The Weight of Adoration
Chapter 1: A~B~C~D~Emotional Kiss
(A~B~C~D~ E-cha E-cha Shitai)
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A roar of excitement filled the concert hall as ST RISH finished the performance of their latest single, 'Maji LOVE 2000%'. The boys slowly rose from their finishing poses and made their way to the front of the stage, waving at their screaming fans. "Is everyone having fun?" Otoya shouted, bouncing up and down on the stage with a wide grin. He was soon to be answered by another outburst of approval from the audience, along with the occasional name and words of affection. The red headed member flashed his bright grin as another member announced the next song. Each of them took his place on the stage and waited for the music to start as the lights dimmed down. One second turned into a long moment, and then into a minute. Syo clutched his microphone tightly, opening his eyes but not looking up. The instrumental finally started up, the instrumental to a song ST RISH didn't know. The idols looked up in confusion as the once quiet crowd roared, what they were saying was lost in the music and each other's voices. Tokiya took a breath and lifted his microphone to his lips, to apologize for the inconvenience; he was cut short as he caught something at the corner of his eye that he hadn't quite expected.
Skirts. A group of people made their way onto the dimly lit stage, but Tokiya was close enough to tell that those things were skirts, flat stomachs, and legs. Then it finally clicked. So did the lights as the instrumental sped up.
"Good evening everybody, are you enjoying yourselves~?" A voice that was not anywhere near their own called through their own microphone. A brunette woman waved at the cheering crowd. She was dressed in a yellow half skirt, reaching down to her knees and black tassels went all the way around the skirt. Her top was the same colour with one poofy sleeve while the left side is a belt-like spaghetti strap. Beneath it all she wore black knee high boots. Apparently a large amount of them actually knew who this woman was. She smiled at the response and walked across the stage as if the real stars of the concert weren't standing there watching in awe.
"That's what I thought! Is everybody ready~?" Yet another cheer from the crowd for another woman, this one had her hair tied in a high ponytail, her bangs swishing against her forehead as she bounced up and down.
"Here we go~ Oi!" The music didn't stop, it was like it pulsated straight through the male's bodies, and it was completely different from what they were used to. Ever the analyser, Hijirikawa's eyes scanned the stage for any other unfamiliar faces and counted. Five of them, five women had taken the stage and within the space of a few seconds, they had taken their fans as well.
"Since I love you, I love you, I love you
When I see you I'll always nervous
THUMPTHUMPTHUMPTHUMPTHUMP-"
ST RISH made their way to the side of the stage, where they would usually sit for MC breaks, rests or when another member had a solo song, there were too few seats for all of them to sit down at once so as a result, both Cecil and Ren had taken to standing and watching the group of girls perform on their stage. Syo gritted his teeth and muttered under his breath, making sure the microphone was off and placed far away from his mouth. "What the hell is going on?"
"-I want to know how you feel
I don't ask you but, I love you
LOVE LOVE LOVE ME DO
LOVE LOVE LOVE ME DO-"
"It seems as if our concert has been 'crashed'…" Hijirikawa answered. Their body language changed, they were entertained, yes, but at a price. Natsuki however, had a different view on the matter. The blonde was bobbing his head from side to side, watching the quintet group sing and dance. Hop, strut, strut, twirl, slow sway. It was like watching their senpai, although this was slightly different. The style differed from their seniors, Natsuki could clearly see they were professionals; the way they moved was captivating. "But this is fun, isn't it? Watching another group like this~"
"-I have a request for my beautiful manicure
through this hobby of mine, I'm going to go with the colour of you-"
"No, it's rude! What kind of person gate crashes another group's concert like this!?" Syo ground his teeth together as he sat with his elbow against his knee and his fist just underneath his jaw as he watched the performers. He hated to admit it, their show had been stolen and Syo found it increasingly difficult to juggle anger and awe at the same time. It was so-
"Amazing." Cecil breathed and placed a hand against his necklace as he stared intently at the fans reactions.
"A~B~C~D~ Embrace me gently
(Kiss)
Looks we share (Wow)
Tears we shed (Wow)
Smiles that are (Wow)
Just between us (Wow)-"
"Oh? Admitting defeat already, are we, Ceshi?" Ren smirked at the younger, stuttering male as he tried his best to explain himself. "In all seriousness… This transition was done all too well." This caught the attention of the other members although they didn't physically turn, the wheels in their heads began turning, something was missing.
"You couldn't possibly mean that the staff knew about… this?"
"A~B~C~D~ Emotions running high
(Chu~)-"
"What else? The music stopped and started perfectly right after our performance. Giving the ladies long enough to get ready to storm in and introduce themselves, it couldn't have been spontaneous."
