A/N: I keep forgetting to say it and for that I apologize but the latest bands are named thusly:
LastLivingVampire is named after the reviewer of the same penname, thank you so much for staying tuned to the story.
It Will Be Glorious is named for a guild on my server on World of Warcraft. I don't really have any ties to them...I just like the name.
I do not own anything to do with Hakuouki. Just the OCs...well sort of.
Chapter 29
~Audience Choices; Paper Moon ~
Somehow, after the host of the show had culled the twenty-five judge favorites, we were still standing. We had been called late in the rankings, but surprisingly we were not last. Apparently only 14Phantom got full judge approval. The rest of the bands got two judge votes. The only startling thing was that we, Flowers and Water, were the only ones that got a positive vote from both DJ White Saille and Kazama. Hajime, true to his word, did not vote either way for the band.
The judges mouthed off after each band was announced and of course, Kazama usually had something negative to say, if anything at all. When we were called he didn't hold his tongue.
"I expect good things from you ladies. I refuse to believe you are here to dog men that are no better than hounds themselves; though the media seems to think otherwise. Most people here are of one of two opinions of you. That you are here to get revenge on your lovers or that you are going to be some sappy love story. I think you are here with something to prove and my gut, which is almost infallible, is telling me it is not that you are worthy of the men you love, but rather that you are worth a record deal. Prove me right."
DJ White Saille had looked at him funny for this and several female fans of Umarekawaru booed when the Oni called Hajime and Okita no better than hounds but once the crowd calmed down a little Hajime spoke. He looked right at me with a cocky smirk that I was pretty sure Okita had to train him in. "Whether they are here for revenge or romance, they better come fast and hard and not screw up. The members of Umarekawaru have one thing to say, and that includes myself, 'Come at us with death in your eyes, it's the only way you can hope to defeat us.'" And again the female fans responded, this time with screams and cheers.
With the microphone in our hands that most bands had just said 'thank you' into Shukke responded, "You won't even see it coming." The girls booed but several hundred men cat called and cheered instead.
Now we played a second round of the waiting game as Nathaly stood center stage and began the audience choice round. "Welcome back from that short commercial break. Standing on the left stage are twenty-five hopeful bands waiting to see if they have been put through to the next round by you, the audience. If you voted for a band that is not amongst the judge picks there is not much I can tell you except that your votes for those bands no longer count. Now! This will be in no particular order. Of the top twenty-five the judges chose I will call ten bands. Each band will have two minutes to introduce themselves and tell us a couple things about the band. Your first chosen band, in no particular order is,
"14Phantom!" There was a lot of cheering as Ferah and her band ran to the center stage and grabbed the mic from Nathaly. Ferah became the spokesperson and gave her address in a hurried manner.
"Hi we are 14Phantom of Greece, New York. We bring full flavor to our music and are here to rock your world. This time we will win, no questions asked, no answers needed. Thank you for your votes and your support." She jumped up and down with double peace signs before handing the mic back to Nathaly.
"Alright, second to come to center stage is: LastLivingVampire." More cheers. More fanfare. More speeches. Down the list it went, Nathaly calling out band after band. There were sixteen of us left at that point. Most bands were holding hands and praying. Some people looked ready to cry. Some were crying. Nathaly had a knack for going to commercial breaks at high tension points it seemed because she went to one right after the ninth band was called.
"Welcome back, and now, the last band to go to the competition rounds based on viewer votes is…Flowers and Water."
The crowd was cheering, so it shouldn't matter, but the bands we left behind made sounds of disbelief and anger. They still thought it was rigged and no matter what anyone would say, they would most likely always believe that. Maybe it contributed to the conspiracy but we didn't jump and scream. We didn't run to the center stage. We didn't hug each other. We certainly didn't hug Nathaly. We just walked calmly to where the host stood, bowed low to the cheering crowd and accepted the microphone.
"Hi, we are Flowers and Water." Shukke said into the mic. "We are not going to be telling you why we are here right now." The crowd silenced. "That would take longer than two minutes and those of you who doubt our intentions or have come up with some fancy story on your own will not believe our words."
