The rest of the day flew by. I don't think I fell asleep during my finals this time, but if I did, I didn't care. All I know is that our run through of the song Kiyoteru sent us went really well. Almost in no time at all, we had our costumes on under baggy jackets (Save Kaito, who already had a jacket) and were standing outside the auditorium of the school. It was 5:47.
"I still don't get why the concert had to be here," said Kaito for the fifth time that night. "Why couldn't it have been down the street at a public concert hall?"
"Because," said Serena, also for the fifth time, "Our Music teacher is hosting it. Besides, there's nothing to worry about. The song is awesome, we're world famous, and somehow, no one recognizes us, which is still funny to me because it only takes a little more make-up to do that."
"And a lot of oil," Gumi added. I had a quick flashback of us rubbing so much of that, for lack of a better word, goop onto our faces to make us look shiny and metallic for Imitator. I shivered.
"We'd better get backstage." We went around to the side entrance where the school drama department was already carrying microphones and other concert stuff in. They didn't give most of us a second glance with the exception of Kaito. He was the only one without his costume covered up. We walked over to where some of the other bands were. As it turned out, they were all around the judges. As we got closer, I could see the crowns of two heads, one pink and one teal. Miku and Luka were some of the judges. There was also three other people: our Music teacher and two guys that I assume were from Crypton. Professor-san was announcing something.
"-each song will only last about six minutes. Then, the next band has four minutes to get their equipment onto the stage. Any questions?"
I turned around quickly to Meiko. "How long is our song?"
"4:56 exactly," she said. That's good. I raise my hand.
"Yes?" asked Luka, for Professor-san was looking the other way.
"Yeah, we have a person we want to add to our band. Is that against the rules?"
The entire crowd turned towards the sound of my voice. I lowered my hood to show them who had asked, and Piko waved his hand. Miku smiled.
"No, it isn't against the rules, as long as we don't think you're customizing your band with each song you sing." That was the news we all wanted to hear.
"Good," I said, taking off my jacket, the others behind me doing the same. "Now when do we sing?"
That caused some of them to laugh. Even one of the judges started chuckling before Luka threatened to slap him. She turned back to us. "You're opening the show."
"Okay, but wouldn't you want to save the best for last?" Kaito had a sort of wild expression on his face, as if he hiding his nerves behind his sharp words. Some of their competition made comments like 'This kid's got spunk' and 'ooh, I'm scared now'. Apparently, almost all of them were idiots. I've seen some of their videos, and none of them came even close to the number of views ICE MOUNTAIN's did, or ours, for that matter. Luka just shrugged it off as no more than a regular question.
"I didn't make the schedule, and I think the guys who did," she glared at the two Crypton judges, "thought that teenagers had bedtimes. They lumped all the younger groups to the beginning."
"Oh," I said. The guys were looking a bit uncomfortable. "If that were true, I don't think the concert would be being held a senior high school." Miku suppressed a laugh.
"My point's exactly. They also overlooked the fact that I'm only a teenager and I don't have a bedtime."
A few more people joined in laughing at the foolishness of the judges, but stopped when some guy with a megaphone came in saying "10 minutes". We all rushed to get ready, throwing our jackets at the nearest drama student. Piko allowed us to disassemble his frame before laying down on a hand truck with his generator. He spread his arms wide, in that T pose that I used during Imitator. We all stood in our positions, with my arms opened.
As the curtain opened, Kaito walked towards me. He pretended to push my arm into place and I started rolling that shoulder. This made these rolling synthesizer sounds that couldn't be made by a real synthesizer. Weird, right? He continued to do those kind of things to my body, at the different entrances of mine, including tweaking my neck when I started speaking. When he was done is when the actual lyrics started.
Hajime to owari no iranai imi
Kono kokoro no jouhatsu eto
Dare ga hinsei wo oboeteru ka?
Kyouki no mado kara sayonara
Konnichiwa watashi
Awanakatta darou?
Sayounara anata
Saa hanashi shiyou ka?
