Disclaimer: I do not own Skip Beat! or any of its characters

Side note: This isn't a fan fiction only about the actual characters. This fan fiction is mostly about and from the point of view of an OC although I will include known characters later in the story. Also, this is set after the Heel Siblings.


Chapter 7 -Audition

The waiting room was full of applicants. Many were sitting in the chairs provided, others were standing or pacing and practicing their act one more time before the auditions started.

Kouenji Erika smiled pitifully at the surrounding people before turning back to her three faithful servants, Ruby, Todo and Sakazaki. She gestured for more tea which prompted one of them to pour some for their master.

Erika smiled prettily and sipped the hot liquid from her cup.

"I don't know why all these talent less people bother showing up. It's so obvious that none of them are going to pass." she remarked.

Her three servants nodded in agreement.

"You're so right, Kouenji-sama." they chorused. "None but you have the necessary beauty and talent to reach the stars."

"What are you doing here?" a furious voice from behind Erika exclaimed.

She smiled evilly, having already recognised who it is.

She turned around casually, flicking her hair. With satisfaction, she heard several of the male applicants give infatuated sighs.

"What does it look like, Kanae-chan? I'm applying for LME. This way I will show you once and for all who the better one out of us is."

Kanae's mouth was wide open in shock. She registered what the other girl had said and a vein was starting to throb on her forehead.

"Are you a frickin' stalker or what? It wasn't enough that you've been doing this to me during my school years, now you're trying to get back at me by applying at my agency?"

Erika turned beet red at the word 'stalker', her face contorting in anger.

"You're the one who started this, Moko-san. It's your own fault that I'm doing this. You practically forced me to, just like in school!" she spat at Kanae.

Kanae stopped listening after that hateful girl's spiteful use of her nickname. She found it incredibly embarrassing, but it was her best friend's name for her. No one but her could call Kanae that.

Especially not this person. This person had contaminated that precious name and Kanae saw red.

"Don't you dare call me that." Kanae said, her voice filled with cold fury. Her forehead was almost touching Erika's and both girls were breathing heavily.

A smile crept onto Erika's face. She smirked.

"What are you going to do if I do call you that? Moko-san." Erika danced backwards, away from Kanae, an evil glint in her eye. She obviously thought Kanae hated that name and was using this taunt her.

"Moko-san, Moko-san, Moko-san." Erika sang, oblivious to the explosion about to happen.

Kanae was seething with fury. How dare that arrogant, brainless, childish brat use that name. Without any warning, she jumped on Erika, causing them both to crash into the ground.

Erika let out a wild shriek and began clawing at Kanae. Soon both girls were rolling on the floor, trying to inflict as much damage on the other as they could.

The rest of the applicants had mostly ignored the argument between the two until they actually started attacking each other. Now, more and more applicants were gathering around the two fighting girls, welcoming the distraction from their nerves.

Only a few who were still trying to ignore what was happening, were still standing or sitting in their seats, desperately trying to concentrate on their act as they waited for the audition to start.

One of these was a young male with deep brown dyed hair and dark eyes. He was standing against the wall, trying to read through some acting exercises as preparation. The vein in his forehead throbbing, he turned to another male applicant beside him.

"Pretty noisy, huh?" he said to him, trying to sound as if he didn't really mind.

The boy he had talked to was about his age, maybe a little younger, with black hair and iridescent blue eyes. His hair was cut short in the back with a longish uneven fringe which brushed his eyebrows where it was the longest*. His face had delicate features and he seemed to have a slender build even though he could be classified as average height. All of this made him look quite feminine which was contrasted by his clothing and the way he was standing. He was wearing faded grey jeans, sturdy black sneakers, a plain white T-shirt and a padded black leather jacket, like one that a motor biker would wear. A delicate gold chain hung around his neck and disappeared from view as the rest of it was tucked into his T-shirt. He was casually leaning against the wall, his legs crossed at the ankles with his arms in the same position.

In response to the young male applicant who had talked to him, he raised his eyebrows at the growing crowd and nodded. He uncrossed his arms and slid his right hand into one of his side pockets, pulling out a piece of paper. The young man beside him looked over at it curiously. The piece of paper was a flyer for today's audition and had obviously been looked at many times - the paper showed many signs of being folded and smoothed out.

The starting time for the audition clearly stated 11 a.m. The flyer also informed applicants to be at the location half an hour before the audition started and to be ready to perform and presentable.

The black haired boy glanced over at the other.

"You got the time?" he asked him.

