"Gah! Urameshi, what are you doing here?!"
Yusuke turned to see a confused Kuwabara.
"I…uh…well…"
"Don't tell me you got a ticket too?" Kuwabara held up a rectangle of paper as he spoke.
Yusuke nodded with a grin. "Yup. What do you suppose this is?"
A young man with long, white hair and pointy ears on his head came up and tapped Yusuke on the shoulder.
"Um, do you know what's going on here?" he asked.
Yusuke turned to see him better.
"Oh! Hey, Inuyasha! Personally, I have no clue. But whatever." He shrugged.
Kuwabara interrupted the little conversation.
"Hey guys, does it seem weird to you that there're no girls here? Just guys with tickets looking really confused."
It was true. The three men were looking all over the place to try and spot a female, but to no avail. There was naught but men; humans, demons, half-demons, etc.
"Weird yes. This is some kind of stadium, right? So some big uptight oaf must've brought his girlfriend to hang over his arm," Yusuke declared.
"I see we've all come?"
They turned to see Hiei, standing alone with hands in pockets. His sword hung at his side.
"Yeah, Hiei. Do you know what's going on?" Yusuke inquired.
"No idea" was the reply.
A female voice came over the intercom nearby. "Will all gentlemen please make their way to their seats; the show will begin in just a few minutes!"
The four said it in unison. "SHOW?!"
As they went in and sat down, they noticed a huge, circular stage with nothing on it except a wireless microphone stand. The floor around the stage was covered in small but comfortable plastic chairs and the walls were outfitted with bleachers. Hiei found their seats, all in a row, right in front of the microphone.
"Well, let's take a seat. I don't suppose we could switch if we wanted to," Hiei commented as a fight broke out nearby about a demon taking the seat of another.
The four sat, and the lights dimmed in the stadium. The night sky was open in sight, and the hundred of stars twinkled in the blackness.
Strobes began fast and red spotlights were aimed at a female figure that had just appeared onstage. She held the mike, and was dressed in a black bodysuit highlighted down the middle with a large purple triangle that stretched from her two shoulders to right at her belly button. Her large, pointed ears resembled Jin's, Yusuke thought, and her raggedly cut brown hair hung to just below her shoulders.
"Gentlemen! I won't bother saying ladies, because there's none out there, I see!" She held her open hand over her eyes in a mock-search.
"Gentlemen, welcome to our stadium for tonight's event! You've heard about it in the streets, you've heard it whispered about in the clubs; may I present out very own last stop on lover's lane, the league of love, the festival of feelings: The Hall of Hearts!"
A great cheer rose up and deafened out her voice.
"Notice, gentlemen, the small section of men sitting up here in front of the stage. They are tonight's special guests, so lemme hear a big round of applause for the lucky guys!"
Men hooted and cheered for the group, who now noticed that their four seats (along with one extra) were annexed from the rest.
"But wait! There's one chair empty! Where is our final special guest?" she inquired of the crowd, and began mock searching again.
"I believe that's my seat."
Everyone turned to see a tall man with long, white hair and a fluffy boa hung over his shoulder…
"Sesshomeru!" Inuyasha demanded.
Sesshomeru turned to see him.
"Little brother, how nice it is to see you here…alive." Sesshomeru sat down in the seat and brushed himself off. Inuyasha glared daggers at him.
"Ok, well now that they're all here, let's get the ball rolling!" The girl stepped down.
"You know, there's something familiar about that girl…" Inuyasha whispered to Yusuke.
An upbeat song began. A girl rose onto the stage, dressed in a green satin gown shimmering with rhinestones. Her black hair was done in an up-do and her brown eyes sparkled. She began to sing.
"Makin' my way downtown,
walking fast, faces passing, I'm homebound…"
Inuyasha's eye's bugged out.
Yusuke rubbed his chin. "Hey, isn't that-…"
"KAGOME?!" Inuyasha blurted out.
"Starin' blankly ahead,
Just makin' my way,
Makin' my way through the crowd.
And I need you. And I miss you. And now I wonder…"
"Hey, she's pretty good!" Kuwabara commented.
Inuyasha just gaped with his mouth open.
"If I could fall into the sky,
do you think time would pass me by,
'cause you know I'd walk a thousand miles,
If I could just see you…tonight…"
The crowd got into it, started yelling things and compliments at her, not to mention trying to pick her up. Inuyasha eventually closed his mouth, but said nothing the rest of the song. It came to a close when Kagome sang,
"If I could fall into the sky,
do you think time would pass me by,
'cause you know I'd walk a thousand miles
if I could just see you…
if I could just…hold you…tonight……"
The crown died out and Inuyasha was heard to stand up and scream, "GO KAGOME!!!" near the end.
Yusuke and Kuwabara were laughing hysterically when he sat down. Even Hiei was chuckling. Sesshomeru said nothing. A small smile played on his lips, though.
"That was great, Inuyasha!" Yusuke bawled.
The girl in the body suit came back out to introduce the next singer.
"Ok, sorry about not saying that girl's name before, but that was Kagome Higorashi! Wasn't she great?!"
The crowd screamed in approval.
"Ok! Well, it's time for our next singer. More specifically, our smallest singer. Let me introduce a darling little girl! I give you…RIN!"
The small girl came onstage in a cute blue kimono with yellow birds on it. She held the mike and it looked huge in her hands. The men looked at Sesshomeru, whose eye's widened at the girl onstage. Rin looked for Sesshomeru, and smiled when she found him.
