Scenario 3: A Foreshadowing Coincidence
"Buster Bros!" and Yuuto were walking away from a crowd…
"This should be far enough…" Ichiro mumbled.
"... It is. I don't hear any of them anymore." Yuuto responded.
"Since we're here, let's find the waiting room, Ichi-nii." Saburo suggested. Jiro moved near the younger brother. "Is that a map of the building?" He asked.
"Lemme see it." Jiro wanted while Saburo then looked annoyed.
"No way. I got it myself. You can find them by the entrance," Saburo tried to explain. "so go get one for yourself." Jiro looked really mad at that.
"Are you dumb? If I go back to the entrance, the Rap Battle will start before I even get back!" Jiro explained. It was kind of obvious due to the fact they were deep in Chuuoku and the entrance was miles away from where they were.
"You're the dumb one, Jiro." Saburo retaliated. "Just because you didn't find it yourself, don't think you can swipe someone else's things."
"It's just a little guide map, the hell are you on?" Jiro tried to convince Saburo.
"You're the one who didn't pick up this little thing!" Saburo yelled at Jiro.
At the sidelines, Ichiro and Yuuto just looked at the 2 fighting in quite a questionable face.
"Uh… Yuuto is starting to think you guys are being weird." Ichiro mumbled out loud.
"... They don't get along very well… Don't they…?" Yuuto wondered.
"Some observation!" Saburo yelled out loud.
"I cant help it when Saburo's always dissing everything I do!" Jiro yelled afterwards.
The air was quite awkward, to say the least.
"Well… They've been like that for a while. So don't be too surprised." Ichiro told Yuuto. Afterwards Yuuto understood what Ichiro meant, he continued to look around the faculty of Chuuoku. Ichiro noticed and wondered about Yuuto's actions.
"You keep looking around," He pointed out and Yuuto turned to him. "is it your first time here?" He asked.
Meanwhile, the 2 younger brothers stopped fighting over the map and decided to join the conversation.
"...Hm. Perhaps, is this your first time in a venue this big?" Saburo wondered.
"Then, you ain't never seen a Rap Battle as big as this." Jiro continued the train od thought Saburo had.
"I've only seen the festivals that Master was invited to, but nothing like this before…" Yuuto clarified.
"Rap Battles have a totally different atmosphere from festivals. You're in for a surprise today." Ichiro said.
"But Nii-chan, the Territory Battles are Rap Battles too, but they feel kinda different, don't they?" Jiro pointed out and asked.
"Yeah. The Alternative Rap Battle is more on the entertainment side. What sets it apart from most is that Yuuto's master; DJ ROKURO is participating." Ichiro explained.
"I heard that we won't be playing the beats from our "Hypnosis Microphone"'s speakers today…" Saburo said.
"That's right. We'll be rapping to the beats that the DJ plays." Ichiro continued.
"Hmm… I haven't worked a lot with DJs before, so I'm not sure how well I'll do." Jiro mumbled to himself.
"It's okay." Ichiro reassured. "DJ ROKURO's amazing. He'll play beats that are comfortable for each MC." He continued. "Jiro, Saburo- I think it'll be easy for the both of you."
"Ichi-nii, have you rapped to one of DJ ROKURO's beats before?" Saburo asks him.
"Just for fun." Ichiro said. "It's good to rap for fun once in a while." Yuuto then thought about something he does. 'Oh, that is true… After all, it was getting tiring just to rap for any other selfish reason…'
"We're usually fighting with our raps, aren't we…?" Jiro asks.
"Yeah." Ichiro answered. "That's how the world is now. But it ain't all that bad."
"This Alternative Rap Battle has prize money. So there's a chance to earn money through the power of rap." He continued.
"50,000,000 yen, if I remember right." Saburo said.
"That much…? Where in the world do they get this amount…?" Yuuto wondered.
"Everyone around you and me… They're all trying to win that money to help their own situations." Ichiro said. "I don't like that it's Chuuoku's money, but we can use it to our advantage to get what we want." He continued.
"I'll try my best, Nii-chan!" Jiro declared.
"I'm not just gonna leave it to trying." Saburo stated. "If we just attack randomly, we'll lose. So, I'm going to spare my energy in the fight, turning it on my enemy when they counterattack!"
Ichiro laughed with a lot of glee. "Haha! You're both so reliable! Keep that energy up."
"Yeah!" Jiro and Saburo simultaneously said. Yuuto still watching the Ikebukuro Team's determination unfold.
"...By the way, haven't we gotten to the waiting room yet?" Ichiro wondered. Yuuto then got hit with a hard imaginary brick. 'We're lost, aren't we…?'
Somewhere in Shibuya…
"Hey! The Rap Battle stream is about to start!" A boy in a hoodie said. "Akito! Come on, you might like this match!"
