'All around giant skyscrapers loomed blocking out the majority of the blue sky, the sun hidden as well though he desperately tried to find it. Wherever he looked, though, his eyes met the concrete and glass of the towering buildings, and the glimmering blue of the sky directly above him—no sun.

Sighing he changed his gaze to his level surroundings, mind buzzing by the crowds of people walking along, oblivious to him and his amazement. Holding back his urge to explore the city thoroughly, he turned down a side road—a shortcut to his destination.

Soon he was running, his legs stretching as far as they could, his excitement pumping adrenaline through him; he felt himself smiling, felt the happiness within him try to burst free as he ran, ran down the side roads and alleys toward the park. He laughed when he saw the trees and paths of the familiar place, laughed in joy at the peace being there brought—he felt his happiness reach out to the other people in the park, and felt their peace.

He paused in his running, gasping for breath and smiling before looking around him. The park suddenly grew empty, devoid of the warmth of a moment ago—he didn't worry though, his attention zoomed in on a man standing in the distance.

His light brown eyes studied the man in the distance—his form so obscured that it was merely a silhouette and housed no definite detail. Eagerly, he walked toward the man, focused intently on the stranger who was now the only person in the vicinity other than him—the man didn't seem like a stranger though, his body radiated a familiar aura that pulled him in.

He wanted to see his face.

Suddenly a flash of light illuminated the man's appearance, and he had a perfect view of the man's face—so familiar and shocking. He recoiled at the sight and his heart beat faster as his surroundings changed to those of a darkened room of a small apartment.

A split bottle on the floor, its leaking red fluid spreading an alcoholic stench in the room; a man by the window staring at him with a look that terrified him; the man walking closer to him as he clung to the wall, his heart threatening to burst from his chest. The man stood so close to him and reeked of alcohol, and said something that caused a shiver of sickened fear to rush up his spine.

"No." He awoke abruptly, gasping for breath as he felt his chest tighten from terror and disgust—why did he have to dream? And dream about that time for that matter? His hand shook, and he stared strangely at it before clasping it with his other hand to steady his nerves…'

"Whoa." Sakuya finished reading the page in her hand, her eyes gleaming with interest. "Your writing's intense."

"Yes, that's why I'm a bestselling author. Anyway, I'll have the rest written in a month or so."

"I'll call you in three weeks to check your progress." Sakuya said holding a slip of paper with the number on it. "Are you sure you want my company to publish this one?"

"Yes. It doesn't fit in the romance genre and that's the only one my present publisher accepts—anyway, I'm going to use a different penname for this novel."

"All right. But why did you pick my company?"

"Because yours has publishing rights in America and that's where I want it published—why do you think I wrote it in English?" Yuki paused and shut his laptop, before turning back to the woman. "And I want it published only in America, no where else."

"That…that presents a great barrier to advertising it—using a different name and limiting its distribution? Not many companies would agree to those terms."

"Those are the terms—otherwise you can't publish it." Yuki moved to take the pages back from Sakuya, but the woman kept them out of reach.

"You've got your terms, but there's a favor I want from you in return."

"What sort of favor?"

The Next Day:

Shuuichi got to NG Studios early to practice his new songs, his determination showing overtly in his features—he wanted to make sure nothing like what happened yesterday happened again. Plus he wanted to show that that newbie band couldn't sneak up like that on the polls with impunity.

The only band he'd allow to beat him was Nittle Grasper, any other doing so was unacceptable—and this newbie band had beaten his band and Nittle Grasper! That was even more blasphemous in his book—no one, no one was greater than his idol, no one could hold a candle to Sakuma, nor to him.

"Shuuichi's certainly fired up today." Hiro said the moment the pink-haired singer started singing their latest song. "I guess being second on the video polls pushed his buttons."

"It's not just that," Fujisaki replied, sitting down at the recording controls. "That new band beat Nittle Grasper too, and that's got Shindou-kun fired up even more."

"Did you find out anything about the new band…um, what was it called again?"

"Black Heart." Fujisaki glanced at Shuuichi singing in the booth then turned back to Hiro. "I didn't find out much, except that it really did appear over night—it played a show last week when the scheduled band couldn't make it. And then it was just a group of mismatched musicians put together on the spot."

"What? Where did you learn this?"

"It was in article in a magazine I looked through after the video charts yesterday." The keyboardist pointed to a magazine on the studio table. "That magazine is one of the biggest ones in Tokyo; I can't believe I hadn't noticed the article before. It's the second biggest one in that magazine. And in another magazine that story got front page."

"Hey, I read this magazine!" Hiro exclaimed as he noticed the title on the cover, flipping through it to the page of the article. "I haven't had a chance to read this issue though."

"I'm certain they're going to reprint the article because of yesterday's video polls—I bet the press is dying to get interviews with the members of the band that beat both Bad Luck and Nittle Grasper. And the public will be rushing to find all they can about the band."

"So after just a week this band was able to put together a video to top the charts? How did they find a Label to produce them that quickly?" Hiro mumbled aloud having read only the first paragraph of the article.

"They didn't, if you read the article fully, it says they produced themselves—the lead singer used money from other endeavors to finance the video and other promotions for the band."

"The lead singer financed…is she rich or something?"

"That it doesn't say."

"I bet music labels will be fighting to get them signed on now." Hiro replied, placing the magazine down and looking back to Fujisaki. "Speaking of which, is Seguchi…."

"He's going to meet with them this afternoon to discuss signing them onto the NG label."

A/N: I'm ending this chapter there since I have no idea what to write next and I want to update my story ASAP since I haven't been able to update in a while. I think I have a bit too many stories to handle, with a hundred more running around in my head waiting to get typed up. I love writing, it just takes a while sometimes to get the ideas written out in a decent way—I'm nearly a perfectionist when it comes to writing, I'm known among my friends for rewriting a chapter up to five times before deciding on a finished work.

Anyway, please review—and I DON'T care if you flame me, I just want reviews.

Also, this story is taking me down a different plot than originally intended, especially since I sort of forgotten what I was going to have happen to the canon characters—I only remember what I was going to have happen to my OC.