Music of Angels and Demons

Aizen checked his pocket watch for the fifth time in as many minutes. Even though the watch was clearly telling him that less than a minute had gone by since he had last checked, Aizen's tightly-wound emotions would have said that it had been at least ten times that amount.

He needed to relax. He had arrived fifteen minutes early for his appointment with the music publisher and Aizen had been told to make himself comfortable until they were ready for him. This presentation had to run smoothly and it would be anything but if he couldn't get these ridiculous jitters under control.

Yes, there was always the chance that the publisher wouldn't have any interest in Aizen's music, but that was a small possibility. It was the best piece of music Aizen had come up with to date and in his own humble opinion that was saying something. The copy that he had sent ahead to the publisher for him to look over had been flawlessly drawn out. Not a single mistake to be found.

Everything was falling into place exactly as he had planned. Looking at the big picture, Aizen reminded himself that waiting a few extra minutes before the publisher would have time to see him was really not something that he needed to be anxious about. If one tried to force the leaves and petals of a small bud apart, then the flower would be ruined. Exert a little patience and tender care and soon enough one could pluck a full and much more beautiful flower from the stem.

Just as these thoughts were beginning to give way to others, a door opened a little further down the hallway and a middle-aged man said in a crisp, business tone, "Right this way, please, Mr. Aizen," to which Aizen responded to immediately.

Upon entering the room, Aizen was struck by the thought that this publisher was all about appearances and making the correct impression. The impression was one of power and powerful connections. One could only go so far in the music industry or any industry connected with the arts without having powerful connections.

The man sitting behind the elaborately carved mahogany desk looked the part of a person who has power and influence and he pulled it off so well because it was a role he had created and enforced himself. His large barrel chest and stocky body were going slightly to pasture now that he was middle-aged, but if one was unintelligent enough to try and overpower this man using brute force, intimidation or any other method, that person would quickly discover their grave error in judgment. This man had spent his whole lifetime creating his reputation and publishing empire and he did not take threats to either of those two things lightly.

When Aizen walked into the room, the publisher stood up, held out his large, beefy hand and said genially, "Well, well, well, my boy. A pleasure to finally make your acquaintance."

If there was one thing that set Aizen on edge more than anything, it was that he hated being patronized. Being called 'boy'…that was to put him in his place before negotiations even took place. To this man, Aizen was an unknown entity, someone he might find value in or not. And as it stood, Aizen's fate was entirely in this man's hands. One word from him, and no upstanding publisher would even deign to look at Aizen in the streets.

However, if there was one thing Aizen prided himself on more than anything, it was the fact that he had complete control over himself. Despite his seething temper and wounded pride, Aizen kept his expression polite with just a hint of hero worship. Even though this man had just taken a jab at his own ego, Aizen would find a way to stroke and bolster the other man's ego until the man's barrel chest began to swell.

Taking the man's proffered hand, Aizen said in an awed tone, "It is an honor…no a privilege, Mr. Barragan, to meet you at long last. Thank you so much for giving me this opportunity to meet with you as I'm sure your time is of great value."

After shaking Aizen's hand, waving a nonchalant invitation for Aizen to sit and sitting down himself, Mr. Barragan said shrewdly, "From what my assistant tells me, you've been trying to get in contact with me for quite some time, but he kept putting you off and you kept persisting…ah well, enough time to chew the fat later, eh? Let's have a look at the goods."

For a moment, Aizen was tempted to do something drastic like force Barragan to eat the sheet music or…he needed to keep his cool. Yes, Barragan had just insulted Aizen's music, which by extension was a way of insulting Aizen himself, but this was a test Aizen needed to pass. Once Barragan acknowledged his music, it would only be a matter of time before the rest of the music community would follow…and then all in good time, Aizen would gradually make Barragan sorry for insulting him in the beginning. But first things first, so Aizen carefully pulled his carefully copied music from his bag and handed it just as carefully across the desk. When Barragan carelessly snatched the papers away from Aizen, more thoughts of revenge began running through the latter's mind.