The young man addressed almost raised his eyebrows in surprise. The other boy's voice was higher than he had expected it to be with his height, although it quite obviously was male. He took a quick look at the watch he was wearing and looked back at him.

"It's 10:45." he answered. Suddenly his nerves were starting to flutter and not even the noise made by the cheering crowd could shoo them away.

" 'Ready and presentable', huh?" The black haired boy murmured underneath his breath. "Who'd be able to get ready with all this noise?"

The other boy nodded in agreement, while the one with black hair pushed himself off the wall. He was taller when he stood up straight the other boy noted. While before he had to look down to see his face, he now was almost the same height as him.

He bent down, opened an old guitar case and took out an acoustic guitar. He stood back up and began tuning it for the audition.

The boy beside him looked on in fascination as he watched the other expertly twirl and twist at the knobs and plucking at the strings, making minor adjustments.

"So you're gonna play guitar?" he asked when he was done tuning.

"Yep." he said, beginning to warm up by playing a simple riff and switching into a harder one afterwards.

"I'm Sasaki Norio by the way." the brown haired boy introduced himself. He held out his hand.

"Nice to meet you, Sasaki-san."

"Just call me by my first name. When someone my age addresses me like that I feel old." Norio laughed, his hand rubbing the back of his neck.

The other nodded and gave a slight smile.

"Nice to meet you, Norio-kun." They shook hands and the other leaned back, plucking his guitar again.

"I'm guessing your parents don't want you to become an actor?" he asked, referring to his newly-made friends' name.

Norio rolled his eyes.

"Same old story as in many other places. As my name says, they wanted me to become a lawyer."

The black haired boy's mouth twitched with suppressed laughter. Norio appreciated his emotional control. He waited for information about his new friends' own name but none was forthcoming.

Said boy was leaning against the wall and started to play a song which started out simple and sweet but became rougher as it progressed.

He had almost finished getting through the most difficult part of the song when a loud scream pierced the air. It came from the centre of the circle that many of the applicants had built around the fighting girls.

He flinched and carefully leaned his guitar on the wall.

"Look after it while I'm gone, will you?" he said calmly as he passed by the surprised Norio.

"Hey, what're you -" he called after him. He waved his hand dismissively and half turned his head to glance at Norio.

"Don't worry, I'll be right back."


Kanae and Erika had both given and received scratches and hits and it was beginning to show. Kanae's bright pink LoveMe uniform had several tears in it although she didn't mind so much. It was after all the ugliest piece of clothing she owned and she didn't even have to pay for it. The two scratches on her face, on the other hand, she did mind. One was between her jaw line and her ear which could easily be hidden but the other was right on her cheek. Furious at Erika for damaging the most visible part of her body, Kanae had gone all out.

Erika's clothing was mostly undamaged but she had scratches on the back of her hands and a couple on her neck. A bright red mark was glowing on her cheek, in the shape of Kanae's hand.

Erika had let out a loud scream as she was slapped by her rival.

How dare she touch my beautiful face? she thought furiously.

Now they were back to rolling around on the floor, trying to gain dominance over the other.

Without being noticed by either party, a slender, somewhat tall boy walked up and through the crowd. He got through without a problem, partially due to his bishounen looks and partially because of the cool aura he emitted. He didn't look angry or even annoyed but it was this aura which made the surrounding applicants feel that they would rather not get on his bad side.

The bishounen only stopped walking when he was right in front of the two squabbling girls. Without a word he yanked both of them into standing positions and stood between them to prevent them from tackling each other again.

"There are other people here besides you, you know? If you want to behave like little kids, go outside and find a playground." he said, his voice dangerously low so it was only audible to the two girls. He looked at them through narrowed eyes.

"Got it?"

Kanae backed off immediately, not able to believe that she had lost her cool to that extent. She shook her head to clear it of the lingering anger and looked up at the boy expressionlessly.

"I lost control of myself just now and became an embarrassment to LME. Thank you for preventing me from making it worse." she said formally, trying to keep the bit of dignity she had left.

The boy's eyebrow lifted in a gesture of respect and he nodded. He turned around to go back to where he came from and the surrounding applicants parted for him like they did before.

Erika's call stopped him in his tracks.

"Hey, you! Where do you think you're going?" Erika stomped towards him and jabbed her index finger into his chest. His eyebrow lifted again, this time in surprise.

"You humiliated me in front of everyone! I'm going to make you pay!" she yelled into his face, twisting his shirt in her hands.

His blue eyes turning colder than ice as he looked down at the girl who was shaking in anger.

