Hikaru's say: Ok, ok, I'm fully aware that I haven't uploaded in nearly a
decade but I do have legitimate reasons (Hikaru has to dodge rotten food).
I have had a whole heap of end of term work to do (who would have thought
it would be this hard to research the Italian water polo team? ) and
I'm in the middle of moving house. Another thing is that one of the so
called sacrifices we have to make is getting rid of my computer and as of
the 11th my internet will be cut off. Why can't things ever go my way? Oh
well, I'm not giving up on this fic and I'll check out some internet cafés.
So enjoy the chapter and don't forget to review!
Shuichi finished singing and the arena was plunged into silence. A small tapping sound came from below the stage as Lily clapped her hands fiercely.
"Woo Hoo! Go Bad Luck! You rock!" she yelled as loud as she could up at the stage.
"Thank you Lily chan," Shuichi said into the microphone. "That's more praise then we get some days."
"Hey you get paid to perform, not to sob over your relationship problems," Fujisaki said with a knowledgeable look. As the performance grew nearer, his stress levels got higher.
Shuichi frowned and Hiro's posture sagged significantly. This was just great, two band members causing tension before a performance. Just what he needed.
"I wish something would interrupt this awkward scene," he grumbled.
The door at the back of the concert arena swung open with such force that it came off its hinges and flew through the air for a few moments before it crashed on the ground.
"This will do nicely."
Everyone looked up and something ran in so fast that no one could make out what it was.
"Lily chan!" it wailed in a high pitched voice. "I have stuffed up utterly! Help!"
Lily was knocked clear out of her seat and landed on the floor with a considerably loud thump.
The band members and their two superiors exchanged confused looks between each other for a few minutes before they hopped off the stage to investigate.
They made their way through the empty rows of seats before they found Lily sitting on the floor, comforting a tall girl with black pigtails who was crying loudly.
"Ok Joan chan, just what's the matter?" Lily asked awkwardly as Joan continued to make an embarrassing scene.
"I don't know how to do my math homework!" she sobbed and Lily's T-shirt started to soak up her tears.
"All right where is it?" Lily said soothingly and Joan took a bundle of papers out of her backpack.
"What don't you understand?"
"All of it!"
"Didn't the teacher explain it well?"
"Yea but I was trying to hack into the school database on my laptop at the time!"
"What were you doing that for?" Lily said pushing Joan away with a frown.
"I don't know," Joan said slowly as the tears stopped. She frowned with thought as she tried to remember.
"Were we ever like this?" Shuichi asked Hiro as he watched the bizzare scene with an awkward expression.
"No," Hiro said bluntly.
Shuichi sighed with relief and wiped some sweat from his brow.
"You were worse."
"Hey!"
K fired off a few rounds to get some form of order.
"Get back to work!" he said with a frown and the musicians were shepherded back on stage at gun point.
It wasn't long before a song was once more flowing through the air, relaxing everyone and turning the situation back to a somewhat normal level.
What's making you tremble? Hedonists are the ones who smile. Lying along these frozen rails is a future that's been planned without telling us. Eccentricity is an obstacle; passion is absorbing. Quite a nightmare, isn't it? Boredom's fighting back. Spicy Marmalade Now that it's exploded into being, seize hold of this evening's chance. Vanish into the night These days, people really seem to be lead astray, with faces hidden by sadness. Beneath the stage of the pale moon, the sobbing villain screams aloud. In the sweet contents of the bottle, the fatal reality is a misunderstanding. Mischievously acting like you want it, join the fad yourself. Quite a problem, isn't it? Vainly not even noticing... Spicy Marmalade In your own way, throw off the chains if they've rusted. Vanish into the night Even tonight, so intently gazed upon, becomes a phantom with the touch of a fingertip. Spicy Marmalade Now that it's exploded into being, seize hold of this evening's chance. Vanish into the night Conspicuous marmalade If you've decided you're ready, well, then... Spicy Marmalade In your own way, throw off the chains if they've rusted. Vanish into the night These days, people really seem to be lead astray, with faces hidden by sadness.
"I reckon it's time for lunch," Hiro said taking his guitar off. "What do you guts think?"
"Great! I made you guys a huge meal last night!" Shuichi said with a crazed grin holding up a huge pot.
Everyone except for K, Shuichi and the two teenagers went blue in the face.
They could feel their stomachs doing summersaults just from looking at the gruesome soup that strangely resembled cement mixture.
"Lily chan!!!" Shuichi yelled across the empty building. "Do you and your friend want some lunch?"
"No thank you Shindo san!" Lily called back. "Joan brought me pizza leftovers from the other night!"