Another boy came towards the one wearing the hoodie. This brown-haired boy was wearing a simple light gray-blue coat with a yellow quarter symbol on one of it's sleeves. His pants were navy blue and shoes a cream and yellow combination. He was also carrying some sort of guitar case behind him.
"Oh my? What is going to happen?" Akito asked the other boy.
"The semi-finals, obviously! Shibuya's "Fling Posse" is in it!" The boy said excitedly. "Come on! Give me a telling! What will happen to "Fling Posse"?"
Akito looked at the boy with a questionable look. "Why do you want to know about the results? Won't that take the entertainment out of this?"
"I just wanna know about "Fling Posse"'s position, of course! Just tell me this one, what will happen to "Fling Posse"?" The boy asks. "I'll buy you food when we get together after class!"
Akito laughed first before accepting the boy's request. He placed his guitar case beside him first before he took out his deck of pocket. He closed his eyes for a moment and thought. 'During the Semi-finals, what will happen to Shibuya's Representatives?' He thought before placing his hand on the top of the deck and shuffled. He then placed the shuffled deck next to the other boy and chose a card towards the left.
The card was the Nine Pentacles in the upright position.
"Oh~ The Nine Pentacles." Akito said out loud. The other boy looked at Akito, as if he wanted the meaning of the card. "Oh, you want the meaning of this particularity interesting card, right?"
"H-Huh? Yeah…!" The other boy got caught off-guard.
"It's in the upright position, so it means that they'll show their fruits of labor." Akito explained.
"What if it was the other way around?" The other boy asked.
"Oh? If it was in the reversed position, then it would mean false success." Akito continued.
"Really? Then I'm glad that you drew that!" The other boy said in glee. He then looked back as his phone to continue waiting for the semi-finals.
Akito, out of curiosity, took out another card from the pile of cards in front of him to answer his own question. It was the Knight of Pentacles in the reverse position.
'...!? Knight of Pentacles in reverse position? Work without reward…? What does that mean…?' Akito continued to wonder. His fortune telling is almost right all the time. He knows that and everyone in his class and school knows. 'This contradicts the Nine Pentacles' meaning…'
He decided not to wonder on the thought too much. After all, in his mind was someone in particular. And that "someone" is in the semi-finals.
"Hey, Akito! Are you still gonna watch these rounds with me, or not?" The other boy asks as he notices Akito staring into nothing. The brown-haired looked surprised.
"Oh! Well, since I'm here, I might as well." Akito admitted.
"You said you rap before, right? I knew you couldn't fight the urge!" The other boy said.
Back in Chuuoku, with "Buster Bros!" and Yuuto…
"The waiting room is… Um…" Saburo mumbled out loud as he was looking at the map in his hands.
"... We're lost… Aren't we…?" Yuuto repeated his thoughts from a while ago into word format. Saburo looked mad at him.
"We're not lost!" Saburo yelled.
"Do… You want me to look at the map?" Yuuto asked Saburo.
"I can get us there, Yuuto! So just follow!" Saburo tried to have certainty in his voice, but Yuuto doesn't hear it.
"Now that I think about it, Yuuto how far are you gonna follow?" Jiro "pointed" out. "Don't you gotta go where DJ ROKURO is?" Yuuto wanted to face palm himself, but refrained from doing so.
"Haha! Looks like you just realized." Ichiro pointed out the most obvious thing right there.
"Even though we were talking so much about DJ ROKURO, it's pretty impressive that you still forgot." Saburo said.
"No problem. After all, Doudantsutsuji-san's waiting room is close to ours." Ichiro said. 'Oh that's a relief.' Yuuto thought. "Let's just stick together." Ichiro continued.
"So, Saburo, where's the waiting room?" Jiro asks.
"...We're on the wrong floor." Saburo mumbled quietly, Jiro didn't hear it, but surprisingly Yuuto did.
"Which floor is it? The one below us?" Yuuto asks Saburo with the latter jumping a little bit.
"W-Wait! I haven't said anything!" Saburo yelled.
"I have sensitive hearing. I can hear things in a wider range that normal couldn't. Like a while ago with the group of girls before. And another, with you saying we're on the wrong floor." Yuuto explained. Jiro then looked back at his younger brother and the latter just flat out turned red a bit before admitting.
"MY BAD for getting it wrong, alright?!" Saburo yelled.
"We ain't mad at you. If that's the case, let's go find the stairs. Right, Nii-chan?" Jiro looked at Ichiro for support.
"I think that I saw the stairs a while back. Saburo, sorry for leaving this completely to you." Ichiro apologized.
"My bad for overhearing…" Yuuto also apologized.
"Could you let me see the map?" Ichiro continued his sentence. Saburo looked apologetic too, but there was a hint of determination to get to the waiting room.