"If you need someone to blame for humiliating you, blame yourself. And it's not like they helped any." he jerked his hand toward Erika's three cowering servants. During the whole spectacle, they had stood by and watched in horror, too scared that they would hurt their master if they tried to help.

Speechless that someone was trying to make her out to be villain she didn't say anything. She simply stared up at him, white with rage.

"Let go of me." he said calmly and looking into her eyes. The ice in their depths making her feel numb, Erika let go of his shirt without resisting.

Without so much as a backward glance, he continued walking towards where he had left Norio with his guitar, who was looking at him in bewilderment.

As he resumed playing his guitar as if nothing happened, he looked at him with admiring eyes.

"How did you do that without getting angry at either of them? I couldn't have pulled that off!" Norio burst out when he couldn't take it anymore.

The guitar playing broke off as the black haired boy looked at him with genuine surprise.

"Who said I wasn't angry?"

Norio looked at him, unbelieving.

"But you didn't look angry."

The boy resumed playing.

"Just because I didn't look angry doesn't mean I wasn't. I learned that showing your emotions often causes more trouble than not. Anyway, showing my anger like this was pretty effective." He paused, turning one of the knobs on the guitar.

Norio started laughing and clapped him on the shoulder.

"You're really something." he grinned.

Beginning to pluck the guitar strings once more, the other grinned back at him. Following his example, Norio read through his notes. Now that the room had quietened down, a lot of people were beginning to practice again.

Soon, they were all interrupted by an announcement over the intercom.

"LME auditions will start momentarily. Please proceed into the adjoining room."

Following the crackling announcement, all the applicants filed into the right room, feeling a little like a flock of sheep.

The adjoining room turned out to be a huge theater which could easily accommodate all of this years' applicants and then some.

Applicants were told to wait for their turn in the back rows while the jury settled down in the first. Excusing himself to go to the bathroom, the black haired boy asked Norio to keep a seat free for him.

"Sure,…" Norio said, trailing off to indicate that he still didn't know his friend's name.

"Ah, sorry. I forgot to introduce myself, huh?" he said apologetically, guilt clear on his face.

"Heh, don't worry." Norio chuckled at his friend's reaction. "It happens."

The black haired boy smiled, relieved.

"Okay, I'll be right back." He began to leave and paused to look over his shoulder.

"My name is Sato Yuki."


Yukiko cautiously opened the bathroom door and peeked inside, making sure no one was there. Confirming this, she quickly jumped inside and shut the door just as fast.

She laid her hands on either side of one of the sinks and leaned on them for support. She hadn't really needed to go to the bathroom but her nerves had gotten to her. She looked at the strange looking things at the wall which were supposedly men's toilets. She lightly grimaced at the reminder that she had to use the men's toilet whenever she was in public from now on.

Looking at herself in the mirror, Yukiko admitted she only had herself to blame. She closed her eyes

She had come up with this plan with the core goal being to escape her grandfather's and Chase's hold on her. She knew that it would never occur to either of them that she would enter show business - grandfather because he had forbidden her to have anything to with it and she had always obeyed him, Chase because he obviously thought she didn't have the guts or talent to do so.

When she had first met him, she had already been able to play guitar. His interest in this had made Yukiko open up eventually and they began inventing make believe games where they were a famous band. This was when she first realised and confessed to him that she wanted to be a musician when she grew up. She also knew that that would never be because of her grandfather.

A big part of Yukiko had again begin to hope when she found out that she could audition and maybe even succeed in fulfilling this dream. A smaller part of her, which she wouldn't even admit to herself, was to show that b*****d that she was someone without her grandfather's money.

To make it more difficult for them to find her, Yukiko came to Japan although truthfully she had only had that idea once Kuu and Julie told her what happened to Kuon.

As for going so far as to disguise her gender…

Yukiko knew that the chances of them finding out that she had fled to Japan were going to become greater the longer she stayed away. But when they did come here, they would be looking for a girl, not a boy. It was the last resort, the last thing keeping them from discovering where exactly she was. Hopefully, it would never go as far as that though. She wasn't planning on returning any time soon because while she was a minor, grandfather as her guardian could basically force her to do whatever he wanted. Once she was legally an adult by American standards, Yukiko was free to do as she pleased.

She had to be able to stay undiscovered until she could come out of hiding.

Yukiko opened her eyes and looked at her mirror image. She had to hand it to Jelly - she had really made Yukiko look completely different. No one would even be able to guess that her and Sato Yuki were the same person.

