This was very...very out of the blue for me. Seriously, I was just sitting down and watching the dub for Lucky Star and this idea just hit me like a thunderstorm. As you know, since I'm an avid fan of both Lucky Star and Rock Band, I try to think of fun little ideas for inspiration just to get the ball moving a little faster.
Until this little thing hit me as I was watching videos on youtube. It was in my head and I decided to give this little gift for you all. You could say this is a way of me thanking both series, as it's released in the middle between Rock Band 2's release and Lucky Star's OVA coming to fruitition. I shall also note that this isn't serious like, The Underlying Theme. It's just a fun little oneshot.
Here are a few notes to keep though when reading through this. I've only used good ol' Anime Tenchou ONCE in my fic, so I think it's worth giving this to him. And I really think that this song speaks for him. You may enjoy it a bit more if you know about it and the scenery it goes along with. And like I've warned, there's swearing, and the severe use of CAPS, Bold, and Italics. You've been warned.
Disclaimer: Lucky Star is properity of Yoshimizu Kagami and it's upcoming OVA is presented by Kyoto Animation. Additional disclaimers are below in order to not spoil the readers.
Shiraishi Minoru was walking down the streets of Ikebukuro with aches in his bones. He had been recently hired to work in a nearby pet store to earn some extra money. Since his voice actor gig didn't set off as successfully as he planned, he decided to still earn a living while he looked for more roles. It was a decent job for the most part. He did more work with lifting heavy boxes and stockpiling than cleaning filthy cages. It had been the end of a long hour work day, so he wanted to just get home and take a nice nap.
As he fiddled around with his paycheck, he looked at many of the other nearby stores in the area. Even for Japan, this area was quite packed with specialty shops. Their was an ice cream shop, electronics store, book store, several trendy fashion shops, and a few restaurants that were close by. However the biggest hook and most popular section of this street was…
"DAMN IT!" A voice shouted from that very location.
Minoru quickly panicked, hearing the raging sounds coming from the monumental Animate store. He was standing right outside of the entrance.
"Calm down, Tenchou!" A female worker said from inside.
"Calm down?! Our sales have decreased steadily since June! We've been doing horrible this quarter thanks to digital distribution!"
"Anizawa-san?" The soft-spoken boy thought to himself.
"What are we going to do?" A glasses wearing employee asked.
"We must buckle down, and think of new ways to attract customers!" The hot-blooded manager asked everyone. If we are going to overcome this increasing thread, then we must remind all of our customers why coming to Animate cannot be beat!"
The teenager's heartbeat began to accelerate. Just hearing the voice of the man who gave him such passionate advice filled him with this incentive. He needed to help his fellow man into the time of need. Inside the store, it felt very barren. All the light had been sucked dry out of it from the lack of sales. He turned his head by the cash register, seeing that all the noise had been coming from an office in the back.
"What can we do other than sales?" The girl asked. "That seems to get only way we can get other people's attention."
"What are some techniques that the other stores are doing?"
"You know that Gamerz keeps a tight lid on everything they want to do!" Meito stated. "Even those scoundrel managers from other stores refuse to speak about how to increase the company, because they want to take our branch down!"
"Umm…" A voice trembled by the door.
In a flash, the adrenaline-fueled manager burst out of the door ready to assist that customer's expectations, any means necessary.
"HELLO!!" Meito greeted with the utmost amount of energy. "Welcome to the Ikebukuro Animate! ASK US IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS FOR YOUR SHOPPING NEEDS!"
He blinked for a second, to see the customer was found standing in the store. He slumped, feeling like the voices in his head were starting to play around with him. Success would not happen. As he was about to storm back into his office, until he looked down. Meito was standing one man who was about to give advice. Shiraishi had a face like he was about to pass out from the impact of the door.
"Shi-Shiraishi-san!" The manager said, lifting him up and shaking him profusely. "Speak to me, man!"
"Anizawa-san, I just came in as I was overhearing your troubles…"
"You have a solution for us?! By all means, explain it!"
"Well, I can't think of one right now. But I know that you guys will be able to pull through this."
"The evils of piracy have it in for us Shiraishi. We need a bigger appeal to get to the otakus of the country!"
As he listened to his speech, he recalled back to the times when he and his friends were talking at lunch. It was fairly simple, but Kaito, as always, was gushing on about his rhythm video games. He began to discuss their cultural impact as they were appearing much for more in the media. They were beginning to be used as a hub for many musicians to get new people to listen to older music. And most importantly, bars and clubs would receive more customers.
"Oh, I just thought of something?"
"What is it?!" He demanded, grabbing him by the collar.
