could you come here…?"
It wasn't long before Nabiki had Kasumi stationed by a microphone. Ranma, Akane, Ukyo and Shampoo were jammed into the other room, because Kasumi wanted them to all start eating, and Nabiki didn't want to let Ranma get all the food. So they were all packing it in when Kasumi started singing.
She wasn't bad. A little airy-sounding, but people would like her. It would be like Shampoo's accent. Something different but likeable. Combine those two with Ranma's impressive diaphragm, the normalcy and general niceness of Akane's voice, and…
Meanwhile, we fast-forward a few months to Shuichi and company… it's a very short time after where we left off, but still before the contest…
"These were a bit hastily done, but we have five more songs," said Fujisaki. "Do you think that these will be enough?"
"I think so," said Shuichi. "We just have to develop on them, and we should be safe."
"Yeah, Shuichi, you work on those lyrics and Fujisaki-san and I will straighten out the actual music," Hiro stated.
The Bad Luck group had worked day and night to improve their chances of winning the competition. When they weren't at the studio, they were at Hiro's place, trying to come up with more ideas and work with what they had. The result was five crude songs, but the number was good and hopefully all they needed. It had only been a couple of days (less than a week). Their speed was good, and they hoped that they wouldn't need any more songs. The newer songs had great potential, and they were going to use the time that they had to make them battle-worthy.
So once again, it was night, and they were at Hiro's.
Fujisaki fiddled with his keyboard and stared at what they had. He was a little worried. Some of the songs from those other bands were a little intimidating, but what they used for their songs, Fujisaki could use for Bad Luck's songs. The problem was, after listening the competition's CDs, they made him a bit edgy. Hiro was preoccupied, too. He and Shuichi were also listening to other CDs to analyze what they were up against, and Hiro was worried about DoCo. Such rapid popularity and varied music…DoCo could pull the strangest song out of a hat, and it would be good.
Shuichi wasn't worried at all. He kept his focus on the songs and the prospect of winning. He never thought about losing. His confidence worked on the other two. Hiro knew that Shuichi would never worry until the moment he had to step onto the stage.
A lot of the bands that they were going up against had around twelve songs or more. To know that groups with that number of songs were working their butts off to make more made Hiro think. About how the other bands felt, about how they thought they were going to do…
Fujisaki experimented with the synthesizer. He was testing out background beats, and at the same time, fiddling around with the main music. That alone showed how rushed he felt. The contest wasn't coming up too soon, but they all knew that it was soon enough. Especially Sakano, who would go wild about the contest as soon as he saw any one of the trio, and would keep yelling and stressing them with depressing possibilities, facts and opinions. That was also part of the reason they were working a Hiro's: with Sakano hovering over them and causing much distraction and anxiety, they didn't get that much work done in a regular work day at the studio. They didn't go to Shuichi's, because, though it was bigger, it was technically Yuki's and asking Yuki if they could use his place was suicide. Fujisaki said that he didn't want them to work at his place, so that left Hiro's. Though it was small, it had enough electric outlets and an atmosphere that was just right for coming up with good songs. It was comfortable and relaxed, and just seeing the instruments around them made them want to get to work right away. However, the size…
The window was kept open, so that way they didn't all suffocate. Even though the outside noise of dogs and cars wafted in, they had no problem concentrating. It was no problem compared to working with a human tornado who wouldn't shut his mouth and a Yankee (literally) who looked for every excuse to pop off his guns.
Hiro glanced up as he heard the sound of a pencil frantically scribbling across paper. It was about time. Shuichi had spent about two hours without coming up with any ideas about how to improve on one song. He did that often. He would do nothing for along time before inspiration suddenly took hold on him and Shuichi became a best-selling CD just waiting to happen. The eraser moved just as fast as the pencil, and Hiro was surprised when the paper didn't rip.
"Fujisaki-san, can we change the tune of this one a bit?" he asked, sticking his paper in front of the boy's face. As he demonstrated how he wanted the song altered, Hiro tilted his head back against the wall and absently plucked a few strings on his guitar.