When Yukiko had first seen all of Jelly's dyeing products she had asked her for a favour.

After even changing her appearance to please her grandfather, Yukiko had increasingly felt trapped. She had asked Jelly to return her hair to its original colour and when she saw the result she felt as if the first lock to her golden cage had opened.

For the rest of her appearance, she had left Jelly free reign. Jelly had happily snipped away at her hair while Yukiko had tried not to flinch. She had worn her hair long for so long that she had forgotten how different it felt to have short hair.

Yukiko shook her head in front of the mirror, enjoying the light weight of her head. She ran her hand through her hair as she remembered how Jelly had taught her to style it properly. She leant closer to the mirror and carefully plucked at some strands. Looking at her different eye colour, she smiled as she recalled the debate between her and Jelly.

"But I want to look like I was born here." Yukiko had begged her. Surely it would draw attention if the rumour of a foreigner in the Japanese show industry showed up?

"Absolutely not." Jelly had resisted, taking away the dark brown lenses she had held in her hands. Jelly held up a pair of blue contacts.

"These would suit your fair complexion much better than that dark colour. It would make a nice contrast with your black hair, too."

Yukiko had only looked at her sceptically. People weren't always born with colouring that naturally suited them. Jelly sighed.

"Look, you obviously have some foreign blood in you, anyone can see that. It's going to be obvious no matter what your eye colour is."

Yukiko, defeated, had taken the contacts and managed to put them in after several tries. She had blinked until they settled the right way and looked at Jelly.

"What does it look like?"

Jelly had squealed in delight and clapped excitedly.

"Much better than I thought it would. The violet colour of your eyes give it a very pretty undertone."

Done with her inspection of herself, Yukiko breathed deeply. She closed her eyes again, mentally preparing to switch back on Sato Yuki.

The personality had not been very difficult to make because she was essentially being herself. She'd had to learn how to move, talk and behave like a boy though which had been more difficult. Making these traits more masculine, she had layered them over herself like an invisible armour.

When she opened her eyes, Sato Yuki looked at her out of the mirror. Smiling, he left the bathroom and went back to the theater.


Kouenji Erika filled out the last blank on a sheet of paper they were required to give in in addition to the audition application form. It was a sheet titled 'Emotional Capacity' and several questions on it. They each asked one's reaction to reading an emotional word such as hatred, anger, euphoria, depression and, last but not least, love.

Erika had sniffed her dainty nose at the last word. What can you write about love? Wasn't that already the summary of feelings concerning it?

Nonetheless, she had been required to fill it in and had quickly jotted down 'wealth, fame and success'. Confident that the jury would overlook this one dodgily answered question, she handed it in to the person collecting them. That happened to be Kanae, who narrowed her eyes at her in suppressed anger. They seemed to be saying If you're going to audition, do it fair and square.

Erika smiled in amusement.

"So this is what kind of work they give you? Collecting paper from applicants at auditions?" she taunted her. "You must be even less talented than I thought."

Before Kanae could open her mouth to argue and start another catfight, the boy from before appeared behind her.

"Is there a problem?" he asked smoothly, a veiled threat in his voice.

Erika swallowed in sudden nervousness. Why was she nervous? If anything she should be angry at him, no, livid!

But the way his cold gaze bored into her, she felt a shiver run down her spine. She had never felt anything like it before. Then, of course, no one had looked at her like that before, as if they couldn't care less if she hated them. This wasn't…fear was it?

Erika's back stiffened. Impossible! She wasn't afraid of anything. But then she recalled that strange orange-haired girl who had been at that audition for the commercial. She had felt scared, even though she didn't admit that to anyone, least of all herself. But that had been different from this kind of spine-tingling. What was it?

Realising that she still had to say something, she opened her mouth. Nothing came out.

Kanae, seeing this abnormal reaction, widened her eyes in understanding, even though Erika looked like she didn't get it at all. She turned to look at the boy, smirking.

Payback time for putting those scratches on my face. Kanae thought smugly.

"So, what are you going to do today?" she asked him, casually touching his arm. He glanced at the coincidental-looking touch in confusion and then back at her face. He subtly moved his arm away and answered.

"I'll be playing the guitar and singing." Kanae furrowed her brows in irritation. Didn't this guy get that she was trying to flirt with him?

"Really? That's great. I haven't talked to an aspiring musician before." she said with a slight purring undertone. Again, she subtly tried to touch him, this time his hand.

Seeing the movement, he moved before she made contact and again gave her a confused look.