"Ok!!!" Shuichi yelled and turned back to the others. "Come on now, who wants the first serving?"
"Now next time, try paying some attention," Lily said with a grim look as she handed Joan's now completed homework to her.
She hated the idea of doing her homework on weekends, let alone doing someone else's for them.
"You're the coolest Lily chan!" Joan cried smothering her friend, "and just for your trouble you can have my pocket money."
Lily stared down at the huge mound of 10,000 Yen bills that Joan had jammed in her hand.
"What is this?" Lily gasped a complete disbelief. "Annual? Half annual?"
Joan looked up from her math work with a pocky stink hanging out of her mouth.
"Huh? Oh that's weekly," she said with a shrug and went back to the sums that had been completed in Lily's scratchy writing.
Lily attempted to speak a few times but nothing came out. She took a deep breath a tried again, the fortune getting all sweaty in her palm.
"What does your Dad do for a living again?" she said weakly.
"He's a pet turtle."
"Come again?"
"He's a pet turtle."
"What are you talking about?"
"I said he's a pet turtle," Joan nearly yelled. "Aren't you listening or what?"
Lily let out a loud sigh before she did a communication swap.
"It's really nice that you're speaking to me in Japanese so no one here feels excluded, but maybe you should tell me in English," she said in English with her American accent running thick.
"He's the English ambassador," Joan said in a voice that clearly said 'can you tell I'm from Britain or what?'
"Oh ok."
"What was I saying before?" Joan asked looking worried.
"Um, never mind," Lily said deciding not to embarrass Joan any further. "By the way, why did the pizza you gave me have marshmallow on it?"
"That wasn't marshmallow," Joan said with a shrug and grabbed her laptop out of her bag.
"Then what was it?" Lily asked, fearing the answer.
"Probably lint from the bottom of my bag."
"Oh dear Lord," Lily groaned. She regretted asking that as much as she regretted asking what jelly crystals were made from.
"La Li Ho!" someone yelled from behind her.
Both she and Joan screamed and jumped out of their seats. Lily spun around on her skates to see Shuichi standing behind her.
"Oh it's you Shindo san," Lily said with her hand placed over her heart. "You startled us."
"Speak for yourself!" Joan wheezed and readjusted her glasses. "He scared the crap out of me!"
Joan finished tinkering with her glasses and looked up at Shuichi. She moved her laptop onto the seat next to her and walked up to him, placing her face extremely close to his.
"You're really cute!" the Brit said beaming. "Are you in middle school?"
"What!?" Shuichi cried and leant back. "I'm twenty years old!"
"I don't mind the older man," Joan said and Lily wished the ground would just open up and swallow her whole.
"I think Yuki san would have something to say about that," Hiro said as he joined them, taking great delight in watching Shuichi's awkward state.
"Is Yuki your girlfriend?" Joan asked looking crestfallen.
"Well not exactly, Yuki's my lover," Shuichi said slowly. He hoped the girls wouldn't be too freaked out if he came out with the truth.
"Girlfriend, lover, what's the difference?" Joan proclaimed waving her hand around.
"Yuki's a guy."
"Eh?" Everyone turned to see Lily wearing an amused smile at Joan's dismay.
"Well there goes my crush," Joan grumbled and picked up her laptop.
"How'd you know?" Shuichi asked gawking at the brown haired teenager.
"I didn't really, I was just guessing. Not many guys would refer to their girlfriends as lovers," Lily said logically with a shrug. "I'm just really glad I was right. It would have been a pretty ugly scene if I was wrong."
"You're taking this rather well," Hiro said.
"What does that mean exactly?!" Shuichi yelled at him, deafening him in one ear.
"This is the year 2003 Nakano san," Lily said with a shrug. "Us teenagers are well adjusted to everything from same sex relationships to the freaks singing on MTV."
"So you don't mind the fact I listen to David Bowie?" Joan asked hopefully.
"You make me sick," Lily said with a shudder and rolled away from Joan a bit.
"But anyway, sometimes you just need to look at thing differently."
Shuichi was trying his best to understand the two teenagers before him but wasn't getting very far. Hiro gave him a nudge in the ribs and Shuichi came back to the present.
"Oh yea, these are for you guys," he said holding out two VIP tickets.
"I thought the concert was sold out!" Joan said as she held her ticket carefully, afraid that it might disappear from her hands. "How did you guys get these?"
"We're the performers," Hiro said with a smug, superior look. "We can do whatever we want......when K lets us."
"All right then!" Joan said with adrenaline pumping at full speed throughout her entire body. "I'll see you guys at eight o' clock on the dot. This concert is gonna be bigger then The Matrix! Right Lily chan?"
