Fuusha no Akai
AN: Hello again! Thanks to all reviewers...see my responses down below!
Disclaimer: Fruits Basket characters belong to Takaya Natsuki. Plot belongs to Baz Luhrman and his angents, because I am spoofing Moulin Rouge!.
Chapter One - Welcome to Tokyo
I first came to Tokyo one year ago.
It was 1999, the Summer of Love. I knew nothing of Fuusha no Akai, Ayame Sohma, or Tohru. Japan had been swept up in a new cultural revolution ushered in by the Americans across the sea. Those who were most involved with it called it the "Second Bohemian Revolution", after a similar phenomenon that occured in France a century before.
And its mainstay was in the country's capital, Tokyo. There, you could find artists of all kind - writing, drawing, painting, singing, dancing, acting!...They were known as Kaiki no Jisou - another reference to their French predecessors, for the phrase translated to "Children of the Revolution".
I was moved by this revolution, and was ready to leave behind the many years with my Shishou to become a part of it. Sadly, he wasn't very agreeable about the whole situation...
"Kyo, for the last time...I am not allowing you to go to Tokyo!" Kazuma (Shishou) snapped. He and Kyo had been training together since Kyo was six, shortly after his mother died. As you could guess...Kazuma had grown a bit fond of his "foster son".
Kyo attempted to do a puppy-dog face (and failed miserably). "Shishou...don't you understand? This revolution follows all the ideals you tought me to believe in - truth, freedom, respect for the beauty of the world and its inhabitants...and love! If I could just go there and share my opinions -"
"Kyo, I don't think you understand," Shishou said. "Tokyo is a village of sin. The people there only care about themselves and their own welfare. And you would need the help of another to get started in such a world...you will be left behind like a rotten piece of fruit, left to have what remains of your money be lost to alcohol and geishas!"
"But Shishou!"
Shishou sighed. "All right...but I won't give you pity if you run back crying. Do you understand?"
Kyo nodded. "Hai, Shishou."
And so I found myself in Tokyo. I rented a small room in an apartment with what money my shishou gave me, and spent a nearly penniless exsistence preparing to write the ultimate romance.
There was just one problem...I had spent so long separated from the rest of the world that I no longer knew the definiton of romance. In other words...I'd never been in love.
Luckily, my muse (whoever that may be) smiled upon me, and sent me inspiration...
As a white-haired man in strange clothes...
CRASH!
...falling through my roof.
Kyo jumped up from his cot, staring at the newly-formed hole in the ceiling. A seemingly young man with white hair was now hanging by an arm and a leg from this hole, his eyes closed and drool falling from the corner of his mouth. Kyo could only stare in shock.
He was quickly joined by another man, in an equally extravagant costume.
The door to his room burst open, and another man entered the room, rushing to the unconcious man. This newcomer had black hair, slightly tousled, falling over his dark brown eyes. He wore a scarlet kimono over a white tuxedo shirt and - Kyo assumed - dress pants. The man started to pull his unconcious companion from the ceiling. "Honestly...why does he always have to do this at the worst possible time?..." he muttered to himself.
Kyo simply stood there for a few moments, dumbfounded. Eventually, he stepped forward. "Excuse me..."
The man in the kimono turned to Kyo, looking surprised. "Oh?...Oh! I'm sorry, I didn't see you there..."
He stuck out his hand. "A pleasure to meet you. My name is Shigure."
Kyo nodded, and took Shigure's hand. "...mine is Kyo."
Shigure nodded and smiled. "I have to apologize for my friend here...his name is Hatsuharu. You see...he has a bit of a condition. Awake and hyper one minute...unconcious the next. And a horrible temper to boot. But we deal with him as best as we can.
Hatsuharu's condition, I found out later, was classified as narcolepsy - or at least the fainting part was. I never got a chance to inform Shigure, though.
"...we?" Kyo asked.
"Ah, yes...my friends and I. We are a part of the Revolution you see...we were upstairs, working on a play that we are hoping to perform very soon."
"My first meeting with members of the Kaiki no Jisou - and it has only been my first week. It seems that Shishou was wrong," Kyo thought. "A play?"
Shigure nodded. "Hai, a play. We are calling it Spectacular, Spectacular."