"… D-do you think Nanami knew too?" Otoya whispered; a tremble was evident in his once cheery voice.
"Haru-chan wouldn't trick us like this!" Natsuki was jabbed in the side by none other than Syo, who mouthed keep it down. There was no chance that Haruka would trick them into going on stage without even hinting at such an event unfolding. None of them would have suspected her though, which made her the most likely culprit but at the same time the least likely. Otoya's shoulders slumped slightly at the thought.
"Nanami wouldn't have…"
"-I love you (Wow)
I love you (Wow)
I love you (Wow)-"
What was going on?
"-I love you (Wow)-"
Something was missing.
"Ready?"The crowd cheered in response, their voices rang into their ears and the glow-sticks that were used for cheering on ST RISH were burning their retinas from the constant shaking and waving the second four of the girls slowly kneeled to the floor and rose up again.
"-Ah…"
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
The concert had been cut 10 minutes short, much to the fans dismay; they were unable to see the brilliant song that Nanami Haruka had composed for ST RISH. It was at the back of their minds for the moment. They all walked past the staff briskly, heading straight for the backstage dressing room. It was a much smaller room than the one they had for the Uta Pri Awards, it was disappointing but it was something. Their earlier change of clothes were carelessly hung up on the racks and hangers, two couches in the middle of the room; both facing each other, an acoustic guitar was resting against the wall and two medium sized tables leaned up against either end of the walls, one with three chairs the other with four and mirrors according to how many chairs were in front of them. At least two chairs were tucked in properly. The room suddenly felt colder, the female idols looked around the changing room in both disgust and sympathy.
"The hell was that…?" Syo whispered, his voice quivering as his hands balled up into shaking fists. It was silent for a long moment, then the storm hit. "Did you hear me? What the hell was that just now?" He raised his voice and looked at the girls, eyes narrowed and back hunched over slightly as if he were going to pounce at the wrong word; he didn't even know whom he was asking, all he wanted were answers.
"Syo-chan…"
"Oh, no, don't you 'Syo-chan…' me, you're acting like these guys didn't ruin our concert!" The shortest male's voice bounced against the walls, he was fighting the urge to… something, to do something to them. The stress was becoming all too much, before he knew it he was breathing a lot heavier than usual. His chest felt hot unnaturally hot and he didn't hide it too well; Syo was never one to mask his emotions effectively.
One of the taller girls broke the silence, her words dripping with venom. "Your concert?" A strawberry blonde girl took a slow step towards the shortest member of ST RISH, her arms crossed underneath her chest. "Since when was this your concert?" The dull clap of her heels against the floor was almost deafening, she stopped dead in her tracks in front of Syo, his glare weakened slightly. "Aw, what happened? Run outta steam, little man?" She sneered as she looked down at him. "Oh, that's right, you're-"
"Enough." The blonde was dragged away by the arm by a woman dressed in purple to another corner of the room. Their hushed voices couldn't be heard but their body languages told a tall tale. The door to the changing room slammed open, revealing a small, panting girl. Nanami Haruka looked around the room; she didn't need to ask what was going on.
"Excuse me." The attention of the two in the corner was momentarily averted to the composer of ST RISH. Haruka gulped and took a couple of steps towards the remaining three members as she thought through what to say. The pressure was crushing; almost as much as when meeting HE VENS. Though, she duly noticed that they weren't grinning or glaring daggers at her, they were just watching. "Your performance earlier… I-it was amazing… However… What you did was still wrong!"
"Huh? What're you talkin' about?" Another girl clicked her jaw in annoyance. "We were s'posed to perform ages ago, they stole our show!"
"If they apologise we can forget all about this and move on." Haruka's eyes darted towards the soft-spoken girl who had a small smile gracing her lips. She looked like a living doll, the lavender haired girl tilted her head, waiting for the apology.
"Your show?" Ichinose mumbled his hand placed underneath his chin as he watched the others. The feeling was still there, the uneasiness he had the second they stepped on the stage.
"Ladies, understand this; this was ST RISH's show, our first concert that you just so happened to crash."
"That's right! If anyone deserves an apology, it's us. We worked hard to get our first stage and you…" Raised voices, accusing glares, pointed fingers were everywhere whilst Haruka stood there in shock at how people with such high spirits could plummet down to such behavior. Over what?