Kanae's penny dropped and she had keep her jaw from doing the same.

Even though this guy looked like that he was completely innocent!

She quickly glanced at Erika from out of the corner of her eye and smiled at her reaction.

Even though this attempt at flirting had obviously resulted in failure, Erika was seething, her face turning redder with every passing second. What did this girl think she was doing? That thought ran through her head before she could stop it. Her eyes widened.

What am I doing?

Norio chose this precise moment to turn up beside Yuki.

"Hey, come on. They gave us these sheets while you were gone and they're collecting them now." Norio told him, waving a blank sheet in front of Yuki. "Here, I got one for you."

Yuki took it and skimmed over it. He recognised it from this morning as one of the sheets the president had given him.

"Hand it in with your application form at the audition." he had told him before leaving in his limousine which had been decorated to look like a large, deformed pineapple.

He handed the sheet back to Norio and fished his own filled in sheet out of the breast pocket of his jacket.

"Thanks, but I got it already." Yuki said, smiling at him.

Erika felt her breath catch at that smile and turned beet red. What was happening to her?

Not noticing any of this, Yuki held out his folded sheet and application form to Kanae, who accepted it. She looked around the theater, noting that that were all the forms she had needed to collect.

She looked at Yuki once again, attempting to give him a smile with a flirty undertone since Erika was still watching.

She had been changing colours rapidly in the last few minutes, from white to pink and then deep red before the cycle repeated itself again.

Brushing past between Yuki and Erika, Kanae casually flicked her hair in his face and gave Erika a death glare which paled her beet red complexion to a deathly white.

Norio watched Yuki's vein begin pulsing in suppressed annoyance.

"What is with that girl?" he muttered irritably before leaving for his seat. Norio looked back at the blond girl who was rooted to the spot. She was completely white and had a shocked expression on her face. He smiled and shrugged at her apologetically and followed his friend.

Erika, who had completely forgotten the usual method she used to get what she wanted, slumped into the empty seat behind her.


About to ask Yuki a question, Norio was interrupted by a loud booming voice from the front of the theater. All the applicants quickly fell quiet and looked at the man standing on the stage with a mixture of emotions.

Takarada, not noticing the incredulous stares he was receiving from his audience or hearing their suppressed laughter, cheerily spoke into the microphone.

"Good morning, everyone. I am LME's president, Takarada Lory. I welcome you to this year's audition and hope you will all try your best." He paused and gave a big smile to the applicants.

They were stunned into silence at the strange man's announcement. This guy in a Hawaii shirt, hula skirt and a garland of flowers around his neck was the president of LME?

Yuki was quiet just like the rest of the applicants. He had only ever seen the president at home since he hadn't left the house since arriving, but he had assumed that the president only wore costumes at home. He actually went to work in them?

"Please remember that even if you don't get in this year, you can almost came back for next year's audition. Since we only have a limited number of people that we can admit per year, I am sure I will see many of you again." Takarada finished his welcoming speech. He climbed off the stage and took his seat in the middle of the rest of the jury - Matsushima, the head of the acting section and Nakazawa, the head of the singing section of his right, Sawara-san and Suzuki Sakura, the head of dancing and modelling on his left.

Suzuki was the only employer in LME who held two head positions and she had worked hard to get there. She had a no-nonsense attitude regarding anything to do with work and even outside of it sometimes. She was the ice-queen, the judge the most difficult to impress.

It was her who now looked at Takarada disapprovingly.

"Couldn't you at least put on a pair of shoes or some other kind of footwear?" Suzuki said icily.

Takarada chuckled in response.

"What, and ruin my perfect Hawaiian tourist costume?"

She just continued to look at him, not impressed in the slightest. The three other men cowered away from the two, expecting a bomb to go off any moment.

Takarada sighed in resignation. He bent down towards his cotton bag decorated with corals and shells and pulled something out. Tying it around his ankles, he straightened up and crossed his legs, causing whatever he was wearing on his ankles to let out a tinkle as if from small bells. He looked at Suzuki challengingly.

"There, I'm wearing 'some other kind of footwear'." he said smugly, the rest of the jury suppressing their laughter.

Takarada now had another two flower garlands around his ankles, the flowers on them big enough to cover half of each foot. Between each flower, a small bell was placed which sounded every time he moved.

Suzuki rolled her eyes, looked at the first application form and handed the microphone to the president.

He smiled at her quiet acknowledgement of defeat. Clearing his throat, Takarada called out the first person to perform.

The audition had officially begun.