Indifferently flipping through the sheets of music, Barragan muttered incomprehensively to himself while Aizen sat in rapt attention, waiting for the verdict. After what seemed like an absolute age Barragan set the pages down in front of him, placed his elbows on the desk, enclosed one hand inside the other and looked thoughtfully at the music for another age.

Finally Barragan raised his eyes to meet Aizen's as he asked in a low rumble, "What is this?"

Before Aizen could respond, Barragan leaned back in his chair and gestured at the sheet music as he said, "What you've done here goes against every popular musical device used today. The lyrics don't talk about anything interesting like love, money or politics. For that matter, I can't even read what the lyrics are since they're not in French, Italian, English or Spanish."

In a calm tone, Aizen answered, "That's because the words are traditional Latin."

Giving Aizen an incredulous look, Barragan demanded, "What could have possibly possessed you to do that?! The only people nowadays who write music in Latin are decrepit priests and clergymen and that music is then sung in stuffy cathedrals and churches and on principal no one likes to listen to it!"

Knowing that Aizen was about to retort, Barragan waved it away as he continued, "Even if what I say isn't entirely accurate, the moment most common people, who have no real training in music, pick it up, that is exactly what will go through their minds and they will…not…buy…it," he put special emphasis on the last four words and even prodded the music with each one to get his point across.

Having prepared himself already for an attack of this kind, Aizen replied just as calmly as before, "What you say would be true in the beginning. Obviously, people cannot appreciate what they don't understand or haven't even heard."

Leaning forward slightly, Aizen went on in a voice with just a hint more intensity and conviction, "However, those same people who are not able to understand at first just how revolutionary this music is, are people who do things and follow trends simply because they are 'fashionable'."

Gently laying a hand on the pages of his work, Aizen said, "Market this correctly, and not only will music aficionados and professional musicians be snapping up copies to learn and try to imitate, but the high class people will also be trying to lay their hands on it and hire performers to play at their different parties because it would be something 'new' and 'fashionable'."

Leaning back in his chair, Aizen said musingly, "The thing with trends is that they give way to something more exciting in time. In those times there are those who are courageous enough to step out and try something no one has thought of before, and that gets them mocked at first, but then those same people who mocked them are then frantically trying to catch up and imitate the ones who have already set the trend."

Giving Barragan a small smile, Aizen finished with, "I am giving you a chance here to set a new trend with me. If we manage to pull this off…well, the possibilities are endless."

For a long time, Barragan said nothing and the only sound audible in the room was the crackling and popping sound of a large fire burning in the fireplace. Then, with a heave, Barragan stood up, picked up the music and inspected it again as he paced slowly around the room. As Aizen observed, sometimes Barragan's eyes would focus on the pages in front of him while at others, they seemed to look through them. After a time, he finally stopped and addressed Aizen, even though he didn't look at him.

"What you're saying makes sense. On the one hand, it would be a gamble since there's no guarantee that it would actually catch on and become popular. However, on the other hand, if there's one thing I've learned about business it's that you can only get so far in life and acquire so much wealth and success when you're not willing to take a few risks."

It was all Aizen could do to keep his face neutral as the words reached his ears. Inside his chest, his heart was rising higher and higher in elation and anticipation. Success was so close, he could almost taste it.

Now turning to look fully at Aizen, Barragan said with a growl, "On the other hand, I really don't like when upstart boys," he put special emphasis on the offensive, demeaning word as he sneered at Aizen, "try to tell me how to improve my business," and with that he spitefully tossed the music into the fireplace.

At first, Aizen couldn't believe what had just happened. Barragan was refusing his offer and on top of that he had…he had...

