Authoress here. Finally.

I'm back from…the best place for nerderififc folks such as myself to be…band camp! Well, I've been back for awhile, actually, and just plain 'ole out of ideas. But I'm gonna give it a shot.

There will be more smutty lyrics in this chapter, and I apologize beforehand about them. They're not professional under any guise, and I ask you to not run screaming from your monitors in disgust and disappointment.

Also (aussi in French, fancy that) there will be tons of technical music crap in trying to describe the song Protégé will be playing. It's really, really hard to try and describe a song, and the suggested soundtrack for this chapter is a healthy mix of Evanescence, Nightwish, Coldplay, Gackt, and classical violin. And, if you can lay hands on it, the song "Yusuke's Power Up" from Yu Yu Hakusho for some wicked violin. See? Hard to describe.

Here's chapter Six!

Breaking the Tie
Chapter Six: The Audition

Gravitation

Seguchi Tohma steepled his fingers and peered over them at the three members of his most successful band sitting across from him. Shuichi and Suguru were practically on the edge of their seats. This worried Tohma, seeing as the usually reserved Suguru was acting quite oddly. But then again, Tohma mused, His daughter is going to be performing for me today…

That was the reason the head of NG had called this meeting. Today, the group Protégé would be having their audition, and Tohma was not one to do favors. No, he was going to hear this group of novice hopefuls, tell them they had no talent, and send them out of his studios. Even if two of the members had connections (close ones) with Bad Luck.

"Shindou, Fujisaki," he began, using what he thought was a tactful tone of voice, "I'm just here to warn you that I will have to judge Protégé on talent alone, and if their talent doesn't cut it, I will have to turn them down."

Shuichi nodded, Hiro bit his lip, looking nervous, but Suguru almost leapt to his feet before regaining his composure. Tohma noticed, and his frown deepened. This was very uncharacteristic of the young man, very uncharacteristic indeed.

"And I do believe you're all aware of my level of excellence I insist upon," Tohma continued. They all nodded, Suguru a tad sullenly, "And I hope you'll understand whatever decision I make."

The three band mates sat quietly until Suguru spoke. "You're turning them down before you even hear them, aren't you?"

Tohma's expression didn't change, except his lips tightened slightly. "I beg your pardon?"

Shuichi and Hiro cringed; Tohma's voice had taken on the overly-polite, extra-dangerous tone that the president only used when he was greatly annoyed. If Suguru noticed, he made no outward sign that he did.

"Listen, Tohma-san. I really appreciate that you agreed to listen to them, but it's a waste of everyone's time if you condemn Protégé before they've even walked through the door!" Suguru's face was slightly flushed.

Shuichi was staring at Suguru with his mouth slightly agape, Hiro was kneading his forehead, and Tohma was giving Suguru a cold glare. He opened his mouth to reply, but Suguru kept talking.

"I know these kids are young, and inexperienced, but they're good." Suguru continued. "I'm not only saying that because Keyara is my foster daughter, or because Toshi's a friend of mine. I'm a musician, and I know a good thing when I hear it."

Shuichi gave a little, barely audible groan. Tohma waited politely for Suguru to stop talking. "Are you done?"

"Yes." Suguru sat back in his chair, not meeting eyes with the dangerous blonde man behind the desk.

"Good." Tohma said crisply. "Because I'll have you know I'll be a fair judge-" It'll take a miracle for me to give these novices a chance! "- and if the kids prove they've got it, I'll sign them to a preliminary contract. But if they don't, I don't want an angry parent demanding why I turned them down. Understand?"

There was a round of nods, and Tohma stood behind his desk. "Excellent. You may leave."

There was a scraping of chairs, and Shuichi, Hiro and Suguru filed out of the office. Once the door was safely closed, and they were on the elevator to the sound stage on the third level, Hiro and Shuichi rounded on Suguru.

"Listen, we all want Protégé to fly!" Hiro growled. "But threatening Tohma or irking him is NOT going to help!"

"It was obvious what he's going to do, though," Suguru flared. "And it's not fair!"

"But it's not going to help if he just piss him off more!" Shuichi said gently. "Toshi, Keyara and Seiya will impress him."

A few hours later

"Okay, it's official." Seiya announced. Toshi and Keyara looked up from their equipment quizzically.

"What's official?"

"I'm scared shitless." Seiya declared. Keyara looked at her in disgust before returning to plugging in different cables. Toshi, however, set his violin on a stand and made his way over to his neighbor.

"What did we discuss about cursing?"

"It's fucking fun?" Seiya gave a half-hearted grin. Toshi glared at her, and she returned it. "C'mon, Shindou, none of us expected a break this early! We haven't suffered shit yet!"

"I expected it," Keyara said disdainfully. "You may be a foul person, Seiya, but you can play. That much is obvious. Otherwise, you wouldn't be here. So stop worrying and get prepared!"

Seiya gave the other girl a half smile. "Gee, a compliment. I think."