Suddenly annoyingly cheesy music blared through the room; the base was sending vibrations through their legs, causing the ever-clumsy Haruka and one of the female idols to fall to the ground. It didn't stop there, the lights in the dressing room shut off and they were left in complete darkness until a dark blue light made it a little easier to see. The strobe lights started up straight after that as the music blared right through them, red, purple, and all the other colors of the rainbow began roaming the room as if they were searchlights. Finally, the smoke screen and behind it insane laughter roared over the music. The lights cut and a single white light shone done on the one and only Saotome Mitsuo; more commonly known as Shining Saotome, president of Saotome Entertainment striking odd poses. The man sprung backwards into a handstand and began waving his legs back and forth while hopping up and down on his palms before he pushed himself back up to his feet. The young idols stood and watched in both awe and horror as he spun with a single leg up, he finally made his big finish, the splits. Otoya and Cecil cringed at the sight, almost flinching away from it. Surprisingly, Shining stood up fit as a fiddle and the music came to a halt, the lights came back on and the strobe lights were turned off. The smoke was still clearing though; Ren had taken the liberty of helping both ladies up to their feet while the adrenaline rush died down.
Shining Saotome was as eccentric as ever, his laugh slowed down and he looked through the distraught expressions of his idols. "Guten Tag*, everyone." As always his words were of course dragged out and for some reason or another, he enjoyed throwing in words from different languages. "I see you've all gotten to know each other."
"President…! W-why are you here?" Haruka had finally steadied herself, her head was still pounding but the lack of music helped.
"He set us up." The two women from the corner walked back towards the group, the shorthaired girl had her arms crossed and her mouth shut but a fierce scowl was set. Most eyes were set on her as she spoke in a-matter-of-fact tone. "We were told by our staff that you were an opening act and that this concert was ours and you were told by your staff that this was your first stage. We've been fooled into thinking of each other as 'threats'."
"Exactamente*, Miss. Chie!"
"Then what happened to our debut tour? Was that a lie too?" Otoya stared at the grinning man with wide eyes. At this he yipped and spun at a ridiculous speed before stopping and pointing at the group.
"Mr. Otoya- No- ST RISH! That way of thinking is truly foolish!"
"W-what?"
"It's much too early for you all to have your first concert, it takes a long time to get a concert let alone a full on tour. You've only got two singles out, Indies singles and four solos each." Chie sighed as she explained Shining's antics, she gained collective blank stares and at this she explained further. "In total, those are 18 songs if you don't count your solo B-sides which are rarely used. In a concert tour, you need at least 2 to 3 years of experience and 20 songs to sing, not including medleys."
"There will be a competition between ST RISH and Palette! Ongaku-sai no Natsu*!" The president and chief of Shining Entertainment gestured between both the male and female idol group. "The reward for ST RISH would be their real debut single and album. Also, I will exempt you from the 3-year rule, you will be able to have your first concert tour one year after your possible success." ST RISH were of course unable to contain their glee. Natsuki jumped at the chance to pick Syo up so far his tiptoes were barely brushing the floor as he hugged him with crushing strength. Hijirikawa let a smile form on his face as he watched both Otoya and Cecil hop up and down in joy and holding each other's forearms.
Tokiya's eyes narrowed, watching their president trying to illuminate why he would give so much for one thing, all they had to do was win the concert and yet they would get so many bonuses. Knowing Shining, there was more to it then meets the eye. Were they once again going to be in danger of disbandment? It was too soon for him to throw that in and that man would never go for the same idea twice.
"As for Palette, if you ladies win I will allow solo Photo Books- one for each of you as well as a group photo book, a special album and finally a second stage in Budokan!" They should have screamed and jumped up and down but the only thing they got were confused looks and shocked faces. Tokiya guessed that they must have caught on to his behavior too since they waited in silence. "Oho? What seems to be the matter Mr. Tokiya? Ladies?"
"With all due respect, sir… This doesn't make any sense. Our rewards are different and this is all so sudden… I don't see the point of-"
"Then tell me this Mr. Tokiya, when was the last time you've seen two Idol groups go head to head to find out who is the best?"
"In a few weeks there will be the Girls Award 20-"
"Male and Female idol groups! Winner takes all—A battle worth watching! The rising stars, ST RISH, whose harmonies could unite the country or the veteran female idols, their polished skills both on stage, have remained unmatched! Which will win? A battle that makes my heart thump!" The room was once again silenced for more than a few long moments. They had often questioned his sanity to the point of never believing his words but the man was a genius in his own way; music was his playground. "Before I forget, Palette are the seniors of ST RISH, as a result I expect you both to work well together before the final showdown. If any member of ST RISH encounters an issue that cannot be addressed by their assigned mentors, Palette will be there to help as secondary mentors. Until next time, sayonara, see you again, adios, bye bye, cha cha!"