Out of the corner of his eye, Aizen saw a glass gas lamp sitting innocently on a side table next to the fireplace. On an impulse, fueled by his wildly raging emotions, Aizen suddenly found himself standing next to Barragan, gas lamp in his hand and breaking it over the man's head. Once Barragan was slightly dazed by the blow and soaked in the gasoline, before Aizen had a chance to regain his composure, he gave Barragan a mighty shove into the fireplace. Immediately the gas caught fire and it was only a split second later that Barragan's agonized screams began to echo about the room.

In an action Aizen would berate himself mercilessly for later as he reflected back on this incident, he bent down and clenched his fist in order to silence the man's screams by knocking Barragan unconscious. Just as he was drawing back his fist to strike, Barragan's hand somehow managed to grasp an entire fistful of coals. With his other hand, he gripped the back of Aizen's head to hold him in place as Barragan brutally rubbed the blazing embers on the right side of Aizen's face.

Now it was Aizen's turn to scream out in agony and he managed to wrench himself away from Barragan's grasp and fall writhing to the floor. He found the strength to regain his feet and stumble out of the office when the thought of getting caught and his sense of self-preservation kicked in.

Barragan's assistant had been in a different part of the publishing house when he heard the screams. When he arrived on the scene and saw the burnt remains of his employer's body, the assistant fainted from the sight and smell. The next morning, he barely managed to make it through the police's inquiry without passing out again as they pressed him for more specific details about the previous night's happenings. Luckily for Aizen, the assistant never even considered the possibility that the mild-mannered young man who had been Barragan's last appointment for the day could have possibly done something so horrendous to such a man as Barragan. Also, since Aizen's belongings had been left behind and the room looked as if there had been an attack, both the police and the assistant believed that whoever had murdered Barragan must have overpowered Aizen since he was a witness to the crime, taken him with them, killed him and dumped his body somewhere else. As such, the verdict was passed for Barragan as 'Murdered, by person or persons unknown' and Aizen was labelled as 'Missing, believed to be dead'.

Sosuke Aizen was never seen or heard from again…except by one person.

Author's Note:

Ok, I'm hoping I pulled this part off, especially with Aizen's character. He might be slightly out of character in some ways, mostly when he acts impulsively and does...all that with Barragan, but it had to be done.

If anyone has any questions or is rather concerned with what is going on or if you have ideas for things I can incorporate in later chapters, I'm all ears.

Thank you once again to everyone (especially boho, your comment yesterday really gave me the motivation to finish this chapter) who has been faithfully supporting me and telling me how much they are anticipating the next installment. You guys are the best.

P.S. I'm simply going to address this issue because of something that came up with someone who is reading the story over on dA, this is the one and only time Aizen will allow his emotions to control his actions and decisions.

Just a bit of background here in case people aren't familiar with the differences between the book, musical and movie versions of this story. In the musical and book, the Phantom had been deformed since birth. From my own knowledge and interpretation of the story, because obviously everyone around him was repulsed by him, he grew to believe that he was evil simply because of how he looked, not because of how he acted. So the ugliness of his face and the ugliness of how others treated him gradually shaped him into the person he became later on.

That scenario didn't really fit with Aizen, in my opinion, so I decided to go with the 1943 version where the Phantom character goes to a music publisher and is turned down. As he is about to walk away, he hears his music being played and believes that the publisher is trying to steal his music for himself (if you watch the movie you'll actually discover that is not the case) and so the Phantom flies into a fit of rage and tries to kill the publisher. As a result, his face is deformed when someone throws a pan of acid over him.

While I did tweak some things to fit it into how I thought Barragan would push Aizen's buttons just right, I figured the second scenario offered more promise than the first. For me, it fit with Aizen better because now he will have a physical reminder of just what can happen when one doesn't calmly and methodically work things out before acting. He will not act in such a rash manner again. He will be ruthless when it comes to fulfilling his plans, but he won't act impulsively in the moment.

Hope that makes sense, but you are welcome to voice your opinions or ask questions if anything I said doesn't make sense.