"Actually, I've never seen The Matrix," Lily admitted with a shrug.
Joan gasped in horror and looked at Lily as if her head had just exploded.
"Oh my God! You haven't seen The Matrix?" she yelled.
Lily just sighed. Every time she told someone that she hadn't seen The Matrix, she always got the exact same answer. She figured she must be one of the four people in the entire universe who hadn't seen that damn movie and everyone else just felt the need to say: "Oh my God! You haven't seen the Matrix?"
"See you at eight," she said ignoring Joan and skated out of the building.
"I made him a coffin!" Joan cried as she held up a large cardboard box with Fujisaki Suguru written in her neatest Kanji next to the "Two Man Lift" symbol.
"He's not dead Joan," Lily pointed out with a frown. "Yet."
The group was crammed into the dressing room backstage, all looking at Fujisaki with worry. The young man was lying on the table, pale as a sheet and groaning loudly.
"Cold," he groaned shivering. "Oh so cold."
"Good Lord, what did he eat?" Lily asked in disbelief as Fujisaki started another puking session.
"Nothing except for my soup," Shuichi said.
"I don't think we need Sherlock to solve this one," Hiro said with a sigh as he listened to the audience outside the room.
The concert should have started fifteen minutes ago, and it didn't look like Fujisaki was going to make a miraculous recovery any time soon.
"I guess we'll have to cancel," Sakano said quietly before he started spinning around the room in his usual state of distress.
"I've failed you as a producer!" he wailed and tried to electrocute himself by jamming his finger in a power outlet.
"But Nakano san," Lily said looking at the guitarist, "K san, Sakano san, Shindo san and yourself also ate the soup. Why are you guys still ok?"
"Well to tell the truth, Sakano san and myself poured our helpings in the pot plant over there," Hiro admitted and jerked his thumb at the plant behind him.
Lily looked past him to see a brown, shriveled up plant drooping in the corner. You didn't need a degree in horticulture to tell it was deader then dead.
"I guess Shindo san and K san must have stomachs of steel," Joan hissed in Lily's ear.
"Uh huh."
Shuichi let out a loud sigh and looked away from the ill boy who was now wailing about how he didn't want to die.
"Looks like we don't really have any other choice. My keyboard skills are nothing compared to Fujisaki's and we don't have a backup keyboard player."
K lent against the wall quietly, completely relaxed. It was as if he knew that the problem would solve itself.
"Lily could do it."
"Shut up Joan!"
K smiled, Sakano rescheduled his date with death and both Shuichi and Hiro looked at Joan with surprise.
"What did you say Joan chan?" Shuichi asked, to make sure he'd heard correctly.
"I said Lily could do it," Joan said.
"No I can't!" Lily said quickly.
"Why not? Didn't you say you passed all your music exams with flying colours?"
"Shut up!"
"And that you won the statewide piano competition back home?"
"Shut up!"
"And don't you practice with Tohma after school?"
"Shut up Joan! You're making me sound full of myself!"
Lily was trying her best to silence her friend but Joan wasn't paying attention.
"All those things are true aren't they?" Joan asked her.
"Yes, but that doesn't mean anything. I've never played any Bad Luck songs before and even if I had the music, sight reading for keyboard is twice as hard then for any other instrument."
"However you can sight read cant you?" K asked.
"Well yea but...."
"Great! We'll just get the music for you and the rabid Fujisaki fan girls will have to deal with it," K said cheerfully and thumped Lily on the back.
"What!!!!! K san! You can't do that!" Sakano screamed and grabbed the front of K's shirt.
"Well it doesn't look like we have a whole lot of choice in the matter do we?" K said with a relaxed shrug and a crazed grin.
"That doesn't get us anywhere," Hiro said erasing K's grin. "Fujisaki knows all his music by heart and doesn't keep any written stuff on him. He's paranoid that someone will steal it."
"Crap," cursed Shuichi. Just when everyone had their hopes up, another calculated problem arose.
"Does he keep it on computer by any chance?" Joan asked tugging on Shuichi's sleeve.
"Ah, yea. I think he keeps it in the NG database, but he only every accesses it emergencies," he said looking at the tall girl who just about matched him in height.
"Well I think this qualifies," Joan said cracking her knuckles.
She jammed her hand up the back of her jumper and pulled out her laptop computer.
"Do you go anywhere without that?" Lily asked in a dull tone.
"Nope."
"How does she get around with that thing jammed up her top?" Shuichi whispered to Hiro.
Hiro shrugged and watched Joan as she balanced her laptop on Fujisaki's stomach. As soon as the computer warmed up her hands glided over the keys with the speed and grace of a swan coming in to land.
"What are you doing?" Sakano asked looking over her shoulder.