She handed the microphone to me and I said, "As for this competition being rigged, believe what you like. But if you go to YouTube like we did and see the comments on our performance…. I doubt that can be faked." I handed the mic to Cat.
"And all you idiots out there shoved so full of stupid you can't…" She began before Stacy hastily snatched the microphone away.
"What she means is 'please vote for us and look forward to what we can show you.'" Stacy recovered smoothly while beside her Cat yelled, "That is not what I meant and you know it." Thankfully the crowd just laughed as we walked off the stage. It was clear we were bickering the whole way but Nathaly was in control of the mic again so no one could hear us.
"I'm just doing me!" Cat announced loudly as we entered the backstage area the rest of the accepted bands had been removed to. "And anyway how are you gonna grab the mic from me Stacy…I wasn't done yet." Someone further in shushed her. "Aw hell no. Who shushed me?"
Seeing that things were going to get a little crazy without intervention, Shukke smacked her on the back of the head and glared at her until she calmed down. Around this time we heard the plasma t.v. that we hadn't noticed.
"And there you have it. Your top ten. As for how the battles work, each week each remaining band will play one song. Sometimes there will be a mandatory challenge. The bands won't know when they are coming or what type of challenge it can be. So look forward to spontaneously created songs that can fit the themes we put them up to. To start things off we will have a bi-lingual challenge. Each Band will create a song with at least part of their lyrics in another language."
Umarekawaru:
The cameras were no longer rolling and the crowds were dispersing while the judges still sat in their seats. DJ White Saille was the first to stand and walk away leaving the two rival band members alone together once the audience was completely gone.
"Saito Hajime, Captain of the Third Unit of the Shinsengumi." Kazama drawled as if the title was dirt.
"Oni Choshu scum." Hajime returned with just as much distain.
"Have you always been this much of a moron? Or does that girl fog your senses." Kazama's face was marred by a sneer. "It's not normally something I get involved in, human squabbling. They have their own reasons to be famous, whether it has anything to do with the Shinsengumi or not I don't know. It doesn't matter to me. I am only telling you to let them find their dream because it will cause you angst. But even saying so, you know you have to let them try."
Hajime met his words with a stoic expression reminiscent of his time during the Bakumatsu, "Why do you bother bringing it up then?"
"Because if she goes on stage with bruised lips again I won't play stupid. It's just too much fun playing with fragile human emotions, after all." Kazama answered nonchalantly. Hajime put his hand on the hilt of his katana but the Oni judge just took a step back off the judges' stand. "No need to be violent Saito Hajime. The world doesn't work that way anymore." And with that he was gone.
Okita, who had gone to look for his best friend when he was late coming out of the auditorium, heard the threat and grimaced before walking over to Saito. Leaning against the raised dais the judges sat on top of he said the only thing he could think to say. "Guess we have to wait huh?"
"I don't think I will be able to be near her without losing control." Hajime admitted quietly.
"Then stay away." The answer came out short and bitter.
"She's going to kill me." Hajime said, but the words held acceptance in that being what he had to do.
Shukke's Point of View:
I had a feeling that the competition would have a challenge dealing with language and had been fearing it. Ryane took sign language in high school. Sign Language! You can't sing sign language. She knew no other languages. This meant that I had to translate a song into a language I knew and teach her the words and pronunciations. We could just translate a couple words, but that felt cheap and I cringed to think how it would make us look.
Of course the only language I knew with any fluency was Japanese. I was afraid that, this early in the competition, everyone and their mother would be trying to use Saito and Kazama's native tongue. The judges were just for guiding remarks but in a challenge where most people would not understand all your lyrics it was hard to not go for the positive criticism.
And of course knowing that both those judges actually were born and raised in Japan, regardless of the era, I was wary. It would look really bad if our vocalist mispronounced something. Having considered all this, there wasn't much choice. Thank God for thinking ahead.
"So, Ryane, that song I have been teaching you…it will work right?" Ryane whipped around where we sat in the hotel room after the show and looked at me slightly terrified. I guess my intimidating voice was getting better. That one practically screamed 'it had better'.