We hadn't really started dancing yet, but at this point, we sort of go wild with the movements. I danced around continuously (duh, I need to for the percussion) while everyone else jerked into a new position every four beats.
iNSaNiTY, Fusou shisou desu
PSYCHoPaTHY, Nonki na jinsei
iNSaNiTY, Owarenai madoi
CaPTiViTY, Nigerarenai
iNSaNiTY, Fusou shisou desu
PSYCHoPaTHY, Nonki na jinsei
iNSaNiTY, Owarenai madoi
CaPTiViTY, Odaku ga tsudzuke sou
Nothing really spectacular happens during the next round of lyrics, that is, until the chorus. The drama teacher, who I never really liked until now, let loose with the fog machine as soon as I start the word 'iNSaNiTY'. The crowd gasps when I add in some small, unnecessary movements to make the fog envelop my entire body. After the chorus, we all gather at center stage and stand Piko up. He had been plugged in, so he couldn't move at all on his own. The entire front of his surface was taken off, so all our audience could see was the wires, gears, and hydraulics that made up his insides. As predicted, they started to mumble about what the heck we were doing.
Kaito stood by Piko, Gumi and I were to their left, and Meiko and Serena were on the right. Kaito started singing, and we played fire brigade and passed the metal bits of Piko to each other from off-stage. During each line of his first stanza, Kaito played the technician and started assembling Piko's appendages with the four of us beat-boxing like crazy.
Ne! doko de atta koto ga nai ka?
Ne! itoshii kimi to hanashitai
Ne! jikan wa? Kyou wa? Wakaranai
Ne! Wasurete shimaeba yokatta
Kaito started on Piko's belly and chest.
iNSaNiTY, Fusou shisou da
PSYCHoPaTHY, Nonki na jinsei
iNSaNiTY, Yami ka? Hikari ka?
iNSaNiTY
iNSaNiTY
During the last two words, Kaito clips on Piko's shoulders and slides his face on like a helmet. Before the crowd had time to gasp, we all dove to the floor and covered our heads, and Kaito unplugged Piko from his generator. Serena made a power-down sound.
Nothing happened while the crowed muttered about the boy that now stood in front of them. They eventually quieted down as they realized that nothing was happening on stage. With all eyes on him, Piko drew a ragged breath, making the same sound Serena did, but in reverse. Then he started with the shoulder rolls, just like I did at the beginning of the song. The crowd was stunned into silence.
I knew without opening my eyes that there was a single spotlight on Piko. I also knew that the audience didn't need it to know that he was the most amazing thing onstage. With that, I crawled to the side and ran up to the top of the auditorium. Just in time, Piko stopped the music, and at the same time lifted his head to look at me and dropped his arms. I started singing to Gumi's church bell sounds.
sAnIty, Mou mienai kuro
pUrIty, Motto nagai hibi
sAnIty, Sore mo shizumanakya
sAnIty, ...tte nani desu ka?
Back at the chorus, I ran back down the center of the room to applause, Piko in control of the percussive sounds and bops. I jumped up on stage and joined my friends for the final stanza. Another surprise from the drama teacher, the strobe lights turned on, in addition to the remaining fog.
iNSaNiTY, Fusou shisou desu
PSYCHoPaTHY, Nonki na jinsei
iNSaNiTY, Owarenai madoi
CaPTiViTY, Nigerarenai
iNSaNiTY, Fusou shisou desu
PSYCHoPaTHY, Nonki na jinsei
iNSaNiTY, Owarenai madoi
CaPTiViTY, Odaku ga tsudzukeru
On the last note, Serena made that power-down sound again, and we all bowed, freezing at the bottom as if we had shut off. The crowd cheered us as we stood up and laughed. Before the cheers die down, I turned to stage right, raised my hand, and said, "Give a hand for Yowane Haku, the school's drama teacher." Some of the students had to push the teacher on stage to get her out of her shocked state. She had to blink a few times before she took her cue and waved at the audience.
We exited the stage on her side, making sure to bring the hand truck and generator with us. We all came back out to help the next band with their equipment. When that was done, we patted each other on the back. I was surprised when Yowane-san came up to us and asked us the question.
"How did you know my name?"
While I was confused, Meiko didn't miss a beat. "We looked it up on the school website. After all, we would want to know the names of those willing to lend us their stage and intuition." That's Meiko, always two steps ahead of everyone else.
Yowane-san smiled and congratulated us. That was enough to convince her, and she walked away to oversee the next performance. I said, "I say we get something to drink and then join the audience." They agreed. We went to the poor boy we threw our jackets at and thanked him for his assistance. He didn't seem to mind. We went to the nearest drinking fountain, quenched our thirsts, and sat down in the front row, waiting for the next band t start its song.