"Getting the files for my Lily chan," she replied not taking her eyes off the screen.
"But you can't get to them without access codes!"
"Can't I?" Joan asked with a maniacal grin.
"I can't let you hack into the NG database!" Sakano screamed in panic.
"Then turn your back and claim you didn't see it!" Joan ordered and jammed a disk into the A drive.
Sakano pulled at his hair as he thought of what he should do. If he didn't stop Joan he could be sacked and sued until he was so poor that he had to live off expired instant noodles. However, if he took his chances with Lily, the concert could be saved.
The chanting off "Bad Luck! Bad Luck!" from the crowd got louder every time it was said until it was almost deafening.
Sakano sighed. "All right, I guess there's no other choice. The fate of the performance rides on Lily's keyboard skills."
He then started to wail loudly. "Oh the boss is gonna kill me!"
"Ok done!" Joan declared with triumph and grabbed the disk. "You guy's sit tight and I'll be back in two shakes of a lamb's tail!"
"It's a good thing that the security team upstairs had a printer in their coffee room," Joan said with a huge grin and dumped a pile of papers in Lily's arms. "They were so nice, I didn't even have to show them how to get cable internet for free."
"Is anyone aware that I haven't agreed to anything yet?" Lily asked weakly.
"The performance," groaned Fujisaki from his deathbed.
"Oh shut up and die quietly!" Lily snapped. She was three steps away from having a full fledged panic attack.
"Go!" K commanded and pushed her along with Shuichi and Hiro out of the dressing room.
This was it. In under a minute she would be on stage in front of hundreds of people.
Hundreds of people who were sick of waiting.
Hundreds of people who had come to see Fujisaki perform-not her.
Hundreds of angry people!
"Oh God they're gonna cause a riot, climb on stage, grab me and brutally kill me with my own shoes aren't they?" she asked in a tight voice.
"Quite possibly yes."
Shuichi lead the trio on stage and Hiro walked behind Lily, just in case she decided to do a runner.
It was all dark on stage but Lily could just make out the dark shape of the keyboard on the right side of the stage. She groped around in the dark for a bit before she felt the familiar texture of the keys under her fingers. It was comforting in a way.
She propped the music up in front of her and the lights came on stage. They were hot and blinding. She'd already been sweating from nervousness but the lights made her body temperature skyrocket.
The crowd cheered loudly and Shuichi greeted the crowd.
"Sorry to keep you waiting everyone!" he said happily into the microphone. "Fujisaki kun couldn't be here to night due to unexplained illness."
Hiro rolled his eyes. How dense could Shuichi be? Unexplained his foot.
"So please welcome our friend on the keyboards tonight, Lily chan!"
A cheer rose up from the crowd but as K had said, the Fujisaki fans weren't exactly over the moon.
"What happened to Fujisaki sama?"
"Is he alright?"
"Who is this girl exactly?"
"Lily? Sounds foreign."
Lily gave the crowd a small wave as the glare from the lights made her large collection of silver earrings and ear cuffs twinkled and blinded some Bad Luck fans.
It was then she felt a familiar tightness clutch at her chest. Her hand grabbed hold of her T-shirt and her fringe fell into her eyes. She tired to take a few deep breaths but she was finding it very difficult.
'Come on Lily you can beat this thing. You should be over this by now! The doctors are wrong!'
"What's wrong?" Shuichi hissed and held a hand over the microphone. He shuffled ever so slightly in her direction but Lily held up her hand and after a few more seconds she straightened her posture and placed her hands on the keys.
"Must just be nerves," Hiro whispered and Shuichi nodded.
"Ok! Let's start with out further delay! The Rage Beat!"
The crowd screamed and Lily made a panicked shuffle through her music. With a quick prayer and half a second to scan over the music, she let her emotions loose and played.
"Hurry, hurry!" Ryuichi cried as he ran down the hall while dragging Noriko by the arm.
"Calm down Ryuichi," Noriko wailed as they swung around a corner at an alarming speed. "We're only a little late."
Despite her efforts however, Ryuichi didn't slow down and they came to a closed door.
"Kumagoro Beam!" he roared and threw the pink bunny.
The door stayed closed.
"What? No fair!" he wailed and started to get teary.
Noriko lent forward and turned the handle, opening the door.
"Now, now, don't cry Ryuichi," she said soothingly and handed him a lollipop.
He brightened up and a childlike smile covered his face.
The two walked through the door and onto the balcony above the crowd inside the arena. The balcony was reserved for VIPs only, and they definitely qualified.
"What's going on? That's not Fujisaki kun!" Noriko said in alarm and lent over the banister to get a better look at the person on the keyboards, who was a lot shorter than Shuichi.
