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Chapter 7

Of Stages names and Recording.

"I'm home!" Kasamatsu said after he took his shoes off and entered the house. He was greeted with a 'Welcome back' from his mother and two younger brothers, his father wasn't home yet. Sluggishly, he made his way up the stairs towards his room and flung himself down on his bed.

"Onii-chan, are you alright?" Mitsuo ―the younger of his brothers asked. He was nine years old. He resembled Kasamatsu, the only difference is that he doesn't have the short spiky hair; instead, Mitsuo's hair was neatly combed. He peered around the door to look in the room.

"Yeah, Mittie. I'm just tired." Kasamatsu replied with a lazy drawl. Yes, 'Mittie' was the nickname he gave his brother.

"Onii-chan~" his other brother sang in order to tease him. He skipped merrily inwards the room with Mitsuo following. "How was your day~?"

Kasamatsu cringed. "Mikkie, you're off key." He then deadpanned. "Today was the usual. Can't you see how tired I am?"

Mikkie ―or rather Mikio resembled Kasamatsu and his father the most, as he had the same hairstyle and unmistakeable thick eyebrows. He was thirteen years old.

"Pfft! Off key? You're such a show off." He guffawed, taking a seat beside him.

"Well, excuse me for putting my training to good use." Kasamatsu shot back with a smirk. Mikio then made a lunge for his older brother, but Kasamatsu quickly dodged and sat in his back pressing his elbow in Mikio's nape.

"I give! I give! Stop Onii-chan!" he wailed.

"Humph! For a thirteen year old, you're pretty weak." Kasamatsu smirked.

"I'm not weak!" he pouted. "So you're really going to become an idol, huh?"

"Yeah,"

Mikio chuckled evilly. "Then I'll be the little brother of a famous idol! I'll be famous at my school!"

"Ah, riding off my fame, huh? Evil, much." Kasamatsu chuckled. The older teen then lied down on his bed. He took out the package he received from Kenji and read through one more time. Mikio and Mitsuo were curious as well, but Kasamatsu kicked them out of his room, stating that they were being distracting. With cute pouts, the two boys left the room, Kasamatsu reassuring them that he'll fill them in some other time.

The first paper he read detailed their vocal and performance positions which he understood from when Kenji explained. But when he saw his position, he sighed. He was to be the leader of the bunch, and what he had to do wasn't much different from what he does as Kaijou's captain. He'd be the one to handle most of the questions asked at interviews as according to the document; Kagami is too hot-headed to think straight, Kuroko is too blunt and misunderstandings may arise, Kise has his dimwit-ish moments and Takao is too playful.

He chuckled at how accurate the document was.

But putting that aside for now, he took out the CD and opened up his laptop. He then placed the CD in the driver and listened to the music for the songs that they'll be recording. He found that he liked the music of the first song and felt that he'd get into this song better than the rest.

He then wondered what the others were doing, but he figured that they were probably doing the same.

"Ah right, I have to come up with a stage name too, huh?"

xxxx

Takao opened his door and took off his shoes before he greeted his family. His mother was in the kitchen, while his father and younger sister were in the living room, reading a novel and watching TV respectively.

"I'm home!" he perked. "Have you missed me?!"

"Absolutely not." His sister snorted. She had long black hair and big eyes like her mother but the colour was like her father's and Takao. She was thirteen.

"My, my, Kazue-chan," Takao started as he made his way over. "You're such a tsundere. I know you love me, don't be so shy to admit it!"

"Gah! Never!" Kazue shouted and stood up.

"You know, when we younger, you had said that you would've been my wife." Takao pouted. "What happened over the years?" He continued to tease.

"I grew up! And that's disgusting!"

"Kazunari, don't tease your sister." His father said without looking up from the book he was reading.

"Aww, Dad." He pouted as he took a seat beside him.

"How was it today?"

"It was the usual." Takao answered. "We've even gotten a package."

"Really?" his father closed the book and looked at his son who was beaming with excitement.

"Yeah, we got documents which explain our positions, the lyrics of the songs we'll be recording, and things like that." Takao explained. "You can have a look when you want."

"You seem quite excited for this."

"Of course! I can't wait for our début!"