Erika had already done the dancing and modelling part of the audition and she had felt quite comfortable doing this.

The judge responsible for those sections had gathered all the applicants in two groups, male and female. Asking one of her by standing assistants for help, she had led the girls off one side of the stage and the boys led off the other side by the young male assistant. Each group had had half an hour to learn a two minute routine to perform. Girls had been up first and Erika had smirked at Kanae when she felt her watching her.

Then, it had been that boy group's turn. Erika hadn't been able to keep her eyes off of him, not because he was an incredible dancer but because of the grace he displayed in his movements. She had also noticed that she wasn't the only one watching him.

Once the dancing was done, the jury had quickly made some notes and the modelling part started.

This time, girls and boys went on alternating between both genders. Erika had walked without fear, confident that she would stand out among the other girls. She suppressed a smirk as she heard boys sigh from infatuation and girls in envy. She glanced at the judges but they all guarded their emotions very well. Shrugging it off as their professionalism towards their job, she had left the stage, sure that no girl could match her performance.

What she hadn't anticipated was that a boy might be rivalling her as model, and not just any boy. It was him.

Walking with an incredible natural grace, looking neither girly or manly but something in between, he captured everyone's attention from the moment he stepped on the stage to when he left it.

Again, he had all eyes on him, earning looks of envy and admiration from girls and boys alike. Even the jury seemed to show how impressed they were.

Erika didn't know whether she should sigh infatuatedly like the other girls or feel peeved at this reaction. She settled for the latter and resolved to beat him in any other section that was still left. She smirked.

I bet you're just another pretty face who can't do anything else.

Despite this, she felt a little nervous. She shook her head in annoyance. There was nothing to be scared of. He was utterly untalented, just like the rest of the fools who had auditioned.


Erika plopped down in her seat, completely defeated. She couldn't believe what had just happened.

Next, it had been singing auditions. Just like her other skills, Erika was confident in her singing ability - she had been taking lessons since she was five years old.

She had sung a beautiful song, full of emotion. She had let the last note fade away and opened her eyes. Erika had noted that many applicants in the room had tears in their eyes. Even a couple of the judges had suspiciously moist eyes.

First, it was completely silent, then came roaring applause.

Satisfied, she left the stage and gave the microphone to the next applicant. It was the boy. He was carrying an acoustic guitar and received the microphone with a nod. She smiled and brushed past him.

"Good luck." she whispered, a disdainful tone lacing her voice.

He didn't react and just proceeded to go on stage. Erika left, feeling a little flustered. He should show her a little respect, who did he think he was?

The boy sat down on the chair one of the jury's assistants had provided for him and adjusted the microphone stand so it was the right height. Placing the microphone in the stand, he began to twirl at the knobs. Once satisfied with the results, he played a quick riff and then started playing.

It started out with a somewhat slow, gentle sounding intro which quickly transitioned into a more rough sounding melody. It wasn't bad; it sounded interesting and new and not like a song Erika had heard before. She realised that he must have composed it himself. Then, the boy captured everyone's attention once more as he began to sing.

Combined with his guitar playing, his voice was simply mesmerising, his modelling paling in comparison to this.

When he went into the more rhythmic part of his song, people even got up and started whistling, just like a real concert.

By the end of the song, all applicants shouted for an encore. The boy smiled slightly at this and thanked everyone. He nodded at the jury who were all grinning broadly, especially Nakazawa. Even Suzuki had a thin-lipped smile on her face.

Going off stage, Yuki was surprised at the next applicant. He was cowering and shaking in fear.

Perplexed, he gave him the microphone and joined Norio who had watched the exchange with amusement. He laughed when Yuki asked him if he knew what was wrong with him.

"Dude, didn't you notice the audience's reaction to you? I'd feel sorry for anyone going up after you." he chortled. "Am I glad I've already done this part."

He wiped a laughing tear away. Yuki smiled.

Norio had been pleasant to listen to but nothing special.

"Well, next up is my specialty, so don't steal the show." Norio said, wagging his finger in front of Yuki's face in mock warning.

Yuki showed what was quickly going to become his trademark smile - devilish and predatory.

"Can't promise anything, Norio-kun."


Notes - I hope this wasn't too confusing. I will be referring to Yukiko and use she, her etc from now on when she's not pretending to be Yuki who I will be referring to as him, his etc. I'm also going to try and use Japanese honorifics from now on. Please don't hate me if I get it wrong ^^, just point it out and I'll correct it, ok?

I hope you enjoyed this chapter and please continue to review!