"What! That's Lily chan! What's she doing here?" she screamed in alarm. "Does Tohma know about this?"
Her eyes then flicked over to Ryuichi but he didn't meet her gaze. He was looking down at the stage, his expression as dark as thunder.
Shuichi finished singing and the arena was plunged into silence. A small tapping sound came from below the stage as Lily clapped her hands fiercely.
"Woo Hoo! Go Bad Luck! You rock!" she yelled as loud as she could up at the stage.
"Thank you Lily chan," Shuichi said into the microphone. "That's more praise then we get some days."
"Hey you get paid to perform, not to sob over your relationship problems," Fujisaki said with a knowledgeable look. As the performance grew nearer, his stress levels got higher.
Shuichi frowned and Hiro's posture sagged significantly. This was just great, two band members causing tension before a performance. Just what he needed.
"I wish something would interrupt this awkward scene," he grumbled.
The door at the back of the concert arena swung open with such force that it came off its hinges and flew through the air for a few moments before it crashed on the ground.
"This will do nicely."
Everyone looked up and something ran in so fast that no one could make out what it was.
"Lily chan!" it wailed in a high pitched voice. "I have stuffed up utterly! Help!"
Lily was knocked clear out of her seat and landed on the floor with a considerably loud thump.
The band members and their two superiors exchanged confused looks between each other for a few minutes before they hopped off the stage to investigate.
They made their way through the empty rows of seats before they found Lily sitting on the floor, comforting a tall girl with black pigtails who was crying loudly.
"Ok Joan chan, just what's the matter?" Lily asked awkwardly as Joan continued to make an embarrassing scene.
"I don't know how to do my math homework!" she sobbed and Lily's T-shirt started to soak up her tears.
"All right where is it?" Lily said soothingly and Joan took a bundle of papers out of her backpack.
"What don't you understand?"
"All of it!"
"Didn't the teacher explain it well?"
"Yea but I was trying to hack into the school database on my laptop at the time!"
"What were you doing that for?" Lily said pushing Joan away with a frown.
"I don't know," Joan said slowly as the tears stopped. She frowned with thought as she tried to remember.
"Were we ever like this?" Shuichi asked Hiro as he watched the bizzare scene with an awkward expression.
"No," Hiro said bluntly.
Shuichi sighed with relief and wiped some sweat from his brow.
"You were worse."
"Hey!"
K fired off a few rounds to get some form of order.
"Get back to work!" he said with a frown and the musicians were shepherded back on stage at gun point.
It wasn't long before a song was once more flowing through the air, relaxing everyone and turning the situation back to a somewhat normal level.
What's making you tremble? Hedonists are the ones who smile. Lying along these frozen rails is a future that's been planned without telling us. Eccentricity is an obstacle; passion is absorbing. Quite a nightmare, isn't it? Boredom's fighting back. Spicy Marmalade Now that it's exploded into being, seize hold of this evening's chance. Vanish into the night These days, people really seem to be lead astray, with faces hidden by sadness. Beneath the stage of the pale moon, the sobbing villain screams aloud. In the sweet contents of the bottle, the fatal reality is a misunderstanding. Mischievously acting like you want it, join the fad yourself. Quite a problem, isn't it? Vainly not even noticing... Spicy Marmalade In your own way, throw off the chains if they've rusted. Vanish into the night Even tonight, so intently gazed upon, becomes a phantom with the touch of a fingertip. Spicy Marmalade Now that it's exploded into being, seize hold of this evening's chance. Vanish into the night Conspicuous marmalade If you've decided you're ready, well, then... Spicy Marmalade In your own way, throw off the chains if they've rusted. Vanish into the night These days, people really seem to be lead astray, with faces hidden by sadness.
"I reckon it's time for lunch," Hiro said taking his guitar off. "What do you guts think?"
"Great! I made you guys a huge meal last night!" Shuichi said with a crazed grin holding up a huge pot.
Everyone except for K, Shuichi and the two teenagers went blue in the face.
They could feel their stomachs doing summersaults just from looking at the gruesome soup that strangely resembled cement mixture.
"Lily chan!!!" Shuichi yelled across the empty building. "Do you and your friend want some lunch?"
"No thank you Shindo san!" Lily called back. "Joan brought me pizza leftovers from the other night!"
"Ok!!!" Shuichi yelled and turned back to the others. "Come on now, who wants the first serving?"
"Now next time, try paying some attention," Lily said with a grim look as she handed Joan's now completed homework to her.
She hated the idea of doing her homework on weekends, let alone doing someone else's for them.
