Ch. 1: And So, it begins

The throne was made out of the most luminous gold with a silk red cushion on the seat and against the back of it. The head of the throne was carved into the shape of a heart. On the arms of it there were many small figures of keys carved. A flowing red dress, the straps on it one inch wide, with a extremely low square cut neck adorned the body that sat upon the glorious throne. Her eyes were a forbidding color pink and her hair was strawberry blonde, with a few scattered pink highlights. Her hair carried down to the floor as she sat looking around the room lazily. The throne room was decorated with gorgeous red silk tapestries and candelabra's hanging from the walls and ceilings. She reached for a phone and dialed a number into it.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~Los Angeles, California~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Her large mass of golden blonde hair surrounded her angelic body as she slept peacefully. Although it wasn't so peaceful. She had a hectic schedule that day, and must wake up soon. Her bed was a luxurious daybed, of which had aqua sheets, an aqua comforter, and blue pillows. In a corner of the room sat an elegant victorian vanity with a mahagony embolished chair and a grand rose carved mirror. In another corner of her room sat a desk with a simple computer on it. Next to the computer was a vase of roses. A sudden ring from the telephone next to her bed woke her with a start. "Hello?" she answered wearily.

"Is a Miss Kaiou Kathryn-san there?" the smooth voice on the other line asked.

"This is she, who's calling?" She was moving to an upright position in her bed, her long blonde hair hiding her sheer aqua night gown that fit her perfectly trim body.

"Antoinette, Antoinette Scarlet. I'm the manager of a group named the Three Lights, here in Japan. I have called to tell you, that your manager just recently gave me a call and asked if it would be alright if you came along here to Japan to sing with my boys, and I told her I'd discuss it with you."

"Am I required to know Japanese? I don't know much. I can't believe Tarea discussed it with you without talking to me first." Kathryn put a hand to her forehead and let out a deep sigh. "It's so unlike her."

"No, you aren't required to be fluent in the Japanese language, but, yes, you must know a bit of Japanese."

"So, I'm to go on tour with them? For how long? I do attend school here."

"That'll be taken care of. We have already found a private tutor here of whom is from America. She has offered to tutor you in Japanese, so you can attend school here. It will be a little more than a year."

"Lemme think about it. Can you call me back later today?"

"Sure. Please do consider it."

"Yeah, bye." Kathryn hung up the phone and leaned against the railings of her bed. "I wish you two were here." She whispered to a picture of a short blonde haired lady and a brown haired man. "You could've helped me out a lot." She put one of her feet on the floor, followed by the other and hopped off her bed. Her long blonde hair tumbling to her ankles. She walked into her restroom and took a brush from the counter and began brushing her long hair. After a few minutes of brushing her hair she stepped into a warm shower and washed up. About five minutes later she dried herself off with a soft aqua towel and slipped some bellbottom jeans on with flames at the bottom. She put on a black spaghetti strapped shirt with a blue butterfly on it.

As she headed into her kitchen her cell phone rang. "Hello?"

"Kat! You are going to make it to the mall today? At lunch, just like you promised, right?"

"Of course. Laura, I need to talk to you as well."

"Well, okay. Have fun with the recording today. Call me if you'll be late."

"I'll try. See ya."

"Bye."

Kathryn set her lavender flip phone down and fixed herself some pancakes. She sat at the small redwood café like table with the wire chairs. "I'll miss this place, but, I'd like to see Japan." She muttered to herself as she cleaned the plate she ate from. She grabbed her cell phone and car keys and ran out of her house. She pressed a button on the keys and the car door unlocked. She climbed into her aqua PT cruiser and put the key in the ignition. She turned on the radio and turned it up. She pressed her foot against the gas pedal after shifting the car stick to reverse. She drove down the street, onto an even more busy street.

"And now, Thinkin', the hot new single by Kathryn Kaiou!" the DJ announced.

The song began playing and Kathryn turned the volume down. Her cell phone rang again.

"Hello."

"Kathryn, you're late! Are you on your way?"

"Yes, Tarea, I'm coming. I woke up late. And what's this business about me going to Japan?"

"I thought it'd be a good experience for you, Kathryn. Now you'd better take a shortcut or something, or you'll have to stay late."

"Whatever. Bye." Kathryn clicked off her cell phone and waited patiently for the red light to turn green. When it turned green she sped off in the direction of the recording studio. She reached there ten minutes later and ran inside. "Tarea! I'm here."

"It's about time." A brunette with red streaks in her hair complained. She was Kathryn's age, around sixteen, but was one of the most respected music managers in the area. She wore a red halter top and capris, not caring if her belly was showing. Her dark brown eyes glared at Kathryn. "It may cost you some time."

