Author Notes/
Disclaimer: I do not own Starish or anything from the Uta Pri world. Any songs used here will receive credit to their artists.
I want to dedicate this to the three ladies writing 'The Next Stage' they inspired me to write an utapri fic and I want to encourage everyone to read their collaborated work. Look for the pen name DorkDoori. It's great.
Without further wait: here's Finding That One-
Prologue:
"Where is that coming from?" A fedora wearing teen asked from where he sat in the back of the tour bus. A stopped tour bus. Traffic.
"Where is what coming from Chibi-chan?" An older teen with long orange hair teased the shorter boy.
For once Shou ignored it. "That song, can't you hear it?"
"I think the heat is getting to you, Munchkin."
"You know what…" The boy exclaimed heatedly. "I think I will walk the rest of the way. Less short jokes out there."
"Don't forget to cover up," Another band member reminded.
"You think he's really mad?" A lean red head asked concerned.
"Probably wants to investigate the person singing that song. It is very pretty." The boy with long orange hair concluded.
Shou walked half a block to stop across from a homeless shelter. There, standing out front was a teen about as tall as he was with ragged clothes, a holey army jacket and a beaten up hat. Her snow white hair came down to her shoulders but Shou figured if she actually brushed it out and washed it, it would go at least to the middle of her back. She was dainty with an angular face and small features, except for her big, round, luminously red eyes. But it wasn't the petite frame or unusual coloring that caught Shou's attention.
No, he sat across the street on the curb of a busy intersection because she could sing. The rich, exquisite tone of her voice carried to him and beyond, making him forget himself and his purpose for the day. He wanted to sing with that voice, play his violin to that voice. "Such a voice deserves more than a homeless shelter and rags." He muttered to himself as she danced around and sang a lively number that he had never heard on any radio. As she danced her hands moved as if on a piano, playing along to the song he was sure she made on her own.
He was enthralled.
Siren noticed the boy when he sat down, uncaring of his fine pants, on the curb across the street. Something familiar screamed from him, but she couldn't place it for the life of her. As another coin landed in the bucket she had placed on the sidewalk, though, her attention turned back to the songs she sang in hopes of extra money for food.
It was a sad, and at the same time happy, existence. The shelter she sang in front of provided a roof over her head and basic sustenance, while the songs she sang gave her peace of mind and a steady enough flow of change to buy apples and extra bread and snacks that the shelter did not give out. She wanted more out of life, for things to be how they used to be. She wanted to find her again, but the things she had done for her own happiness and success never panned out in a good way. And so the songs she wrote were not sold in stores and she was not being produced by anyone and that special person was still a mystery.
Ten dollars a day. That was the average her singing made her. You couldn't get much for ten dollars in this city, so she sang every day; rain or shine or fire or blizzard.
The lunch hour had just passed when Siren looked across the street and saw that the boy was still seated on the curb across from her, twirling his black fedora on one finger like he was bored. It was irritating to Siren. If he's so bored why is he still there?
As if in answer to her unasked question, the boy jolted to his feet as a young girl with light red hair and golden green eyes ran up yelling the word "Trigger!" at him. They had a brief conversation before the blonde shoved the fedora back on his head, cast one last look at Siren and then hurried off in the direction the girl had come from.
Trigger, huh?
Shou twirled his hat on his left index finger as he listened to the words coming from the girl in front of the homeless shelter's lips. With a little training on that voice, she could go far. He was about to suppose further when he heard his code name yelled by one Nanami Haruka.
"Trigger you never showed up for group practice!" Nanami shouted as she reached him, looking around to see if she had garnered any attention. Nanami was the only one in their circle that didn't need to hide who she was since she never went on stage and was always behind the scenes, but she still understood the need for discretion.
Shou looked at his watch and gave an exclamation of shock; it was already past one o'clock, practice started at eleven. "Sorry, Nanami I got distracted." Placing his hat on his head, Shou looked over to the girl one last time. Noting that she was looking at them he grimaced and ran off towards the studio. Jinguji is never gonna let me live this down.
He didn't notice the crazed headmaster of his school honing in on the girl he had been listening to all day.
Siren was counting change on the stoop to the homeless shelter she stayed at when an odd man in a polka dot tie and thick sunglasses walked up to her.
"That was some quite impressive vocalizations, my pretty!" He rolled his rs.
"Um, thanks... I think." Siren looked up the man warily.
"I think with the right training you could go pretty far, what's your name, baby?"
"I don't give my name out to strangers who call me baby." Siren barked, throwing the thirteen dollars she earned into her bucket and standing up. If he's a creeper I can throw the change at him and run inside.
"Well that's a shame pretty, you're talking to the Shining Saotome" Saotome waited for the shock and applause, but Siren did not deliver.
"The what?" She asked, starting to get annoyed with the man.
"I run Saotome Records and the newly international Saotome Academy. In fact classes start in a week, and I want you there!"
"Um…"
"Come with me nameless pretty, I will get you to the dorm rooms and set you up in a class. Have no fear, no fear." Saotome struck a pose and spun in a circle to strike another.
Well, the shelter is pretty crowded right now and I have done shadier things to get a place to sleep. Maybe I can leave this sad yet happy existence behind for one that's just good. "No fear right?" She asked him, gripping her bucket a little harder.
"That's right baby." Saotome assured her as he walked to a pale pink Rolls Royce, opening the passenger's side door and gesturing for her to get in.
"The name is Siren, Shining." And getting in, Siren felt that things were finally going to go her way.