"Well, I was just thinking…my friend's talk about this game that plays music, and we might be able to use it to get people to play."
"Hmm…" The manager thought, deep in thought. "We may need to set up a room to prepare it all. Playing music while reading is quite enjoyable." However, he had to research this so called game. When it was at its peak, he tried to release a big Smash X tournament when it was in its primetime. Yet all the fan argument and discussion on what was illegal or not made the customers leave the store.
"I ensure you, Anizawa." Minoru confirmed. "It's purely a party game. I give you my word on it."
"Fair enough." He stated, cocking his head.
He proceeded to grab the boy and push him out of the door. If this was the necessary road to gaining back Animate's respect, he would have to look over every situation. Next Saturday night would determine how the public would respond to this unknown game of wonderment.
In a short week, the Animate had been prepared for this grand day where they would try to make themselves stand out from every other shop in the city. They owned an import of a very tantalizing video game, probably the only copy found in the country. Various people were crowded in the store. Maybe Meito's dream of turning the shop into a lounge for fans to buy books and chat would go just as planned.
Four people sat in a private room built for the occasion. With the power of Animate workforce at their side, it looked very trendy and stable despite the short amount of time they had. It would be very appropriate that the manager of the store play as the front man. But if they were to make a good impression, they had to make everything appeal look fun and magical as discussed.
Anizawa Meito fiddled through the set list of songs, trying to figure out something to play. He wasn't too keen on American music, but tried to figure out what would be the best way to kick off the start of this event. Kaito stared at himself in the mirror, as he was fiddling with makeup and a wig. Ryuta just sat in boredom looking at the plastic drum set he was to play over. Kagami was filling up with anger by every second as she wasn't sure how she got roped into this situation. A lower class employee walked into the room.
"Tenchou! The customers are getting restless! Can we let them in now?"
"Fool!" He yelled, throwing a clipboard near the frightened employee. "IF WE ARE TO ENSURE THE SAFETY OF ANIMATE, WE HAVE TO BE PREPARED!"
"Fair, fair enough..." He quivered, going out to the bored crowd.
"Can we pick a song now?" Ryuta groaned. "I don't care what we play at this point."
"Just, just make it something easy for me to play." Kagami stuttered. "I have to be bass, anyway so I don't think its right for me to ruin the performance."
"You're my sweet, sweet lover..." Kaito hummed to himself as he was continuing on in the mirror, perfecting his look for the evening.
Kagami felt a blush coming to her as she heard those words. She looked over to see Ryuta drowned in his level of boredom and Meito still browsing through the appropriate song to pick. She started to slowly walk towards him in order not to get any attention. After all, he got her to wear a silly costume for this whole event. It makes her feel a bit stupid that her friends can get her in costumes so easily. She rested his hand on his shoulder, getting his attention.
"Ah, you ready then Kagami-san?" He asked.
The tsundere was stunned to see his transformed face. It was completely covered in white, only allowing the portions colored black to be seen. His eyes and sideburns were colored black to give a more menacing look, with spikes coming around it all. To perfect it, the word "Kill" was written on top of his forehead in Kanji. He looked back at her, smiling to see her in such a neat, white jumpsuit. It was covered completely in sharp white diamonds to give a threatening look.
"You look great today. The metal gods would be proud to see you dressed as the bassist."
"Pleased as they would be, I feel like an idiot wearing this." Kagami mumbled.
"This song." Meito firmly stated.
The other three looked over to see his selection. The guitar, vocals, and drums appeared to be extremely hard while the bass was quite lenient. Meito was getting fired up just thinking about how the song went. And it was merely a thirty second preview. Kaito watched on as he was getting ready for this song, with his outfit rising up from this unknown power. He felt a bit silly knowing the only other thing he wore to make his ensemble special was wearing a purple mantle.
"I don't know much English, but...I know that my heart BEGS me to sing this song! WE MUST PLEASE THE CROWD BY SINGING THIS SONG!" The manager demanded as if he gained 500,000 power levels.
The guitarist turned to his hot-blooded companion. "Well, do we have to try this song Meito? I'd much prefer that one with the insanely hard guitar playing. It has two solos and an incredibly difficult set up hammer-"
Anizawa nearly hit him from his incompetence. "FOOL! I don't care that this Dan fellow is made of steel, the song appears to be boring! If you truly wish to make everyone happy, THEN YOU PLAY WHAT BEST SIGNIFIES IT!"