"And it's set in Switzerland!" chimed a voice. Hatsuharu fell from the hole in the ceiling, hitting the floor. The head of a blond boy popped through the hole, followed by a girl with light brown hair.
"Momiji! I've told you several times...you're not supposed to do things like that while Haru is unconcious! You could end up killing him..." the girl said.
The blond boy - Momiji, apparently - simply beamed. "But Ritsu-chan...you know that I don't mean to hurt him!"
"You should still be careful," a third person said - a man with black hair and a sort of patch over his left eye. "Should we lose Hatsuharu...we won't be able to perform the play at all. Listen to Ritsu sometimes, please."
Momiji nodded, but Ritsu sighed. "Haru is still unconcious," she said. "Shii-chan...what are we to do? Momiji still needs to finish the music, and we haven't even finalized the lyrics..."
Shigure simply smiled. "Relax, Ritsu. All we have to do is have someone else read Haru's part till he wakes up."
"But who else besides Haru would even have a chance at properly portraying the young, sensitive Swiss poet-slash-goatherd!" Ritsu cried.
Shigure simply looked to Kyo. "What size clothes do you wear, Kyo-san?"
Kyo started. "What? Er...I'm a size four, sir."
Shigure grinned. "Just the right size..."
Kyo gulped. "Oh no..."
And so, about twenty minutes later, I had changed into Hatsuharu's spare costume and taken his place at the rehearsal upstairs. Little did I know the chaos that came from aspiring Children.
"The hills are animated...with...the euphonious symphony of DESCANT..." Hatori crooned.
"No, no, no, STOP!" Ritsu yelled. "That insufferable DRONING is drowning out the lyrics, Momiji. Stick to decorative piano like I told you to!"
Momiji pouted. "Drama queen."
Shigure sighed, and leaned over to Kyo. "I'll have to apologize...Ritsu's a bit of a perfectionist...poor boy."
Kyo stared at Shigure. "...Boy? Ritsu is a boy?"
Shigure nodded. "Mochidou! I thought you had already known..."
Kyo simply looked on at the scene.
It was easy to tell that there were "artistic differences" between Momiji's music and Ritsu's lyrics.
"Ritsu...I don't know if the phrase is proper for the situation...would a nun really say that sort of thing about a hill?" Hatori piped in.
"Well, would ANYONE in Switzerland wear a SCARLET KIMONO!" Ritsu yelled, pointing at Shigure, who sighed.
"Honestly, Ritsu...I'm just wearing this because I feel like it. It's not for the play. Now, about the lyrics..."
Momiji sat there, thinking. "How about..." He plunked a few notes on the piano. "The hills are vital...intoning the descant?"
Hatori shook his head. "That doesn't sound right either."
"The hills are incarnate with symphonic melodies!" came a voice.
"Shut up, Haru," Ritsu snapped.
Kyo turned in the direction of Haru's bed; the young man was still lying unconcious. "The hills..." he muttered.
"The hills are...chanting?..." Ritsu voiced.
"The hills..." Momiji said.
Suddenly, a single clear beautiful voice broke out above the din. "The hills are alive...with the sound of music!"
Everyone paused for a moment, then turned to the ladder. Kyo, looking slightly anxious, closed his mouth. Hatsuharu suddenly jolted out of bed. "The hills are alive with the sound of music...It's perfect!"
Momiji repeated his melody on the piano. "And it's just in time with the music!" he beamed.
Shigure smiled. "Nice job, Kyo-san..."
Kyo smiled awkwardly, took a deep breath, and began again. "With songs they have sung...for a thousand years..."
Shigure's smile widened into a bright grin. "Excellent!"
"Incandifers!" Momiji cried.
"That's 'incandiferous', Momiji," Hatori said.
"I haven't heard something so good in weeks!" Shigure squealed with glee. "Ritsu, you and Kyo would make a great team!"
Ritsu's eyes opened wide in shock. "I beg your PARDON!"
But Shigure's suggestion for the two of us writing the show together wasn't what Ritsu wanted to hear. At ALL. In the span of five minutes, the group had lost their first writer.
"Sayonara...BAKAS!" Ritsu screamed, slamming the door. A cloud of dust fell from the ceiling upon the five who remained.
