Fractured Reality

Summary: Mio Akiyama has always struggled with her fear of the morbid and macabre but now she must face that fear head on… When she agrees to help out a Metal band. Not a cross-over, but may have random cameos from random animes where I see fit. Rated T for language (may change)

A small smile was plastered on the face of the usually solemn eighteen year old Daisuke as he came out of the music shop. He was all set for his band's first gig; He just bought new drum sticks, he'd arranged his transport for the gig, and the band were in top form after practicing for two weeks with their stand-in bassist Minoru Miyasaki. The guy was quite arrogant and kind of pretentious at times, but he had a Degree in playing the bass and when you heard him play, even people who had no musical knowledge could tell he was a pro.

Plus, Daisuke couldn't help getting excited about his upcoming performance. They were supporting 'Kalmah' a band from Finland with quite a large following, as well as a band that Daisuke himself has loved the music of for as long as he became a musician.

Pretty much everything was set up for an almost perfect first gig… And that's when his phone rang.

Looking at the Id on the phone reading 'Philip Jones,' Daisuke immediately recognized the name of his band's Guitarist/Vocalist. Must be some cool update about the band and/or upcoming gig.

Bringing his phone up to his ear he answered "Hey man" in English, to his band mate from overseas "what's up?"

"Daisuke-kun…" replied Philip. Philip had learned Japanese very well, to the point that if you were talking on the phone to him without knowing him formally, a native Japanese speaker would think he was from another Asian country due to him having a strange accent while being adept at the language. But after meeting him they'd be extremely surprised that the man wasn't Asian at all, but was British and was black. The odd thing about this particular phone call is that Phil would usually drop formalities and honorifics when talking to the band… unless it was bad news.

"What's wrong?.. Someone dead?" Daisuke said jokingly, hoping to lighten whatever mood he'll be in after whatever news Phil has is uttered.

"I WISH" replied Phil, rather venomously. "Minoru decided to leave"

"What?.. You mean after he's played the gig right?" Daisuke feeling his body temperature rising

"No, that BASTARD's decided we're not worth his time. So he's fucked off to play in some freestyle Jazz thing or some shit" Phil clearly not caring for aforementioned Bastard

"FUCK!" Daisuke roared, not caring that he was in the middle of a crowded street. Startling almost everybody within a twenty foot radius of him, one high school girl even going as far to run away from him and scream in fright. "What the hell are we going to do about the gig now?! Is there no convincing him to play the show?

"Tried man, there's just no getting through his fat fucking head!" Phil replied with noticeably growing distain for the person in question.

"Well who the hell can we get for a bass player on such short notice?!" Daisuke anguished, hands shaking with rage.

"Don't know man, I can't think of ANYONE I know who could fill the slot." Phil sighed.

"kusoooooooo" Daisuke hissed with anger increasing

"All we can do is see if Hiroshiknows anyone who can fill the slot. I'll book a rehearsal for us tomorrow, usual time, and we'll discuss our options then. Try to keep calm about this and don't break your pho…" The call was ended by Daisuke breaking the phone in half, his anger needing an outlet from the stress.

"Crap" Daisuke thought to himself "Another phone broken due to lack of temper control… oh well, It sucked anyway." He proceeded to walk back towards his home, trying in vain to mentally prepare for having to possibly cancel the gig he'd wanted to play so badly.

Mio ran as an automatic reaction to a viciously loud curse from a short boy wearing a black T-shirt and fairly baggy jeans. When the shock she felt of being next to an explosion of angry noise died down after two minutes, she didn't really know where she was. She started to observe the scenery where she found herself with her heart still beating hard from the mad sprint, till a familiar voice caught her attention.

"Mio-Senpai!" a shorter girl approached Mio, jogging in order to catch up to the older girl quicker. When she was finally within range to hold a proper conversation, her breathing was ragged.

"Azusa-chan" Mio replied

"Why'd you run so far?" Azusa asked through heavy breaths. Keeping up with her senpai was extremely difficult, due to a difference in height, her senpai having longer legs.

"Weren't you there?!" Mio said, defensively "that guy was scary!"

"Yeah, But running two blocks away is kind of excessive…" Azusa answered.

"Oh…" Mio blushed for the excessive, and to some, impressive distance she covered to evacuate something as trivial as an annoyed teenager.

"Plus, he wasn't scarier than you are when you get pissed off" a familiar girl said smirking while leisurely strolling to the two girls.

"Ritsuuuuuuuu!" Mio snarled at her often infuriating friend.

"Ahhhhhhhhhh." Ritsu mockingly imitated Mio's scream from when she ran from the raging boy.

"RITSUUUUUU!" Mio snarled more aggressively.

"Oh, look who it is." Ritsu said in mild surprise, looking somewhere behind Mio.

"Hmmm?... EEEK!" Mio turned around and recognised the young man she ran scared from.

"What?!" The boy said confused "something on my face?.. Is it my shirt" He said slightly amused pointing at his face, and then his t-shirt which had artwork on it depicting a skeleton shooting fire out of it's mouth while it held a skull in each hand. A shirt that Mio found quite frightening.

"She's scared of you because of your loud tantrum five minutes ago" Ritsu commented with a shit-eating grin.

"Oh… Yeah… That…" the boy became uncomfortable as he realised that the girls he was faced with were the same girls that ran scared when he blew up for a reason unknown to Mio. "I'm sorry you had to see that" he gave a slight bow as he quietly apologised.

"T-That's ok" Mio stuttered, slowly calming to the once threatening figure in front of her. Since he seemed appropriately embarrassed about his outburst.

"Why'd ya get so pissed off?" Ritsu said through her almost signature smirk. "And why'd ya follow us?" The second question putting Mio slightly more on edge again, Ritsu was good at that!

"Uh… I live here." The boy pointed at an apartment building on his right that the group were standing outside of.

"Aha! Good answer!" Ritsu posed dramatically pointing her finger at the boy. "Now answer my other question!"

"Who do you think you are, Phoenix Wright?" Azusa asked irritated. "It's none of our business, Ritsu-Senpai!"

"Heh heh, it's fine" the boy said through chuckles. "My band is just in a sticky situation is all… I don't suppose any of you know any bass players?"

"Um… well… I play bass" Mio said meekly

"Really!?" The boy's face lit up slightly from hearing that. "W-well, my name is Daisuke, and my band is ca-"

"Oh no!" Ritsu put her hand up in protest to where this conversation was heading "Mio is OUR bass player! If you want her for your band, you'll have to pay me Fifty thou-OUCH!" before Ritsu could finish her sentence, Mio gave her a comical smack to her skull.

"Enough crap for five minutes!" Mio scolded her friend, now massaging her bruised scalp.

"ughhh… these hits will eventually give me a brain haemorrhoid" Ritsu groaned.

"Haemorrhage. Senpai." Azusa corrected with her fingers pinching the bridge of her nose.

"Anyway" Mio got back to the boy she was trying to talk with. "I'm sorry but I'm not sure I can be of much help. I'm in a band already, and I can't afford to neglect my school work and studies and-"

"It'll only be for until we finish our gig two weeks from now!" Daisuke interrupted with a hint of desperation "and after that, we'll just find someone else willing to join the band permanently… We really don't want to lose this gig."

"Well…" Mio trailed off, thinking weather or not to accept or reject.

"Go for it, Senpai!" Azusa encouraged, her tiny fists clenched and eyes sparkling with enthusiasm. "Two weeks won't hurt, and the Light Music Club won't be doing much for that time anyway!"

'That much is true, at least' Mio thought to herself. "Ok…" Mio said uncertainly. "I'll give it a shot."