The teenagers, amazed by his charisma, cheered on as they were ready to please the crowd. They began talking as an employee overheard the communication. He started letting people into the room as they looked at the four performers on the stage prepared. A small television was set up for them to watch their game play, but a giant widescreen, hi-definition television was set up for everyone to watch. As it was nearly cramped to capacity, Kaito had one last problem with the set up.
"Ryuta-kun, are you sure?"
"I don't care if you are my friend, I refuse to put on a blonde wig and/or put on face paint. It's just not right."
"Fair enough." He shrugged as he looked on at the crowd.
Kaito moved towards the middle of the stage to look at everyone. Many regulars of the store, as well as several of his and Kagami's female friends were there. It was pleasing that they would be willing to try this. He wanted to get their attention, but even with all the set up, they were still too engrossed by their mundane conversations to look at the stage. He decided to use a very peculiar tactic to get their attention...obscenities.
"Rape! Rape! Rape! Rape! Rape! Rape! Rape! Rape! Rape! Rape!" He spewed at everyone. They stopped dead in their tracks.
"Whoa! Ten vocalized rapes in one second!?" Taichi commented from hearing those words.
"Thank you." Kaito bowed, now being the focus of everyone in the room. "Thank you for coming to the start of this event sponsored by Animate. We shall be allowing all participants to play this game after our demonstration. Manager Anizawa Meito will be setting the mood by singing this one song. I, Hiiragi Kagami and Kurohiko Ryuta shall be playing the instruments to back him up." He pointed his hand towards the front man. "Meito."
"This is a song we made 25 minutes ago. Because we used the cheat code. Enjoy." He said simply, setting the mood.
The introductions started as the loading screen fired up. Many of the patrons chatted over how the song was going to be, never seeing the game before. A virtual crowd cheered on at the very diverse band in the game. The mood was absolutely silent as the load finally stopped and they could focus on the actual game play. Four different black roads appeared all across the screen, preparing the mood.
Kaito's side of the screen was barraged by a frantic set of moving chords. Even with it's speed and ferocity, the cosplayer nailed them all as they came towards him. His road turned to blue, as his acoustic sounds transformed into the glorious melody of electric guitar. With all the roars and screeches, they crowd looked on at amazement as he was sitting every single note. Since the bass and drums were in active, they had his attention set on him. That is until the vocals kicked in.
"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh..." Meito sang as the low note slowly ascended to the heavens. With each scaling note, he began to become more intense while the Kaito continued hitting his set of notes. "Aaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh waaaaahhhhhhhhh waaaaaaaaaaah waaaaaaahhhhhh wah waahh wahhahhhahhh AHHHHHHH AHHHHHHHHHH AHHHHHHHHHHHH AHHHHHHHHHHHHH AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! YEAH!!"
After that powerful banshee shriek, everyone was absolutely stunned. The players, the crowd, the employees, all stunned by the intensity of the manager. But what was more amazing was that...
The microphone combusted.
Literally, the microphone had immediately set on fire after that high note had been reached.
"Pull it out! Pull it out!" Patricia said, noting that it was her own Xbox 360 they were using for the event. It was an exclusive, so a Region 1 console had to be used.
Kaito quickly yanked the chord from its slot, causing a message to appear on the screen.
"Whoa! You appear to be rocking out a little too hard! Please plug in controller 3 back to its set!"
The entire crowd sweat dropped at the message in it's irony. Meito looked on in a moment of weakness as the game was paused. He wasn't sure what to. Everyone was in a small state of bedlam as they electronics combusted for no particular reason. They weren't sure how to react to it all.
Ten minutes later and 2000 yen down the hole; Shiraishi came from the electronic shop with a new USB microphone for the game. It would be a shame for no one else to sing these great songs in this moment of glory. As Kaito prepped the game back up, the screen disappeared as a pause menu was the holding everyone still. With someone like Meito and only thirty-five seconds of play, what was about to happen? Meito continued shouting words from the screen.
"I do not need!"
"He does not need..." Kaito chorused, still doing his duties as a guitarist.
"A microphone!"
"A microphone."
"MY VOICE IS FUCKING...POWERFUUULLLLLLLLLL--!!"
A twin tailed employee looked on at his amazement. She mouthed to herself, "I love you" as she stared on at him. The manager placed his hand forward hitting his next note.
"Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww--" He said once again from a peculiarly low note. But as those tones came from his lips, a massive wind passed threw the band hitting the unsuspecting crowd. They were taken back as pages from recently purchased volumes began flying out. They were so enraptured by the insanity they were not sure how to deal with it. "YEAH!!"