Shigure sighed, and pulled out a few glasses from a cabinet. "I guess it can't be helped...but we should at least toast to Kyo-san's first job."
"First...job?" Hatori repeated. "You mean...you've never done this before, Kyo-san?"
"Erm...no..." Kyo answered.
"So?" Hatsuharu said. "This boy has TALENT! I like him." He stretched a hand up to Kyo, in an attempt to help him down...but ended up grabbing the poor boy's...er...genitalia.
"KYAH!" Kyo screamed, falling backwards over the ladder. Everyone stared at Hatsuharu.
"What?" he said. "I like talent..."
"That's not what we're thinking of, Haru..." Momiji said under his breath.
Shigure smiled. "The hills are alive with the sound of music...don't you understand, Hatori? It's his first day as a true jisou, and already he is creating beautiful poetry! I promise you...with his help, we will write the best piece of work that Tokyo - or all of Japan, for that matter - has ever read! The one show we've always dreamed of creating!"
"But what about Sohma-san? How do we convince him?" Momiji asked, swinging his legs over the piano bench.
"How else?" Shigure answered. "Kongouseki."
Shigure always seemed prepared with a clever plan. This one? Dress me up in some of Hatsuharu's formalwear, and pass me off as a young poet - great talent, but little fame. Once this Kongouseki heard some of my "modern poetry", as Shigure called it, she would be so astounded that she would insist that I be the writer. The plan was perfect...but what my father had said was coming true..."stuck living with alcohol and geishas"...
"No...NO!" Kyo screamed, picking himself up off the floor. "I can't write your show!"
He began to make his way back to the hole in the floor - his ceiling - but Momiji placed a hand on his shoulder. "What's wrong, Kyo-san?" Momiji asked.
Kyo gulped. "I...I don't even know if I'm the kind of person you're looking for. How could I be one of the Kaiki no Jisou?" Kyo said.
Shigure stepped forward. "Well...do you believe in beauty?"
Kyo nodded. "Yeah, I guess..."
"Freedom?" Hatori asked, also moving forwards.
Another nod. "Yes...of course."
"Truth?" Momiji asked.
"Yes...yes..."
Shigure smiled. "Love?"
"...love." Kyo said. "Love...above all things that the Jisou stand for, I believe in love. Love...is like...oxygen! Love is a many splendored thing, love lifts us up where we belong, all you need is!...love..."
Shigure stifled a laugh. "You see? You can't fool revolutionaries like us!" He spun Kyo around. "You, my friend, are the voice of the Second Bohemian Revolution! You WILL be the one to write this play!"
Kyo smiled. "Yes...yes!"
The perfect plan was about to be set in motion. I would audition for the famous Kongouseki
"And now, for that toast!" Shigure beamed, pouring a greenish liquid into martini glasses.
...and I would taste my first glass of absinthe.
"Cheers!" The five men cried, clinking their glasses and guzzling down the alcohol together.
Kyo suddenly wretched over, spitting into his glass. Everything around him dissolved in a blur of colors...except for one thing. The figure of a girl...dark hair, dark, botomless eyes. She wore a green stain dress, and a pair of mayfly wings stretched out behind her.
"Welcome, chibi neko," The woman said. "Welcome...to the Revolution."
Her eyes glowed red...
And all went black.
Next time on Fuusha no Akai: Kyo's first visit to the Fuusha no Akai begins, as Ayame Sohma and the Jeweltone Divas belt out a sultry serenade. And who is this mysterious Kongouseki that Shigure and the others are raving about? All will be revealed...next time!
And meanwhile...in review-land...
Applehappy: Thank you for being my first reviewer! And thanks for the positive comment.
KittySand Katie: Thank. You. Oh. So. Very. Much! I can't wait to read some of your stories.
Shoomy2003: Oh...I should have noticed that ahead of time! I've simplified that AN from the prologue down to a list only...no descriptions. Hopefully, that will allow for more unpredictability!
I also got your review about plaigarism. Please note that, in the prologue, I mention an "extreme tweaking" of the plot. Though it's not really evident now, it will be more present as time goes on. The meeting between Kyo and the Kongouseki is very different from Christian and Satine's first scene (the one with "Your Song") in the movie. And the ending is VERY different. I just need to put in filler...