"Get over it, Tarea! If you keep on gabbing to me about how late I am, we'll never get the dang song recorded." Kathryn hissed.

"Get in there and wait for my signal." Tarea sighed and walked into the recording area, of where they put the songs on the tape. Kathryn walked into the recording room, slipped on a pair of headphones and stopped in front of the microphone.

"Ready." Tarea said into the small microphone which blared out to Kathryn of whom nodded. She leaned to the microphone and began singing a soft tune. A few hours later, Tarea finally decided to let Kathryn go. Kathryn opened her cell phone and explained the situation to Laura while she got into her car and sped towards the mall. Tarea stood in front of the recording studio, her arms folded across her breast, watching Kathryn go off.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Laura jumped up from her seat. "It's about time!" Her short naturally blonde hair tumbling to her shoulders, part of it snatched in a small ponytail at the top of her head. She had a black mini-skirt on with a blue quarter-length shirt, covered by a jean jacket.

Kathryn sighed. "I told you I was going to be late. Tarea was in a bad mood today."

"It's allright. Are you hungry?" Laura responded.

"Not really."

"Good, cause I'm not either. Let's go shopping."

Laura led Kathryn into many different stores, the two girls trying many things on, but rejecting most of them.

"So," Laura started. "What was so important that you needed to talk to me about?"

"I have a chance to go to Japan," Kathryn began, but was cut off.

"Wow! Cool!"

"That's not it. I would love to go, but, its for a little over a year,. And I'd miss everyone here."

"You'll come back. Besides, aren't you always boasting about how you'd love to leave this country? You say you hate it so much."

"I did, I mean, I do hate it here, but now I'm not completely sure."

"You should go. Your parent's would want you to sieze the oppurtunity. Besides, I'll get along without ya. I do have other friends, you know."

"Well, allright."

Laura smiled triumphantly and now gave a new reason for shopping. To find travel clothes for Kathryn. Kathryn only sighed and went along with it. They practically bought her a whole new wardrobe by the end of the trip, both had shopping bags full of clothes and accessories on every limb in their arms. They piled the bags into Kathryn's car carefully, as to not wrinkle anything and Laura hopped into the passenger seat, as she did not have her own car yet and had taken the bus to the mall, with Kathryn promising a ride home. After dropping off Laura, Kathryn drove back home. After she had finally piled the bags of clothes and accessories in her house her phone rang. Quickly, she locked the car doors and answered the phone.

"Hello?"

"Miss Kaiou?"

"Yeah."

"Have you made up your mind?"

"Yes, I have. I accept your offer. When am I leaving?"

"Tomorrow morning. I'll give Miss Hino a call and let her know."

"That's allright, I'll call Tarea." Kathryn took a deep breath. "Who will be there to pick me up from the airport?"

"I will."

"Allright then. I guess I'll see you tomorrow."

"Yes, Miss Kaiou. Bye."

"Bye." Kathryn hung up her phone, then picked it up again, dialing a number as quick as her fingers let her.

"Tarea Hino."

"Tarea, I'm leaving for Japan in the morning. Will you inform all the people you need to?"

"Of course I will Kathryn."

"Thanks. I'll have my cell phone with me."

"Allright. I suppose you want to call Laura and let her know, so I'll stop talking. Bye."

"Yeah. . . . bye." Kathryn hung up her phone. That's right. She still had to tell Laura. Laura'd understand, she is the one who told her to go to Japan. Kathryn got a terribly sick feeling in her stomach, she'd miss Laura horribly while she was gone, and she wouldn't have any friends there. Before she picked up the phone again, it rang.

"Hello?"

"Hey Kat. So, are you going?"

"Yeah." Kathryn felt as if her heart sank into her stomach and felt a lump in her throat.

"So, when are you leaving?"

"Tomorrow morning." Kathryn swallowed back the lump and sat down, feeling awfully dizzy.

"I'll miss you. But, I must remember you're coming back, so that'll make me feel better." Laura laughed on the other line.

"Yeah, I'll have my cell phone with me. . . . feel free to call me anytime."

"I will. Well, I should let you rest. Bye."

"Bye." Kathryn hung up her phone and popped a TV dinner into her microwave. She leaned against her counter and drank some tea as she waited for it to finish. She quickly ate it and brought her many bags of clothes into her room, packing them all. After that was done, she dressed into her nightgown and went to sleep slowly on her daybed.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

"Sandana, have you set everything up for the first crystal key holder?" The lovely woman on the throne asked one of her henchmen.

"Yes, Mistress Antoinette. Her key is to be stolen at the first concert scheduled. Mistress, you did make sure she's coming to Japan, right?" Sandana replied. She had cropped dark brown hair, and bright cerulean eyes. She wore a black tube dress with a triangle cut from her mid section. She wore knee high black boots that had a red stripe on the outside of them.