"It's okay… I can do it now. I don't want to trouble you, Ichi-nii." Saburo said.
"You can rely on me this can't you? We're brothers after all." Ichiro said. But he said more.
"But that decisiveness is one of your good points… Then, I'll let you lead. Show the way, Saburo."
"...Yes, Ichi-nii!" Saburo said with assurance.
Saburo was in the front, while Ichiro, Jiro and Yuuto were behind him. Ichiro wanted to ask Yuuto more about that "sensitive hearing" of his.
"Yuuto, how bad or good is that hearing of yours?" Ichiro asks. Yuuto looked at him with a questionable look before realizing what the question meant.
"Well, it's not bad… It's just I can hear certain changes in beats easier and hear noises farther away from what you consider normal." Yuuto explained. "But not all of it is good. Sometimes there's too much noise that I can hear and I can't focus on my thoughts properly…" He continued.
"Oh, I see… That must be useful after all, you're gonna be a DJ and need to make beats comfortable to the MCs, don't you?" Ichiro pointed out.
"Yeah, that's gonna be helpful, cause you just gotta think about patterns an' stuff." Jiro added.
Yuuto looked at them gratefully, he was happy that he got some advice but there was more, but he felt uncomfortable (at least right now) that he can't share that.
They then arrived at the floor below them.
"This is the floor, right?" Jiro asked.
"Yeah. We've got to go straight, then it should be on the right…" Saburo pointed out the directions.
"Ah, isn't that the door?" Ichiro pointed at the door with a label saying "Buster Bros!" in the front.
"...Yeah, that's it. I'm glad we found it…" Saburo said.
"Thanks, Saburo." Ichiro said before he went over to him to give him a head pat. Saburo looked so glad.
"A head pat… Thank you…" Saburo mumbled out loud.
"And now, we've gotta help Yuuto find where they need to get to too." Ichiro said. Jiro then found DJ ROKURO's waiting down the hall.
"DJ ROKURO's waiting room seems to be down there, Nii-chan." Jiro pointed towards the said room.
"...Someone's at the door." Ichiro said. When Yuuto looked over the door, there was someone talking to DJ ROKURO.
"That's Chuuoku's…" Saburo mumbled.
"That's the same person who called Master to come with them." Yuuto said.
"Could be that they're here to talk about the proceedings of the tournament." Ichiro speculated. "Apparently the DJ also acts as the presenter."
"Huh. DJ's sure got a lot to do." Jiro said in awe.
"DJ's handle pretty much everything that involves making the Alternative Rap Battle as exoteing as possible." Ichiro explained. "They also perform before the Rap Battles. There's probably people here who think that that alone makes coming here worth it."
"Since Ichi-nii praises the DJ a lot, I'm really looking forward to the performance!" Saburo said.
"Still, Yuuto going into that room could be kinda stressful." Ichiro thought. "Wanna come in our waiting room for now?" He asked Yuuto. The latter looking surprised.
"Huh?! Is that alright?" Yuuto hesitantly asked. He might bother them…
"Don't get carried away!" Saburo yelled at Yuuto.
"Don't use Nii-chan's kindness to your advantage." Jiro threatened.
'What did I do…?' Yuuto asked himself.
Before the threats kept on coming, the usual Big Brother broke the fight.
"You guys, cut it out right now. Come on, let's get inside." Ichiro said.
Somewhere in the audience…
The same blue-haired boy that met "MAD TRIGGER CREW" was just standing there instead of taking a seat. He just watched as the audience was waiting for the DJ, as he could tell. But he was waiting for the moment that Samatoki would appear, along with his team and his opponent.
"Matsumo?" A girl called out.
"Oh. Hey." Matsumo greeted the girl.
"I never thought that you would be here! Who are you voting for?!" The girl asks Matsumo, but he looked a little annoyed.
"I'm not voting for anyone in particular. I guess you could say that I'm here for the entertainment." Matsumo explained. The girl giggled.
"Matsumo, you always help out with the Music Club, why so?" She asked out of curiosity.
"It's a hobby to help out with the music-related stuff. Plus, I get to play my guitar in the room with no rules stopping me."
"Ooh~ That's right, you rap too! I'm guessing you're here to get some inspiration from everyone to have a style, right?" The girl guessed. Matsumo however, didn't answer. He was preoccupied with what he's thinking of right now.
'Who's it gonna be…? I'm calling "Buster Bros!" After all, I could tell that he hates the guy in there just as much as he hates me.' Matsumo looks at the time on his phone. 'It's about to start too. "MAD TRIGGER CREW"… If I see you again, you better get ready for your team's ass to be beaten.'He sighed.
'Although it has been a while since we've fought and I did say that I would make a team… There's no one around my class that didn't chicken out on the offer… Or anyone around Yokohama. Everyone's either too weak or already just on wit's end.'