"On my own,
Pretending he's beside me…
All alone,
I walk with him till morning…
Without him, I feel his arms around me
An when I lose my way
I close my eyes and he had found me…"
Sesshomeru looked on in delight as his little girl sang. The men just watched him react.
"I love him, but everyday, I'm learning
all my life, I've only been pretending!
Without me, his world will go on turning,
The world so full of happiness that I have never known!"
Sesshomeru now had tears streaming down his cheeks, he was so proud.
"I love him…
I love him…
I love him,
But only…on….my…own…"
There was a resounding "awwwww!" and Sesshomeru stood, clapping ecstatically as the stadium erupted in cheers.
The girl came back onstage after Rin had bowed and ran away, and yelled to the audience, "Wasn't that fantastic? But, ah! We still have a hot show here tonight! Gentlemen, can I get a phenomenal cheer for our rock queen, our mistress of the microphone, Keiko Yukimora!"
Yusuke did a double take.
"WHAT?! Keiko?! HERE?! Singing?!" He gripped the armrests of his seat as Keiko ascended the stage in a pink and blue set of a dress and pants. Her hair was messy and had all sorts of whatnots stuck in it. Her makeup was cute but bold.
A band rose behind her, consisting of the young Genkai on guitar, Shizuru on bass guitar, and Botan on drums.
Well, while Yusuke was dying from embarrassment, Kuwabara was bugging out to see his sister up there with Keiko.
The song began, and Yusuke righted himself.
"Turn it inside out so I can see
The part of you that's drifting over me
And when I wake, you're, you're never there
And when I sleep, you're, you're everywhere
You're everywhere…"
Yusuke watched Keiko find him and start dancing and singing right in front of him. He started out goggle-eyed, then just watched, vacant, as his quiet and shy girlfriend ("She's not my GIRLFRIEND!!!") threw out everything she had inside her out into the open.
"'Cause you're everywhere to me
And when I close my eyes, it's you I see
You're everything I know that makes me believe
I'm not alone, I'm not alone
I recognize the way you make me feel
It's hard to think that you might not be real
I sense it now, the water's getting deep
I try to wash the pain away from me
Away from me…"
Kuwabara elbowed Yusuke, winked his eye, and make a "peace out" sign at Keiko, who grinned and went on to finish.
'Cause you're everywhere to me
And when I catch my breath, it's you I breathe
You're everything I know that makes me believe
I'm not alone…"
Yusuke was shouting louder than anyone else when she finished. "YEAH KEIKO! YOU GO!!!"
Hiei chuckled along with Inuyasha and Sesshomeru.
"Oh, shut up, Hiei! I notice no one's been up there singing for you yet," Yusuke commented.
"Me neither, Urameshi!" Kuwabara exclaimed. "Unless you count my sister."
Yusuke laughed. "I would! Who else'd be up there for you?"
Yusuke was cut short by the pointy-eared girl coming up again.
"Well, folks, I hope you've had as much fun tonight as I have!"
The crowd cheered.
"That's all, folks! Oh, wait!…hold on…" The girl held the inside of her ear, signaling that an earphone was buzzing in there and she was being told something.
"Gentlemen, I have just been informed that we have one last performance for you tonight! Enjoy!" She stepped down. Onto the platform came a middle-sized girl. The girl held the microphone and the music started, her head down.
"There's a song that's inside, in my soul…
It's the one that I've tried to write over and over again …
I'm awake in the infinite cold,
but you sing to me over and over and over again…"
The girl raised her head, and Kuwabara and Hiei were shocked.
"Yukina?!" they both said.
"So I lay my head back down,
and I lift my hands and pray…
To be only yours I pray
To be only yours, I know now,
You're my only hope…"
"Yeah Yukina! Sing it, girl! Hahaha!" Kuwabara yelled.
"Well well! Seems someone came for me after all, "Hiei stated.
Kuwabara turned. "What're you talking about? She doesn't even know you're her brother! She's my girlfriend!"
"And that would constitute what, Kuwabara? That doesn't mean she didn't send me my ticket!" Hiei retorted.
"Sing to me the song of the stars,
Of your galaxy dancing,
And laughing and laughing again.
When it feels like my dreams are so far,
Sing to me of the plans that you have for me over again…"
"She's singing to me!" Kuwabara demanded.
"No, she's singing to ME!" Hiei yelled.
The music went low and the crowd began to cheer as the two stopped fighting.
"I give you my destiny,
I'm giving you all of me…
I want your symphony…"
The men looked up and the stadium resounded with the purity and crystal-delicate voice now ringing out above the cheers of the crowd.
"Singing in all that I am
At the top of my lungs I'm giving it!
So I lay my head back down,
And I lift my hands and pray
To be only yours I pray
To be only yours, I know now
You're my only hope!"
The music wound softer and softer. The audience erupted again, this time amidst a rain of multicolored confetti and red heart balloons. The five men were pulled up on stage, each to his singer. As Sesshomeru kneeled and congratulated Rin, Inuyasha stuttered at Kagome, and Hiei and Kuwabara complimented Yukina, Yusuke took Keiko aside to the front of the stage and whispered in her ear.
"Nice dress, Keiko."
She slapped him out of habit, and laughing, there, in front of hundreds in the stadium, and thousands watching at home, they shared a good, long kiss.