"Of course I did. Do you take me for a fool, Sandana?!" Antoinette hissed.

The girl shivered in fright. "Iie, Mistress Antoinette. I was just checking. Mistress, may I be excused now?"

"Go, get out of my sight."

Sandana nodded and backed out of the room silently.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

"All board for flight 2A; Los Angeles, California to Tokyo, Japan."

Kathryn picked up her handbag and entered the airplane walking to her seat in first class. She set her handbag in the compartment above her and sat down next to the window. No one sat next to her, she guessed it was because not many people travelled to Japan. It was a nice flight, the airplane didn't take a rough route, thank goodness, and she arrived in Japan at what someone would call a very good time. She walked out of the plane when they announced that the passengers may unboard the plane. Her hair had been tied into a loose braid and she wore a simple blue dress with a jean jacket.

Antoinette walked up to her quickly, her hair swishing around her mid-back, with it's few pink highlights. "Miss Kaiou Kathryn-san?"

"Hai, that's me."

"Antoinette Scarlet. So very nice to meet you. And to see that you do know some japanese after all."

"What made you doubt?"

"You're American, not many American's know japanese."

"Not many japanese know english."

"Well, let's go find your bags." Antoinette lead Kathryn to the bag pick up terminal. Almost half an hour later, they found Kathryn's five bags. Kathryn carried out two of her bags, along with her handbag, as Antoinette carried out the other three bags. They piled the luggage into a taxi and were drove off, to the apartment in which Kathryn would be staying in.

"This apartment is right across from the Three Light's apartment, they're the ones you'll be singing with. The apartment is already paid for, you needn't worry about that. Seiya will come and get you around ten in the morning for first practice, you'll have breaks scattered around, then you'll meet up with them again aroun six, for dress rehearsal. The first concert is the day after tomorrow."

"Thanks, Antoinette-san."

"No problem. Now, you can either, pay your new friends a visit, -or- you can unpack and get some sleep."

"I'm sure I'll decide in a moment, may I be left alone?" Kathryn leaned into the couch.

"Sure thing. I'll see you tomorrow at practice." Antoinette then left the apartment.

A few moments later, Kathryn got up from the couch and went across the hallway, knocking on the apartment door across from hers.

"Ohayo?" A tall young man, around her age, with long brown hair pulled into a snake like ponytail answered the door. He was a little taller than Kathryn, but nevertheless, she still had to look up a bit to see his face.

"Erm, Hello." Kathryn greeted. The man looked down at her with confusion in his eyes. "I mean. . . konban wa." She started flipping through her pocket japanese-english dictionary. "I'm. . . . erm, Kaiou Kathryn. I will be singing with you for the next year or so." She spoke in broken up japanese, adding in 'erm's at certain parts of where she was unsure of how to pronounce the words.

The young man smiled and stepped aside, allowing her to walk in. Kathryn smiled at him and walked inside, sitting down on the recliner he gestured to. "I'm Taiki Kou." He said in english.

Kathryn's eyes widened as she looke at him. "You know english?!"

"Yes."

Kathryn looked almost furious. "And you let me make a fool of myself out there like that?"

"Your japanese is pretty good."

"Flattery gets you nowhere."

"Who says?" Taiki smiled and called out something in japanese.

"Nani?" chimed two voices from the other room. Taiki jabbered something else in Japanese and the two young men ran out. Their hair like Taiki's, except ones was black and the others was silver.

"What did you say?" Kathryn asked quickly.

"Only that a beautiful young woman was here to visit." Taiki smiled.

"I told you, stop trying to flatter me."

"I was only speaking the truth."

Kathryn sighed and turned to the two young men that had watched their small quarrel. With a short bow she smiled and greeted them, then turned to Taiki. "Do they know english?"

"Yes."

"Great." She murmured under her breath. She turned back to the other two. "Hello, I'm Kathryn Kaiou, I'm the one who'll be on tour with you guys."

The one with black hair smiled, an odd twinkle decorated his eyes. "Nice to meet you. I'm Seiya Kou."

The silver haired one smiled slightly, although he didn't seem as pleased to meet Kathryn as the other two. "Yaten Kou." He muttered.

Kathryn smiled and laughed slightly. "Nice to meet you too. Your manager told me I should come by and visit you three, so that's what I decided to do. But now it's getting awfully late, and I must get some sleep, it was a long day." She bowed politely. "I'll see you tomorrow then?"

"Hai. I'll come and get you in the morning." Seiya responded.

Kathryn smiled. "Thanks." She waved goodbye to the three and walked back to her own apartment across the hall. She ran a brush through her long hair after changing into her pajamas and slipped into bed.