When she finally responded I felt relieved. "Yeah, we can practice it now if you like. Just keep the amps low."
We worked for hours but by the time we all went to our own dreamlands I felt comfortable with our song. It would be our only easy gig this whole competition, I was sure of it.
The Oni Complex:
"Wow, well," Kazama said while pretending to pick at his nails. "That was the fourth, wait no, fifth band that has tried to sing Japanese. And like the others before it, you were absolutely horrendous. You obviously patched some phrases and words into your song that at some times did not even go where you put them."
"I cannot stress how much I hate agreeing with Kazama," Saito was saying into the mic at the band standing on stage, "And I really hate that you guys are making it impossible for me to do otherwise. You had five days. I know it's not a lot of time to compose and write let alone translate. I get it. But that was not good."
DJ White Saille just shrugged and Kazama could not help but ponder at why such a useless human was on the same panel as him. Granted she was much more helpful when a band chose Spanish or in that one case French to use as their challenge language but that didn't really change his opinion of her being a twit.
"Give another round of applause for It Will Be Glorious." Nathaly, another pointless waste of existence as far as the blonde Oni was concerned, called into her microphone as she walked back on stage. "Up next we have Flowers and Water. Take it away girls!"
The four members of the all-girl band walked out amidst cheers and took position. They were wearing matching checkered fitted tee-shirts and tastefully ripped jeans. The vocalist had fingerless gloves that reached to her elbows. "Hey, Flowers and Water here. Gonna give you a dose of Japanese done right." She said energetically into her microphone. "This is Paper Moon!"
Her introduction was followed by a pretty wicked instrumental before the vocalist began to sing. And as she sang, Kazama began to translate the lyrics in his head.
I'm Falling Down Into My Shadow
and hold my breath because what's waiting is a Deadly Night.
Don't scary, the witch just drew a pumpkin carriage and
is only reflected in your eyes.
See you in your dreams. Yeah Baby,
Even if they are nightmares.
Fairy Blue, for you, I shatter the stars
and use them to adorn the Black Paper Moon.
Because you believed in me, when you're lost, here I am
Forever with your soul.
If I look up, you shine like the moon.
It was a surprisingly endearing song. Again, cheesier then the Oni was hoping for but it had a certain charm as far as human creations go.
I didn't want to believe in anyone, there was a time I was mean,
but even so, your words have always resounded in my heart.
Fairy Blue, for you, I shatter the stars and adorn the signs.
When you lose sight of your dreams and get confused,
please raise your head.
Fairy Blue you gave me proof to live, a bond called confidence.
You aren't alone,
When you're lost here I am
Forever with your soul
because you finally trust in me!
The guitar played out at the end of the song and Kazama listened to the applause befoe taking control of the commenting process again. "Finally. Proper Japanese. But again with the sappy lyrics. I feel like if I were to cut you you would bleed rainbows and sugar water." He snarked.
"Well I didn't understand the lyrics but it had a positive melody. Very stirring." The woman beside him said in that way too happy tone that made him want to rip out her spinal cord.
"I believe translations for all the songs will be on the CBS website after the show." The Third said calmly. "Having understood it, who did you write it for? You don't seem the sort to spout nonsense."
"Jealous it's not for you, Saito?" The dark skinned one said while she plucked imaginary dust off her guitar. The drummer threw a drumstick at the girl's head.
"Actually it's for the other members of this band. They have really changed my life you know. They lift me up and I wanted them to know that if they ever lose sight I will do the same for them." The vocalist said looking from her right where the guitarist stood to her left at her bassist and then back at the drummer.
"Kami save me, I think I am going to be sick." Kazama sneered.
"I would have thought Oni didn't get sick." The guitarist quipped and earned another drumstick to the head. Kazama just smirked as the girls got their signal to go backstage.
These girls are interesting.
Songs used:
Paper Moon by Tommy Heavenly6 (Flowers and Water's song [The underlined words are originally in Japanese.])