"You're the coolest Lily chan!" Joan cried smothering her friend, "and just for your trouble you can have my pocket money."
Lily stared down at the huge mound of 10,000 Yen bills that Joan had jammed in her hand.
"What is this?" Lily gasped a complete disbelief. "Annual? Half annual?"
Joan looked up from her math work with a pocky stink hanging out of her mouth.
"Huh? Oh that's weekly," she said with a shrug and went back to the sums that had been completed in Lily's scratchy writing.
Lily attempted to speak a few times but nothing came out. She took a deep breath a tried again, the fortune getting all sweaty in her palm.
"What does your Dad do for a living again?" she said weakly.
"He's a pet turtle."
"Come again?"
"He's a pet turtle."
"What are you talking about?"
"I said he's a pet turtle," Joan nearly yelled. "Aren't you listening or what?"
Lily let out a loud sigh before she did a communication swap.
"It's really nice that you're speaking to me in Japanese so no one here feels excluded, but maybe you should tell me in English," she said in English with her American accent running thick.
"He's the English ambassador," Joan said in a voice that clearly said 'can you tell I'm from Britain or what?'
"Oh ok."
"What was I saying before?" Joan asked looking worried.
"Um, never mind," Lily said deciding not to embarrass Joan any further. "By the way, why did the pizza you gave me have marshmallow on it?"
"That wasn't marshmallow," Joan said with a shrug and grabbed her laptop out of her bag.
"Then what was it?" Lily asked, fearing the answer.
"Probably lint from the bottom of my bag."
"Oh dear Lord," Lily groaned. She regretted asking that as much as she regretted asking what jelly crystals were made from.
"La Li Ho!" someone yelled from behind her.
Both she and Joan screamed and jumped out of their seats. Lily spun around on her skates to see Shuichi standing behind her.
"Oh it's you Shindo san," Lily said with her hand placed over her heart. "You startled us."
"Speak for yourself!" Joan wheezed and readjusted her glasses. "He scared the crap out of me!"
Joan finished tinkering with her glasses and looked up at Shuichi. She moved her laptop onto the seat next to her and walked up to him, placing her face extremely close to his.
"You're really cute!" the Brit said beaming. "Are you in middle school?"
"What!?" Shuichi cried and leant back. "I'm twenty years old!"
"I don't mind the older man," Joan said and Lily wished the ground would just open up and swallow her whole.
"I think Yuki san would have something to say about that," Hiro said as he joined them, taking great delight in watching Shuichi's awkward state.
"Is Yuki your girlfriend?" Joan asked looking crestfallen.
"Well not exactly, Yuki's my lover," Shuichi said slowly. He hoped the girls wouldn't be too freaked out if he came out with the truth.
"Girlfriend, lover, what's the difference?" Joan proclaimed waving her hand around.
"Yuki's a guy."
"Eh?" Everyone turned to see Lily wearing an amused smile at Joan's dismay.
"Well there goes my crush," Joan grumbled and picked up her laptop.
"How'd you know?" Shuichi asked gawking at the brown haired teenager.
"I didn't really, I was just guessing. Not many guys would refer to their girlfriends as lovers," Lily said logically with a shrug. "I'm just really glad I was right. It would have been a pretty ugly scene if I was wrong."
"You're taking this rather well," Hiro said.
"What does that mean exactly?!" Shuichi yelled at him, deafening him in one ear.
"This is the year 2003 Nakano san," Lily said with a shrug. "Us teenagers are well adjusted to everything from same sex relationships to the freaks singing on MTV."
"So you don't mind the fact I listen to David Bowie?" Joan asked hopefully.
"You make me sick," Lily said with a shudder and rolled away from Joan a bit.
"But anyway, sometimes you just need to look at thing differently."
Shuichi was trying his best to understand the two teenagers before him but wasn't getting very far. Hiro gave him a nudge in the ribs and Shuichi came back to the present.
"Oh yea, these are for you guys," he said holding out two VIP tickets.
"I thought the concert was sold out!" Joan said as she held her ticket carefully, afraid that it might disappear from her hands. "How did you guys get these?"
"We're the performers," Hiro said with a smug, superior look. "We can do whatever we want......when K lets us."
"All right then!" Joan said with adrenaline pumping at full speed throughout her entire body. "I'll see you guys at eight o' clock on the dot. This concert is gonna be bigger then The Matrix! Right Lily chan?"
"Actually, I've never seen The Matrix," Lily admitted with a shrug.
Joan gasped in horror and looked at Lily as if her head had just exploded.
"Oh my God! You haven't seen The Matrix?" she yelled.