The contest seemed so close, and yet so far. Sort of like their chances of winning. He had no idea how they would do, especially against a band as good as Nittle Grasper, and a band as unpredictable as DoCo.
"Hm, I think you might actually have something here…" said Fujisaki, re-arranging some notes on his handwritten sheet music.
"Well, of course I have something! I always have something, right Hiro?" Shuichi said in his regular state of high excitement. Hiro regretted that he didn't hide his boxes of Pocky, because Shuichi found them and was quickly eating his way through Hiro's stash. He was going to have to snatch them off of Shuichi more frequently.
"Right," said Hiro, offhandedly, knowing that it was no use to disagree with the pinkette.
"I'm gonna try another one!" Shuichi announced, and took out another set of lyrics.
Well, as long as he was getting the work done…
That's when Hiro realized that he wasn't doing anything. Fujisaki alone was working on the music, but from the look on his face, it was best not to bother him. Shuichi was scribbling at his paper with amazing speed (all the sugar from those strawberry Pocky had to be good for something) and Hiro knew that if he tried to bother him, the force of voice would embed Hiro's body into the wall.
He stood up and decided to clean a bit. There was barely any walking room, and after awhile Shuichi would start smashing things. It probably wasn't possible for Fujisaki to get cramped though, he was too small. Hiro tossed out what was left of the take-out dinner that they all had earlier. Fujisaki never liked the takeout food that they had been getting while they ate on the job, but he never complained.
As he leaned some random discarded instruments against the wall, he felt bad because there was nothing more he could do. And here Fujisaki and Shuichi were working their butts off.
Some of the bands that were on the list of competitors were hard to find. They were easy to look up and research on the Internet, but getting the CDs were a bit difficult, as certain bands were only popular in certain parts of the country. Getting DoCo's had been rather easy, however, for starting out on the other side of Japan.
Hiro couldn't shake the feeling of strangeness he got from the band. Besides the varied music, rapid and widespread popularity, it was backed by the only company that only sent one band. Since the band was so well- known, Hiro had assumed that it was owned by a big company that had more than one band at its disposal.
Nabiki Tendo Enterprises. It made a lot of money, that was for sure. A lot of the money seemed to come from thousands of small operations, and DoCo was the only band. There were a couple of movie theaters and two zoos. Zoos! The company was just so unusual to Hiro, and he couldn't get it off his mind. He couldn't figure out how they operated or anything. The other companies and bands had patterns in what they did, but this DoCo and its founder were just too…wild.
Then Hiro's head snapped up. He grabbed a certain set of lyrics from Shuichi's pile and it's corresponding sheet music from Fujisaki. He had an idea…
Author's notes: I believe Nabiki needs a little excitement in her life. She didn't turn down Kuno's vacation in the second movie, did she? She loves money, but she also loves fun. Although just getting money is fun for her, getting money for fun is something she wouldn't mind…or fun for free. I don't think Ukyo would mind something a little different either, but she's too dedicated to the art of making okonomiyaki. So what if I made Akane a little too over-enthusiastic in the beginning? This isn't beta-ed, I have problem getting people's characters down. I made Hiro a thinker, because, well, he thinks a lot in the series. And all I know about Fujisaki is that he's small, quiet, and completely dedicated to his job. I tried to type about each group evenly. It didn't work out (obviously). Sorry about the time-jumping stuff, I do that a lot. Half of this story is about the formation and success of DoCo, but I want to write about the two bands evenly, so I focused on Bad Luck's anxiety before the contest. In the corresponding time, DoCo won't do much anyway. I just noticed that I have a considerable lack of glomping and general energy. Well, my Ranma-expert ain't beta-ing this, so I don't know what to do with the characters. (Right, Chibi Akane-chan2?)
Help me decide who will win!!!!! DoCo, Bad Luck, or Nittle Grasper!!!! You guys choose ( 'cause frankly, I have no idea who will get to the top).