Takao's father smiled. "I see. I'll be cheering you on."

"Then do you want to help me with choosing a stage name?" he grinned.

xxxx

"Papacchi!" Kise shrieked as he thundered into the house. "You have to see this!"

"Welcome back," Ryouhei greeted. He noticed how hyped up his son was. "Okay, okay. What is it?"

"Look!" the blond teen shrieked, taking a seat beside him. By this time, he greeted his mother who was busy in the kitchen. "We got the lyrics to our song and the music to listen to! And also, by next week we'll be recording two of them!"

"My eardrums." Ryouhei sighed. "But that's great. This is the first I've seen you so excited for something that's not basketball or modelling."

"Of course Papacchi! We'll be the best idol group!"

"I hear you." Ryouhei chuckled. "Just let me know when you're débuting. Ritsu and I have to be in the front row!"

"February tenth!"

"Okay, we'll try to get that day off."

"I love you Papacchi!" With that Kise flew up the stairs and into his room. Without hitch, he opened up and placed the CD in the driver and started to play the music. The first couple times he listened to the music without looking at the lyrics, but afterwards, he decided to sing along. The blond boy sang until dinner was ready and to say that he was getting in the groove would be far off from what he's actually feeling.

"We're so going to rock the stage!" he shrieked in happiness. But then he remembered something. He'll need a stage name. Springing up off his bed, he headed back down the stairs and into the living room. "Papacchi! I need help with a stage name!"

xxxx

Kuroko and Kagami sat around the coffee table listening to the music. Since Hikaru had agreed to be Kagami's guardian, the redhead had often time spent most of his days at Kuroko's house. At the moment, they were brainstorming possible stage names. Midway Kagami had stopped Kuroko as his naming sense was awful, throwing ideas such as 'Tetsu' and 'Kuro'. It was actually funny, but they were stuck.

Kagami decided to use his name as it sounds 'cool' while Kuroko could only comment that Kagami's naming sense was just as terrible as his was. This got the redhead enraged somewhat, and with an iron grip of his hair, Kagami held a fist at his face.

"What are you trying to say, you little bastard?"

"It's pretty obvious, Kagami-kun." Kuroko deadpanned. "And that hurts."

"It's supposed to! But how can you compare my naming sense to yours?! At least I wasn't the one who called the player from Shinkyo 'Dad'!"

"At least I gave him a nickname. Plus, you worked with it." Kuroko actually smirked at this.

"Well…" Kagami trailed off. "…it was because Coach told you to do it!"

"But you could have suggested another name, right?"

"You…"

"Why are you boys arguing over naming skills?" Hikaru asked, coming into the living room from the kitchen.

"It just happened." The both replied.

Hikaru laughed. "I have to tell Kenji this…"

xxxx

A week later after leaving basketball practice, the boys met Kenji before heading over to the recording studios. Since one of Aihara's operations included a record label, they have their own recording studios.

The boys entered the sound booth and greeted the personnel present. To the left and sitting before an audio console, there was a tall older man, with slick back black hair and kind dark eyes. He had a lean build and wore a blue dress shirt which was tucked into dark jeans.

"Hello there, I'm Munakata Satoru," He introduced. "I'm the audio engineer." But his eyes caught Kenji's prompt. "I work with the technical aspects of sound during the recording and I also help you achieve the sound that you want."

"I'm Furutani Kris, I'm the recording engineer. You can call me Kris." The next male introduced. He looked younger than Munakata and had red hair; his green eyes were covered by the leopard-print frames. He was dressed casually ―a v-neck t-shirt and jeans.

Kenji then introduced Catal Rhythm to the men and what they did next left the boys confused.

"Oh!" the two men chorused as if in realization of something. "They are the crazy bunch with the varying personalities! Nice to meet you boys!"

"Nice to meet you." The boys said in unison. However, they were wondering what it is that have been said about them.

"Now, it's time to get recording. Get in the iso booth, please." Munakata introduced.

"Iso booth?"

Kenji sighed. "An Isolation booth or Iso booth is a small sound booth we use to record audio. These booths have been specially treated to get rid of almost all noise. The reason we don't use large rooms is because these rooms will produce a very poor sound. While in contrast, the iso booths get rid of excess room noise so the mic picks up only what is being sung, thus great sound is produced."