He finished it off once again, leading Kaito do his job. The boy bent down on his thighs to play the guitar solo as he shredded on his plastic peripheral. He stuck his tongue out at cheering guests as they could not believe the spectacle. Ryuta and Kagami got to work a siege of snares and bass began hitting the two players. Meito scanned the area trying to pick off the non-otakus who were there. When he came across one in particular, he couldn't help but point at her.
"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH--" He screamed at a deceptively high tone. Yet even with his sound, the pointer stayed right on the note in game. The girl and the front man exchanged glances at each other in completely different ways. She seemed to scrunch up more and more as attention was put on her shoulders. He capped off the final note as he made another point off at her to finish his phrase. "YEAH!!"
At that very moment, things became very dark for Yutaka. The tension, the sound, the power, it was too much for her to handle. She clutched her chest as she collapsed square to the ground. Minami immediately came to her aid, catching her in mid drop. As she looked to her best friend's face with a constant state of shock, she wasn't sure how to respond. She stared her icy eyes in Meito in a combination of anger, confusion, and sorrow.
He had one simple reply.
"Sor-ry." He continued on with the lyrics. "I DID NOT MEAN!"
"He did not mean." Kaito repeated, as a good backing vocalist.
"TO BLOW YOUR MIND!"
"To blow your mind."
"BUT THAT SHIT HAPPENS TO ME, ALL THE TIME--" The manager sang on like a haunting archangel, his tone wiggling around on that last note.
Kaito took the stage again as a longer solo dared to challenge his skill. It was much longer and difficult than the two preceding it. His hand darted along the fret board nailing every incoming note. He stopped only a second to his a few chords that were thrown in to distract him. He took small notice to Yutaka's fall, but was far too possessed by the demons of rock to care. Kagami and Ryuta simply went on as they slammed against their instruments.
Meito sang again, with lyrics coming up. "NOW TAKE A LOOK!"
"Take a look."
"TELL ME WHAT DO YOU SEE--!?"
"What do you see?"
"WE GOT THE PICK...OF DESTINNNNNNNNYYYYYY--!!
It was at it's absolutely epitome. The crowd was rocking out and bumping around as if they were trying to capture the essence of rock that was emitting. Meito was harmonizing the lyrics and sound of the game perfectly as it reached its all time high. The two guitarists banged their heads as they began to hit multiple triplets coming their way. Ryuta bashed against the fake drum kit try to hit all of those red stares. As the acoustics had hit their peak...
All of a sudden, it was over.
Everyone was in complete awe of the sight. Several of the patrons had passed out from the sheer volume given from the game. Only a few girls, employees, regulars, and the band itself were left standing after that performance. The beautiful room was now cracked and in shambles from the ripped pieces of paper scattered around everywhere. Kagami, Ryuta and Kaito all gathered together just in shock.
"Can you believe it?" Kaito said.
"I can't, can't take what's happened." Kagami said.
"I know, I'm surprised I got 100 too." Kaito grinned.
"Oh you are crazy, Kaito-kun." Ryuta chuckled.
"Am I the only one who cares about the damages?" The twin tailed girl ranted.
"Is...is she going to be ok?" A dumbstruck Minami pleaded.
"She'll be fine." Meito confirmed, clenching his hand. "That happens to several people I talk to. She'll be fine in one day."
As everyone else was pleased from the event, the manager felt a bit more pumped than usual as he began looking for another song to test his power. He stopped at one in particular, looking at the difficulty. It was five, devilish red dots on each instruments. The cover was a picture of a metal plated man on a motorcycle. The land was covered with fire and brimstone while this one creature looked indestructible from its deadly appearance. Meito made a cruel smile as he looked at it with much glee.
"I want to sing this song..." He said in ecstasy.
The band mates looked at it horror, knowing what it was. They all screamed to him. "Don't do it! You'll doom us all!"
A heavy night of sweeping, aching bodies, and electronics filled the night of Animate. Who knew what was to happen next Saturday?
Hope you all enjoyed that and that gave you a bit of a kick through reading it. To those who know about Rock Band 2 and Tenacious D and the Pick of Destiny, I wish that this spoke to you. Don't you think it fits Meito? I apologize though if the screams got to you. They are kind of hard to put down in text...
And to anyone who can guess the references to other songs, points to you. I'll say it flatly, I love Detroit Metal City which is why I had fun with that on Kaito and Kagami. Metalocalypse's season is over so I need another source for Metal-related lulz.
Please Review and Critique! A sequel? Maybe...
Disclaimer 2: Rock Band 2 is property of Harmonix Studios. Master Exploder was written by Jack Black and Kyle Gass, Produced by John King and Labeled by Epic Records. Inspirations for the scene are thanks to Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny distributed by New Line Cinema. Directed by Liam Lynch.