Toshi swatted her gently on the shoulder before going back to his violin. "You'll be fine. Just remember your chord changes on the bridge….B minor, C seven…"

"…E flat, G altered, F minor flat the fourth." Seiya recited. "Yeah, I got 'em."

"Good." Toshi picked up his violin and plugged it into the amp and pedal. "Then we'll all be fine."

He rubbed reison over the strings of his bow confidently, softening up the horsehair and greasing it for its performance. Then, setting the bar of reison down, he drew the bow across the strings, stepping on the pedal slightly as he did so. A wonderful, resonant, and thrillingly electric sound burst from the amp, and Toshi couldn't help but grin like an idiot.

"Protégé?" A roadie was standing by the studio door, clipboard in hand and wearing a headset.

"That's us." Keyara called. She was standing behind her synthesizer, completely relaxed.

"Good. Tohma is ready for you now. He'll be watching with a few others behind the glass." The roadie pointed to the wall facing opposite them, which looked like a large mirror.

"What?" Seiya yelped. "You mean, they can see us, but we can't see them?"

"Correct." The roadie nodded, and then glanced at her clipboard. "You may start when you're ready."

She exited, closing the door behind them. Seiya was looking at the mirror wall as if Tohma might jump out at them at any second, and Toshi felt his own nerves mounting. He had only met Tohma a few times, and briefly upon those occasions. The NG president gave off a powerful and intimidating air, and Toshi suppressed the butterflies that seemed to have bred in his stomach as best he could.

"Ready guys?" He looked over at Keyara, who flashed him a smile. Gawd, what a smile. Toshi felt his knees wobble, and the reason for it was not the blonde man sitting behind the glass.

"Ready, Seiya?"

She looked ready to throw up, up she nodded.

This is it.

Toshi set the violin to his left shoulder, and rested his chin lightly on the instrument. His fingers found the familiar strings, and he held the bow loosely at his side in his right hand. He closed his eyes, concentrating on the music playing inside of his mind. He could hear it, almost see it, and he felt his heart beating with the tempo of the song welling inside of his core.

Keyara started the song with a haunting piano melody. The sound was changed in a way so the piano notes lingered longer than normal, and some of the notes contrasted in a peculiar way before being resolved on the next pitch.

Then the tempo set in, the synth-simulated drums crashing in an introductory measure before settling down to a steady and quiet background. Toshi counted silently in his head, anticipating the guitar entrance.

There was silence where the guitar should have been. Toshi fought the urge to look around at Seiya.

A whole horrifying measure passed without any comforting guitar playing. Toshi's breathing increased as he fought down the panic rising disgustingly like bile in his throat.

But just when he thought he was going to lose his breakfast, Seiya came crashing in. It was not the practiced entrance, but something with a deeper fire drawn from the reserves of Seiya's panic. She came in with a rocking crescendo up a scale, adding some different tricky rhythm changes that changed the whole mood of the song. Instead of a creepy lament, it felt like a passionate obsession.

Toshi grinned, sweat creeping past his shoulder blades as he set his bow to the strings. He attacked his first few notes with the same energy Seiya had, although they had written that part as a soft entrance with an eventual rise in volume.

Nine counts of four was the length of his intro, and Toshi sawed his bow across his instrument with enthusiasm, again closing his eyes and improvising a little to adjust to the new setting of the song. His body moved and swayed as he played, singing through the violin like it was an extension of his voice, his foot manning the pedal to give his sound an ethereal, haunting, and frantic feel.

Keyara pounded the last few phrases into the piano, and cued the drum crash as Toshi's entrance. He let the bow fall off of the strings, and brought his chin up, releasing the violin from his shoulder. He held it in the crook of his arm, and brought his lips to the microphone before him.

"Here, in this room, I hear you, breathing harshly
I, feel the blood, begin to rise, and see the fear in your eyes
This, is the start, of the end, of my lustful torment
I, know you want me, you are wet for me,
Concede to me, release to me!

Open the doors for me to your precious haven
Don't try to hide, still your secrets I will find,
Give in to what you know you need
Push, pull, dive, squeeze and scream!"

Toshi stepped back a pace from the microphone, giddy with excitement. Like every other performance he'd ever give, his butterflies abandoned him as soon as he started. He brought back up the violin, and continued with the melody, completing the passionate harmony with both synth piano and guitar. The thin black tee shirt he wore stuck to his wiry frame from his exertion, and his entire body moved with the energy of the song.

Toshi ripped a last note out before half spinning around as Seiya slowly moved forewords, wailing into a guitar solo. She still looked slightly petrified, and kept sneaking glances at the mirrored wall. Her playing, after making the entrance mistake, was more timid than usual, but with Keyara's encouraging drum fills and pounding piano harmony, Seiya managed a decent solo before stepping back, letting Toshi go back to the microphone.

"We cease to feel, and we cease to live,
Somewhere inside you need to give,
Refuse me now, and you'll end aching somehow
I want to know you like no one has before,
I want you to know me, hold me, and touch me more!