"Oh…"

Kenji sighed again. "I need to give you some homework to know these things."

The boys headed into the sound booth and put on their headphones. Kenji watched his boys with awe as for some reason, they weren't nervous. Knowing them, he anticipated that they'd probably be nervous and shaking, but they weren't. If anything, they were calm. But a thought then flashed into his mind. They were more than likely going to be nervous wrecks when they're going onto their début stage.

Yes, Kenji nodded to himself; he needs to prepare a lengthy motivational speech for that time.

"Alright boys, are you ready?" Kris asked in the talk-back mic.

The five boys nodded.

"Yosh! Let's go!"

xxxx

The recording had gone smoothly, Kenji made a note to give Akamine some praises when he gets back. There were couple mistakes here and there, but nothing that couldn't be fixed after a do-over. He was now heading to show his boys their sets for their music video shoot, which, when told, they flew up into a frenzy.

Naturally, Kise and Takao screamed and behaved like children who were just promised a brand new toy, Kagami behaved like he just scored a slam dunk, Kuroko was actually beaming (which stunned everyone present) and Kasamatsu played it off cool.

"So when are we going to record the other three songs?" Takao asked. "I'm so excited for Hide and Seek!" He was seated on the left with Kuroko and Kasamatsu beside him, Kise and Kagami were in the back.

"Baby is better!" Kise shrieked in disagreement.

"My, my, aren't you eager?" Kenji chuckled. "Don't worry; I'll have your schedules ready by tomorrow."

"Yas!" Takao and Kise screeched. Kagami rolled his eyes, pissed that he couldn't move away from the blond. Kuroko seemed unaffected even though Kise was right behind him and Takao was next to him. Kenji couldn't help but laugh. In comparison to his previous group, they were more lively, which he found odd. They had a lot of pressure on them, and far less time to improve themselves yet still, they didn't show it.

Soon, they arrived at Image One but the question that flew out of everybody's mouth (except Kise) was:

"Why are we here?"

The boys knew that Aihara creates their own sets for their bands and soloists to use, so it struck them as odd to be coming all the way out here. But, not wanting to be bombarded with the questions, Kenji explained the situation with Kise. Strangely, they blew it off, but Kenji felt that either they didn't care, or they didn't bother to understand how these things work. Either way, it saved him the trouble of explaining further details.

So, the group headed inside the building and once again, Kenji had to flash his card to the receptionist. They then headed towards one of the elevators nestled to the left of the lobby, and once the doors closed, the boys exploded into chatter. As what seemed to be a natural occurrence these days, Kise and Takao shrieked and screamed with excitement, Kuroko was sprouting out blunt responses, Kasamatsu and Kagami throwing in their bits every now and then. Still, Kagami got upset many times when Kise and Takao became overbearing.

Soon they reached their destination, Kenji walked down the long hallway with his boys following. And just like when he came here with Hikaru, there were people darting to and fro, shouts could be heard in all directions, and this time, Kenji felt like the place was in chaos. Well, it seemed to be crunch-time chaos.

Pushing the white door open, Kenji scanned the area for Machida. They were being push and shoved and thrown all over the place due to people running back and forth and all over.

"He knew I was coming so why isn't he here?" Kenji grumbled as he typed a message. Meanwhile, Catal Rhythm were breaking their necks to see the sets up ahead. But, they were mostly concealed by what looked like white sheets, plus, the room was crowded.

"Aihara-san, you're here." A voice said from behind them.

"No, I'm not here." Kenji deadpanned with an uninterested face. "So, are my boys' set ready? They've finished recording."

"Ah yes, it is." Machida said with a chuckle. "Right this way." The man navigated through the crowd and brought them to another room, and what the boys saw, made them grin.

"And here are your finished sets."

xxxx

When Kenji brought them back to the Aihara complex, they were bundles of joy. Seeing their set ready may have ignited something within them, but this time, neither of the boys could keep still. They followed Kenji back to his office where the manager let out a sigh of relief. The day had been hectic somewhat and he was glad that he could sit and relax.

