I'm finally back with another Shinkenger fic! This time it's a series based in a Music Major AU, taken from the Tumblr au-dumpster (it's one of the latest posts)
An explanation of the title "Shinken de Ongaku wo Yatteru" – it's a pun on Shinkengers, whose "shinken", if you didn't already know (you're a failed Shinkenger fan) means "serious". So it's really a pun – it could mean "we're seriously doing music" or "we're doing music the Shinken(ger) way". Just a small pun I thought of on the spot when confronted with the "title" blank when publishing this story.
Regardless of whether you're a music major or not, I hope you guys will enjoy my comeback Shinkenger fic~!
Music Major AU prompt 1: It's prime time for practice rooms and all of the good ones are taken except for that one – don't you fucking dare, I will FIGHT you for it.
Ikenami Ryuunosuke officially hated Wednesdays. He ended early on Wednesdays.
So did everyone else, it would seem.
As a direct consequence, Wednesday afternoons were when the practice rooms, all located at the basement of the music department building, were usually bursting at the brims.
When the bell rang, signaling the end of Music Analysis II, Ryuunosuke all but jammed his laptop into his bag and ran out the door, racing half his class down four stories of the building into the basement. Luckily for him, he had no instrument and thus could maneuver his way through the crowd more agilely.
Three years of practice taught Ryuunosuke how to have his student card in hand, scan it in the most efficient way at the door leading to the practice rooms, then slamming the door with his feet to buy himself a few more precious seconds (very important if you wanted to pick a room with a better piano).
There were, in fact, two entrances to the practice room corridor, and just as Ryuunosuke was jogging past occupied room after occupied room (how was it that even the room without a piano was occupied?!), he spotted the opposite door opening, and a punk-looking kid, complete with gaudy headphones and hoodie, stepped through. He was carrying what looked to be a viola case.
Oh no you don't, Ryuunosuke gritted his teeth and ran faster, determined to find any empty room (if there even was, there were only 5 rooms left) before the other.
As luck would have it, both of them spotted the last empty room at the same time (it was the second room from the door the other kid came through, so unfair), thus it was inevitable their hands would find themselves on the door handle at the same time.
"I was here first, find some other place to practice," Ryuunosuke struck first. The first to speak usually won an argument.
The kid retorted, "No, my hand is underneath, so clearly I reached first."
"You came in through the door later than I did!"
"The room was closer to my side so it's clearly meant for me to use!"
"Well, I'm clearly older than you, and it's common sense to let your seniors go first!"
"There's no such rule! And how do you know you're older than me? For all you know I could be a Masters student!"
"And because you said that, you just proved that you aren't! You don't even need a practice room you already have your instrument with you – go practice on the grass or something!"
"You don't look like you even brought your instrument! And don't tell me it's the piano, coz your fingers are too short for you to be a piano major!"
"I do play the piano! Besides, who's ever heard of a violist practicing?"
"Oh my god, here it is, the violist joke! Well, guess what, Mr. Self-Important Pianist, VIOLISTS PRACTICE! Therefore I am as entitled to this room as you are, and I will fight you for it if I have to!"
"Bring it on!"
"I'm pretty darn handy with a weapon, don't say I didn't warn you!"
"What is going on here?" A stern voice broke through their back-and-forth argument.
"Mako!" "Nee-san!" both music students jumped apart, in the process jerking their hands back when they realized who was there.
Ryuunosuke took one more step back when it fully sunk in, what the other boy had called his friend. "'Nee-san'? Mako, you have a little brother?"
The newcomer, one third-year violin major Shiraishi Mako, had apparently emerged from the first room by the door. She regarded both boys with a stern gaze that shut both of them up like naughty children, then sighed. "You two were so loud you're bothering everyone else. Chiaki," she addressed the one closer to her, "how many times have I told you to respect others? It doesn't matter if the room is closer to you, you don't fight someone who is in the corridor before you."
Ryuunosuke smirked. Trust his best friend to take his side. That was what he thought before Mako turned her icy glare at him, one that wiped the smirk off his face faster than it had appeared. "Ryuunosuke, you should be ashamed of yourself. Fighting a freshman for practice rooms and disturbing everyone else's precious time? Well I've lost my focus thanks to the two of you. Here, Ryuunosuke, you can have my room."
She turned to return to her room and pack up. Ryuunosuke followed her, head hung low in shame as it did every time Mako chastised him.
Before he went into the room, however, if caught the other boy's, Chiaki's triumphant smile.
Oh, it was on, viola boy.
Disclaimer: the author does not condone viola jokes. I have some violist friends and they are all very nice people. In any case, the viola tends to sound better than the violin.
To be honest I have basically never successfully written an AU fic before, so I hope it turns out alright This AU is actually very close to my heart, because I'm a music major myself, so there might be some musician inside-jokes – I hope at least some of you will get them and get a good laugh out of it! More to come. I've basically written the next chapter, so to quote Aaron Burr, "Wait for it." And review while you're waiting~