Lily just sighed. Every time she told someone that she hadn't seen The Matrix, she always got the exact same answer. She figured she must be one of the four people in the entire universe who hadn't seen that damn movie and everyone else just felt the need to say: "Oh my God! You haven't seen the Matrix?"
"See you at eight," she said ignoring Joan and skated out of the building.
"I made him a coffin!" Joan cried as she held up a large cardboard box with Fujisaki Suguru written in her neatest Kanji next to the "Two Man Lift" symbol.
"He's not dead Joan," Lily pointed out with a frown. "Yet."
The group was crammed into the dressing room backstage, all looking at Fujisaki with worry. The young man was lying on the table, pale as a sheet and groaning loudly.
"Cold," he groaned shivering. "Oh so cold."
"Good Lord, what did he eat?" Lily asked in disbelief as Fujisaki started another puking session.
"Nothing except for my soup," Shuichi said.
"I don't think we need Sherlock to solve this one," Hiro said with a sigh as he listened to the audience outside the room.
The concert should have started fifteen minutes ago, and it didn't look like Fujisaki was going to make a miraculous recovery any time soon.
"I guess we'll have to cancel," Sakano said quietly before he started spinning around the room in his usual state of distress.
"I've failed you as a producer!" he wailed and tried to electrocute himself by jamming his finger in a power outlet.
"But Nakano san," Lily said looking at the guitarist, "K san, Sakano san, Shindo san and yourself also ate the soup. Why are you guys still ok?"
"Well to tell the truth, Sakano san and myself poured our helpings in the pot plant over there," Hiro admitted and jerked his thumb at the plant behind him.
Lily looked past him to see a brown, shriveled up plant drooping in the corner. You didn't need a degree in horticulture to tell it was deader then dead.
"I guess Shindo san and K san must have stomachs of steel," Joan hissed in Lily's ear.
"Uh huh."
Shuichi let out a loud sigh and looked away from the ill boy who was now wailing about how he didn't want to die.
"Looks like we don't really have any other choice. My keyboard skills are nothing compared to Fujisaki's and we don't have a backup keyboard player."
K lent against the wall quietly, completely relaxed. It was as if he knew that the problem would solve itself.
"Lily could do it."
"Shut up Joan!"
K smiled, Sakano rescheduled his date with death and both Shuichi and Hiro looked at Joan with surprise.
"What did you say Joan chan?" Shuichi asked, to make sure he'd heard correctly.
"I said Lily could do it," Joan said.
"No I can't!" Lily said quickly.
"Why not? Didn't you say you passed all your music exams with flying colours?"
"Shut up!"
"And that you won the statewide piano competition back home?"
"Shut up!"
"And don't you practice with Tohma after school?"
"Shut up Joan! You're making me sound full of myself!"
Lily was trying her best to silence her friend but Joan wasn't paying attention.
"All those things are true aren't they?" Joan asked her.
"Yes, but that doesn't mean anything. I've never played any Bad Luck songs before and even if I had the music, sight reading for keyboard is twice as hard then for any other instrument."
"However you can sight read cant you?" K asked.
"Well yea but...."
"Great! We'll just get the music for you and the rabid Fujisaki fan girls will have to deal with it," K said cheerfully and thumped Lily on the back.
"What!!!!! K san! You can't do that!" Sakano screamed and grabbed the front of K's shirt.
"Well it doesn't look like we have a whole lot of choice in the matter do we?" K said with a relaxed shrug and a crazed grin.
"That doesn't get us anywhere," Hiro said erasing K's grin. "Fujisaki knows all his music by heart and doesn't keep any written stuff on him. He's paranoid that someone will steal it."
"Crap," cursed Shuichi. Just when everyone had their hopes up, another calculated problem arose.
"Does he keep it on computer by any chance?" Joan asked tugging on Shuichi's sleeve.
"Ah, yea. I think he keeps it in the NG database, but he only every accesses it emergencies," he said looking at the tall girl who just about matched him in height.
"Well I think this qualifies," Joan said cracking her knuckles.
She jammed her hand up the back of her jumper and pulled out her laptop computer.
"Do you go anywhere without that?" Lily asked in a dull tone.
"Nope."
"How does she get around with that thing jammed up her top?" Shuichi whispered to Hiro.
Hiro shrugged and watched Joan as she balanced her laptop on Fujisaki's stomach. As soon as the computer warmed up her hands glided over the keys with the speed and grace of a swan coming in to land.
"What are you doing?" Sakano asked looking over her shoulder.
"Getting the files for my Lily chan," she replied not taking her eyes off the screen.
"But you can't get to them without access codes!"
"Can't I?" Joan asked with a maniacal grin.
"I can't let you hack into the NG database!" Sakano screamed in panic.