"Boys, how far have you progressed in your stage names?" Kenji asked. "Have you thought up a few?"

"Not quite." They chorused.

"Personally, I don't think stage names are that difficult to create."

"Huh?!"

"Don't 'Huh' me. Look, in creating a stage name, there are various ways that you can go about it. You can create a name that's related to your genre of music or a specific culture. Or you can choose to use your real name if it sounds unique, memorable or even catchy. The other option is to choose a name that actually means something to you or it sums up your personality. The easiest way I can tell you is to just simplify your given name."

"Then…I'll just use Yuki." Kasamatsu said. "I don't think I can come up with a name that's unique or whatever."

"Senpai!" Kise wailed. "On the court, you're extremely creative when passing the ball, so why aren't you putting that creativity to good use?!"

Kasamatsu shot the blond a nasty look. "The court and the stage are too different things, in two different worlds."

"But, I like it." Kenji said with a smile. "Yuki is a catchy name and there's a ring to it. I'm pretty sure you'll have the girls weak." Kasamatsu turned his face away in embarrassment.

"Yosh! My name will be Taiga!" Kagami grinned. "It's cool! And plus, who'll forget it?"

"It fits your hot-headed personality quite well. Sometimes, it really seems as though you're relying on instinct instead of intellect." Kuroko said in his usual monotone. "Especially on the court."

"You little…!" Kagami said, letting out a snarl as well.

Kenji stifled his laughter. He has been noticing that Kagami and Kuroko's interactions were as funny as Kasamatsu's and Kise's.

"Now there's the person who will have the female populace weak!" Takao laughed.

"Girls love a bad boy!" Kise said with a purr to mock the redhead. "I'll be Sunn. It's spelt with two 'N's."

"Why?" Kenji asked.

"It's easier to search and differentiate from the star which our planet orbit." he answered. "Papacchi has always referred to me as his precious ball of sunshine so I thought it's fitting."

"Why did Kise sound so smart with that sentence?" Kagami asked in shock. He then turned to look at Kasamatsu and Kuroko. "Did you kick him? Or did you jab him?"

"Kagamicchi!" Kise shrieked, rolling up his shirts sleeves. "Are you implying that I'm stupid?!"

"Well, sometimes, you kinda are." The redhead said bluntly.

Knowing that these two are always arguing with each other like cats and dogs, Takao quickly stepped in to avoid a calamity.

"And I, the Fantastic one ―Kazunari, will be using Taka!" Takao said. "Why? You may ask, it's in accordance with my ability, the magnificent Hawk eyes!" He then looked at Kuroko. "What will be your name Tetsu-chan?"

The moment Kuroko opened his mouth, Kise and Kagami covered the boy's mouth with their hands. Coming from their history with Kuroko, they both knew that his naming sense was atrocious. They couldn't let him ruin his stage name like this.

"Kurokocchi, let us handle it, okay?" Kise said with a smile.

"Yeah, Kuroko. Don't do this to yourself."

Kuroko pouted angrily. "I know my names are terrible, but I was thinking of calling myself Sora since my hair and eyes are so blue like the sky."

That silenced the boys. Kagami and Kise backed down and let out a sigh of relief. The name was somewhat cute, but for a fact, it suited him. Still, it left the blond and the redhead shocked. Why, of the times before, the names he's chosen for anything had utterly sucked?

But they were taken out of those thoughts by Kenji's applause. "I like these names. If you want you can change them later on before we put up your profiles but ―"

"We won't!" came the unison shout.

"I'll forget about the whole stage name thing and focus on something else." Kasamatsu said. "After all, when school reopens, we have Winter Cup to win."

"That's right." The others nodded.

"Good. I was hoping that would have been your reply." Kenji grinned. "Now," he looked at his watch before continuing. "The day is still young, and you have to practice your choreography."

"Oh right." The boys then made a beeline for the door, "Bye Kenji-san!"

"Try not to die now." He smiled. "Oh, I wonder if they know that Kuroko-san isn't the choreographer this time." Kenji shrugged. "Meh, it doesn't matter. I have to get cracking."

And thus, Kenji picked up the phone and proceeded to dial.

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