Shining shot his hand up to point to the ceiling, shooting that same crazy grin at nothing before he thrust his arms on either side of him, keeping his palms faced upwards as he slowly spun around. He began to gain speed and one hand reached into his blazer pocket to take out a round ball; Shining hopped and threw it against the ground. Another smoke cloud gushed forth and once it cleared, the bizarre producer was gone. Haruka was the only one to make a sound; she covered her mouth and was thrown into a coughing fit from the smoke. A woman with lavender hair patted Haruka's back gently while attempting to use her hand to fan the smoke away. Once Haruka had calmed down and caught her breath she looked around the room. "So you're Palette?"
To this, they all nodded the door to the dressing room slammed open to reveal only two members of QUARTET NIGHT, Reiji and Ranmaru. They rushed into the room one by one; last being Ranmaru who kicked the door closed behind him and leaned his back against the door. Reiji was apparently catching his breath as he staggered forward, he opened his mouth to say something but Chie who placed her index finger over her lips shushed him. Her attention was once more directed at ST RISH and told the other members of Pallet to stand together, they slowly shuffled next to each other waiting to introduce themselves. "What kind of information would you like?" Chie asked.
"Your name, age—simple things like that would suffice." Hijirikawa clarified, from how she presented herself, he supposed that she was the oldest in the group. She looked as if she were considering it.
"Alright, I'm Fukuyama Chie, the leader of Pallet. My age does not concern yo-"
"She's 20!" Reiji announced with a large goofy grin slapped across his face. Chie turned to the eldest in the room and stared at him before a smile stretched her lips, his own fell quickly. The smile didn't reach her eyes.
"… Yes, I'm 20 years old and I've been working as an idol for almost three years." Chie sucked in her breath and slowly let her eyes draw away from her senior.
The next girl, who was expected to introduce herself, was instead playing with her ruffled skirt absentmindedly. She was jabbed in the side by one of her fellow idols and yipped, her curled pigtails threatened to bounce on the spot were it not for physics. "A-ah, sorry… Uhm… My name is Takahashi Sakura; my favorite color is peach or pink… Purple is nice too and yellow—I like vanilla cheesecake, cream puffs, dried fish and bananas—Oh! I like waffles in the morning with loads of-"
"Right, Takahashi Sakura, powerhouse vocals, 17, plays the keyboard, next!" Chie seemed to be losing her already limp grip on her patience. Sakura whined yet kept her protests to herself, though her dark purple eyes were shimmering as if she were about to cry.
"Cool, Kuriyama Rise, I'm 18 years old and I do most of the rapping lines in the group. Nice to meet you." The proclaimed rapper bowed her head; her long dark red hair tied in a ponytail high on her head was a great contrast to her light blue get-up.
The introductions didn't seem to end, next was a rather tall, slender girl with medium length brown hair and full bangs, she smiled and waved rather awkwardly. "Hi, my name is Yasumoto Mizuki, I'm 19 and I'm also the center girl as well as main vocals, um, and I play the electric violin but not that well." She gave them a brief and slightly embarrassed smile as she finished and looked over at the last of the batch.
The girl who had a tussle with Syo earlier was last to introduce herself, her expression didn't change and her half lidded eyes looked ahead, almost staring straight through them. "Otsuka Aya, I'm 16 years old, the lead dancer and I'm 5'5"." She shot a glance at Syo and blew a quick raspberry at him.
Then, it was ST RISH's turn to introduce themselves and in turn, Pallet asked a few questions to get a feel of what kind of people they were, their specialties, their hobbies and so on. Only to be abruptly interrupted by Ranmaru who warned ST RISH of their curfew, especially Syo and Natsuki who were over 2 minutes late. It was a surprise that their senpai, Ai hadn't called from the dorm yet. It was there they parted ways, saying their 'goodbye's, 'see you later's and 'good luck's before the males left the room with Haruka at their heels.
Shining Saotome was a strange man indeed, a battle between amateurs versus professionals. The fated winners were already chosen.
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Saotome Glossary:
Guten Tag: GERMAN for Good Day & a formal way of saying Hello.
Exactamente: SPANISH for Exactly
音楽の夏(Ongaku-sai no Natsu): JAPANESE for Summer of Music.
Thank you for reading the first chapter of The Weight of Adoration! Congratulations on making it this far. xDD
The song used in this chapter is A~B~C~D~ E-cha E-cha Shitai (DIRECT TRANSLATION: A~B~C~D~I Wanna Make Out)
If you want the link to the mp3, I can send it to you, no problem. ^^
Please leave your thoughts in the reviews and PMs! I'd like to thank my friend, Ninjatom for being my BETA. I… I guess that's all. O.O
Until the next chapter, The Cherubic Whale, out!