DID I ABANDON THIS? AM I ON HIATUS?
I AM BAAAAAAAAACK and I am very VERY sorry for suddenly disappearing from the face of this planet like that TT v TT, some of you guys probably thought that Mizuiro to Beni Koi already ended with the previous chapter but nuh-uh. I decided to extend it BY a couple of chapters, I can't tell you how many its a surprise. I know I probably said we're ending soon, which isn't really lie. We're really close to the end but there are so many things we got to explore yet, right? I'm very sorry for making you guys wait for soooo long, we actually missed my fourth anniversary as an author. I was really stuck in a huge writer's block and due to that I find it difficult to write along and all that.
The last quarter of 2018 hit me where it hurts I had a few difficulties proceeding with anything. I usually post on my birthday but I wasnt able to do so as well, I was already planning on doing at least this chapter or Kankan. Those who are following me in AO3 may probably know this but to those who don't I lost my best friend from high school on my birthday last year December. It was a bit difficult for me for a while as me and my friends helped his family with the funeral and burial services since it was very sudden, I came straight to the funeral from work and I didnt have the time and energy to write anything for a while.
Thank you very much to everyone who are here reading this and will be reading the chapter! I did my best and hopefully from here on Kicchin can go back to routinely updating! I'm so glad I have you guys and this.
So yeah, enough of sad news since we should be happy for the newest update! We just finish the whole arc and now we're entering a new one, and we have new characters to introduce! Are you excited?! I aaaam! So yeah I hope you guys like this chapter, and welcome to the new arc!
PLEAAAAASE do let me know what you think and if you have any comment, suggestion you can leave it down the review ooor you can come to my private message and ask away! Thank you to everyone who left a review, fav and follow last chapter!
PS I have surprises for Akafuri shippers out there I know some of you thinks its done :) but is it?
ALSO HAPPY ANNIVERSARY TO JABBERWOCK VS VORPAL SWORD ARC! *winks* dont forget to leave a review and say hi since I missed you guys so much!
Chapter 39: Flash Point
Loud cheers resonates as the door to Tokyo Oriental Hotel opens and a familiar short haired brunet manager steps out, her gray skirt paired with a pristine white button up blouse meant business. She tucks a lose strand behind her ear as she takes a turn to face the open door of the hotel, four men dressed in black from the security comes out with four young men. Aida Riko couldn't help but smile at herself at the sight and the sound of squeals of the fans. Cameras begin flashing at the four members of Hikari no Ou.
Kagami leads the group as usual, the tallest member of the band wore a red letterman jacket over under a plain black shirt paired with dark jeans and dark boots. His eyes scans the crowd and his wine red orbs spots a particularly interesting group of fans flashing a banner he finds himself stopping. His action caused the teal haired musician behind him to stop as well, he finds a good spot beside the red head vocalist away from the blinding camera flashes before looking at where the other's line of sight leads.
Kuroko blinks as he reads the banner, pasted on the dark red paper are words cut out of some kind of metallic gold colored paper are the words he's recently been introduced to; KAGAKURO. Masking his amusement, he tilts his head to the side while Kagami just grins at the fans and waves.
"Can we have a picture please!" one of the fans exclaims through the noise of the rest of reporters calling their attention.
Kagami nods knowing they're fans are way more harmless than the press. He gently pulls Kuroko to his side. Kuroko chuckles at the gesture noting Kagami's hand on his shoulder, the other's gesture makes the red head turn to him with a smirk and just like that most of their fans almost explodes into all pitches of scream, cheers and squeals.
"Ugh, look at them being all cute and sweet." The raven haired bassist says as he can't help but watch the most popular members of their band. Takao sighs as he crosses his arms over his chest with a small smile.
Furihata who is following close behind the bassist laughs at this. In the few months after they released their first official album and their first sold out live performance, Kagami and Kuroko apparently bulldozed the polls for the best pair in the music industry, despite well…being both male. Nobody seemed to care for that part.
"Ugh, I kinda miss the days when they're like a bunch of stupid dorks." Takao bemoans. "They're so bright together, I can barely look. Furi do you feel me?"
The brunet could only smile awkwardly while looking at the bassist wearing a dark olive green turtleneck sweater that obviously does not belong to him but rather to a green haired guitarist. It is still fresh on the brunet's memories when Midorima welcomed Takao's warm embrace at the back stage after their live regardless of people around them. It was the happiest he had seen the two together.
Happy. In a way, perhaps that day none of them were less happy than the other. When the live ended it didn't felt sad like how endings would often be portrayed, it felt…promising. In a way it felt like how the night promises a new dawn as it weaves through the sky.
The journey isn't a concrete and paved road, everyone had their moments of weakness. There are days when the road ahead seems foggy. Time came when their legs are weary too, when their heavy hearts would refuse to be moved. There were days when nobody knew what is right and what is wrong, what is best and what is good. But though the path isn't clear, despite it being filled with potholes, cracks and hurdles, one thing is for sure, from here on no one will go forward on their own.
Fear, doubts, confusion and frustration they're divided with them together, it feels less knowing someone is holding your hand through it, knowing you're not alone anymore.
"Alright, alright, enough being cute for the fans." Takao says as he takes Kuroko from Kagami's side and gently nudges him forward and away from the red head. "Let's go follow Aida-san!"
Furihata chuckles as he watches Kagami quickly follows Takao with Kuroko in tow like a puppy would to its master. The brunet follows the three with him behind. His heart feels full, and maybe he didn't have exactly the warmest home, but he has a family…he has them.
"Furihata-kun, let's go?"