Open the doors for me to your precious haven
Don't try to hide, still your secrets I will find,
Give in to what you know you need
Push, pull, dive, squeeze and scream!"

Toshi almost screamed the last phrase before backing away from the microphone again, and drawing up his violin. Now it was his turn for a solo.

Every memory he had, every feeling, every emotion was shown as he ripped and caressed his violin. He squeezed his eyes shut, pulled his lips taunt, and shredded up a haunting minor scale to fall down the relative major.

Every musician knows the feeling Toshi felt now; how the barrier between human and instrument falls away, and your fingers, breath, and entire being is swallowed up in the music you create. In that instant, you play perfectly, knowing without realizing exactly how you sound, look and feel to an onlooker. For a moment, there is nothing else. Just you, your tool, and the miracle you're creating.

Toshi was in the throes of this ultimate feeling, pushing the violin to its limits. The reison was only good for so long, and Toshi kept it singing. He brought it to a crescendo, and kept going. He had worn down the calluses on his fingers from playing, and the pads of his fingers were a raw red color. And still he pushed on.

In an instant, it happened. The thinnest string on the violin snapped, breaking with such force that the end that whipped back towards Toshi cut his cheek. That seemed to be the point Toshi had been hoping to achieve, and his solo quickly petered to a haunting close. As his highest string was rendered useless, he had to stay at the lower register.

"Open the doors for me to your precious haven
Don't try to hide, still your secrets I will find,
Give in to what you know you need
Push, pull, dive, squeeze and scream!"

Toshi stepped away from the microphone a final time, playing the lower octave of the melody as Keyara brought the song to a close. Seiya let her guitar fade in an electric echo, until the song was back to just Keyara's simple, haunting piano melody. Then, the song was over, nothing more than the heavy breathing of the exhausted musicians and the last piano sounds fading away.

A light came on behind the mirrored wall, illuminating those sitting behind it to the view of Protégé. There was Shuichi and Hiro, sitting still in a mixture of price and shock, Suguru, with a giant grin on his face, a few other higher-ups of NG, and lastly, Tohma. His arms and hands were crossed, and his expression hard to read. He pressed a button on the wall next to his chair, and spoke over an intercom.

"Firstly, congratulations on getting through what I know must have been an intimidating audition." Tohma started. Even though the words were positive, Toshi's heart sank. What it sounded like to him was the padding before the horrible rejection.

"You did well, for novice performers and song writers."

Toshi's heart had reached his toes, and he heard Keyara groan a little to his left, and a muttered curse to his right from Seiya. This was sounding like a eulogy.

"And I'm impressed you three came up with such…adult lyrics." Tohma sounded slightly disbelieving, and Toshi knew why. The older man knew that Eiri Yuki was involved in both Shuichi and Toshi's lives, and was probably assuming that Toshi had Yuki help write the lyrics. He gritted his teeth, not being able to correct Tohma's suspicion without the president voicing it.

"But there are a few other things I feel I need to touch base upon before I adjourn this audition."

Here it comes. The death knoll for Protégé.

"Your entrance to the song was a little odd. I expected something more mournful after hearing the piano, and the electric guitar brought in an entirely new feel. That was a little abrupt for me. And, I felt like I was waiting too long for your introduction to be over. In the music business, not boring your audience is one of the main goals." Tohma gave a polite little cough as Suguru started to say something, effectively stopping whatever he wanted to voice. Toshi could almost feel Seiya cringing without even turning around.

"And, while creativity is essential to music, I felt like I was picked up and dropped off in Ireland with the entire classical violin bits. This is pop and rock music, Shindou-san. Maybe with more pedal, and more electronic changing, and maybe then."

Toshi felt like he was burning with shame. He inwardly groaned as he felt his face and neck heat up with a blush.

Tohma didn't appear at all abashed at his bluntness. "So, what you see I'm trying to say…"

I wish I didn't see what you're trying to say, but it's perfectly clear… Toshi thought bitterly, biting his lip.

"…with just a few changes, you'll be ready to start prepping for your first opener to Bad Luck."

…you needen't say anything more, Tohma, we get it, we're….wait, what did he say! Toshi snapped out of his own thoughts at Seiya and Keyara's combined gasps of delight.

Tohma was smiling (albeit rather boredly, and not too convincingly) Hiro, Shuichi and Suguru were all grinning and suppressing whoops of triumph, and the other men in the room with them were nodding appreciatively.

"You mean….. Protégé will be opening for Bad Luck?" Toshi gasped out.

"Yes." Tohma looked slightly annoyed by having to repeat himself. "And if the fans take to you, we'll see about some recording." He graced them with another thin, somewhat-smile. "Congratulations. You performed….well."

And with that, he stood, and swept out of the room.

End Chapter

Authoress here.

Pain. Somewhere in my arm area…... my wrists? What? You mean they're still attached? Wow…… I need sleep. And reviews. Bof.