"Then turn your back and claim you didn't see it!" Joan ordered and jammed a disk into the A drive.
Sakano pulled at his hair as he thought of what he should do. If he didn't stop Joan he could be sacked and sued until he was so poor that he had to live off expired instant noodles. However, if he took his chances with Lily, the concert could be saved.
The chanting off "Bad Luck! Bad Luck!" from the crowd got louder every time it was said until it was almost deafening.
Sakano sighed. "All right, I guess there's no other choice. The fate of the performance rides on Lily's keyboard skills."
He then started to wail loudly. "Oh the boss is gonna kill me!"
"Ok done!" Joan declared with triumph and grabbed the disk. "You guy's sit tight and I'll be back in two shakes of a lamb's tail!"
"It's a good thing that the security team upstairs had a printer in their coffee room," Joan said with a huge grin and dumped a pile of papers in Lily's arms. "They were so nice, I didn't even have to show them how to get cable internet for free."
"Is anyone aware that I haven't agreed to anything yet?" Lily asked weakly.
"The performance," groaned Fujisaki from his deathbed.
"Oh shut up and die quietly!" Lily snapped. She was three steps away from having a full fledged panic attack.
"Go!" K commanded and pushed her along with Shuichi and Hiro out of the dressing room.
This was it. In under a minute she would be on stage in front of hundreds of people.
Hundreds of people who were sick of waiting.
Hundreds of people who had come to see Fujisaki perform-not her.
Hundreds of angry people!
"Oh God they're gonna cause a riot, climb on stage, grab me and brutally kill me with my own shoes aren't they?" she asked in a tight voice.
"Quite possibly yes."
Shuichi lead the trio on stage and Hiro walked behind Lily, just in case she decided to do a runner.
It was all dark on stage but Lily could just make out the dark shape of the keyboard on the right side of the stage. She groped around in the dark for a bit before she felt the familiar texture of the keys under her fingers. It was comforting in a way.
She propped the music up in front of her and the lights came on stage. They were hot and blinding. She'd already been sweating from nervousness but the lights made her body temperature skyrocket.
The crowd cheered loudly and Shuichi greeted the crowd.
"Sorry to keep you waiting everyone!" he said happily into the microphone. "Fujisaki kun couldn't be here to night due to unexplained illness."
Hiro rolled his eyes. How dense could Shuichi be? Unexplained his foot.
"So please welcome our friend on the keyboards tonight, Lily chan!"
A cheer rose up from the crowd but as K had said, the Fujisaki fans weren't exactly over the moon.
"What happened to Fujisaki sama?"
"Is he alright?"
"Who is this girl exactly?"
"Lily? Sounds foreign."
Lily gave the crowd a small wave as the glare from the lights made her large collection of silver earrings and ear cuffs twinkled and blinded some Bad Luck fans.
It was then she felt a familiar tightness clutch at her chest. Her hand grabbed hold of her T-shirt and her fringe fell into her eyes. She tired to take a few deep breaths but she was finding it very difficult.
'Come on Lily you can beat this thing. You should be over this by now! The doctors are wrong!'
"What's wrong?" Shuichi hissed and held a hand over the microphone. He shuffled ever so slightly in her direction but Lily held up her hand and after a few more seconds she straightened her posture and placed her hands on the keys.
"Must just be nerves," Hiro whispered and Shuichi nodded.
"Ok! Let's start with out further delay! The Rage Beat!"
The crowd screamed and Lily made a panicked shuffle through her music. With a quick prayer and half a second to scan over the music, she let her emotions loose and played.
"Hurry, hurry!" Ryuichi cried as he ran down the hall while dragging Noriko by the arm.
"Calm down Ryuichi," Noriko wailed as they swung around a corner at an alarming speed. "We're only a little late."
Despite her efforts however, Ryuichi didn't slow down and they came to a closed door.
"Kumagoro Beam!" he roared and threw the pink bunny.
The door stayed closed.
"What? No fair!" he wailed and started to get teary.
Noriko lent forward and turned the handle, opening the door.
"Now, now, don't cry Ryuichi," she said soothingly and handed him a lollipop.
He brightened up and a childlike smile covered his face.
The two walked through the door and onto the balcony above the crowd inside the arena. The balcony was reserved for VIPs only, and they definitely qualified.
"What's going on? That's not Fujisaki kun!" Noriko said in alarm and lent over the banister to get a better look at the person on the keyboards, who was a lot shorter than Shuichi.
"What! That's Lily chan! What's she doing here?" she screamed in alarm. "Does Tohma know about this?"
Her eyes then flicked over to Ryuichi but he didn't meet her gaze. He was looking down at the stage, his expression as dark as thunder.