Kuroko turns and smiles holding out his hand at him with a smile. The brunet nods and smiles brightly.
"Of course!"
.
.
.
2 months later.
Kuroko press the headphone to his ear listening closely. Beside him is the director looking ahead at the man behind the sound proof glass, Kuroko ignores the man tapping his fingers to the rhythm over looking for the possible off tune or flat notes. They're currently recording for their third song since their first album release which is commissioned by another animation studio for a shonen anime for the coming spring.
The rhythm is upbeat and energetic with strong bass and drums which utilizes Kagami's strong masculine vocals. He smiles as Kagami hits the chorus flawlessly, they've been recording for two days and it's been going very well now. He looks up finally and finds the red head behind in the recording room focused on his song, his eyes are close and his freshly cut hair emphasizing his features.
"That's unfair!"
Kuroko hears Aida's exclamation through his headphone, he takes the said device off and turn towards the door where the brunet manager stood with a phone press against her ear. She frowns listening to whoever she is speaking with on the phone.
"But we already reserved it, and you guys agreed you said—yes, I know but I don't care because we are the first to reserve it." Aida says to the phone with displeasure clear in her tone. "What? No—but how about my boys? What? What do you mean you're sorry? That's just—Hey!"
Aida gapes as she pulls the phone away and stares at the screen showing the other person has hung up on her.
"The nerve!" Aida exclaims.
"Is everything alright Sachou?" Kuroko asks as he turns his seat to face the brunet.
"No." she admits with a sigh. "That's Kirisaki Stadium just now, they cancelled our reservation for the stadium."
Kuroko tilts his head to the side, "We only have two months. We were scheduled to release the date and event tomorrow though."
Aida sighs.
"I know, I have to make do with any stadium we have left that can accommodate us." Aida replies as he looks at Kagami behind the glass. "Apparently some VIP guys from abroad came and wanted the stadium. They couldn't say no."
"Foreign delegates?" The director asks pulling off his headphone to join the conversation.
"No." Aida answers as he reaches up to massage her forehead.
"No?" The director asks, "What kind of VIP are we talking about here Aida-san?"
Aida pulls up his phone and begins typing something down before putting down her phone. Both Kuroko and the director looks at the picture display on the screen. The teal haired musician blinks, a band, a foreign band. He squints his eyes at the man standing in the middle of the picture, a blond tall man wearing a sleeveless black shirt, eyes gleaming with arrogance and lips pulled to a sly smirk and a tattoo in his neck disappearing under his shirt.
"Jabberwock." Kuroko reads the bold English letter underneath the picture. "Jabberwock like…Alice in Wonderland?"
The director chuckles, "Well that's ominous."
"Apparently they want the stadium on the same day. They insisted and they couldn't say no to them, you know foreign all that." Aida explains. "They're here for a month long tour."
Kuroko hums before putting on his headphone, he rarely is that interested with foreign bands anyways. Though it can be quite problematic it isn't something that is new with so many bands and just enough stadiums, arenas and theatres in Tokyo, and with foreign bands sometimes there can be quite a bias. They will have to think of another alternative, somewhere close, familiar and not too expensive for their fans, somewhere…
"We haven't tried an outdoor performance." Kuroko says out of the blue.
"Uh…you guys did." Aida says, "Remember the shoot for Solution."
Kuroko nods.
"But that was for a shoot." Kuroko says as Kagami finally finishes recording. He looks up to him and shakes his head as soon as the red head turn to him signalling he missed a few notes. The red head sighs and gives him a thumb up anyways. "There are a lot of things we can do if we are outdoors."
"Hm? And what if it rains?"
Kuroko hums thinking to himself, they did a few outdoor live performances back then with the Generation of Miracles. They did two in Yokohama, another one in Nagoya and in a beach front during summer. They made a makeshift stage with a roof to protect the equipment from the elements and it worked fine before.
"Well?" Aida asks.
"What's up?" Kagami asks as he joins them stepping out of the recording room. "Sachou, what's up?"
"We can't use the Stadium." Kuroko simply answers, "I suggested an outdoor performance."
Kagami blinks.
"Oh, uh…"
"You're not going to say anything?" Aida asks the red head, "Like objections?"
"I-I'm not good with planning." Kagami admits making Aida sigh.
"To be fair," the director says lifting up a pen to make an emphasis, "Outdoor performances would be easier, local parks and nearby public locations are easily accessible and the fees are not that big in comparison to private owned stadium and arenas."
"But security!" Aida says with a sigh, "We will invest there so much, a-and building up stage and all that."
"What we can save from rent of the space could be allotted to the security." Kagami adds making everyone turn to him. "To think about it, we're still paying to build a stage up no matter what so it doesn't make any difference in that area. We will still have enough for a few cheap tricks like fireworks or lightshows."
Aida gapes at the other, for a moment he sounds like he knows really what he's talking about which doesn't happen everyday. Kuroko however after a brief moment of shock recovers soon and smiles in amusement, it is easy to forget that before Kagami Taiga is a musician, he is the son of a businessman. The director beside Kuroko nods in acknowledgement.
"He's right Aida-san. Besides you can utilize the space all you want, it's a good opportunity for bigger publicity."
The brunet is quiet for a moment thinking, well it does sound quite promising besides the band has already a reputation of being close to their fans and the public. Doing a performance in a park or plaza doesn't sound too outlandish now that she thinks more of it. Then an idea pops in her head and she finds herself smirking at it, she looks at Kuroko and Kagami.
"I have a good idea."
.
.
.
The afternoon sun is high in the sky making the raven haired bassist groan, he brushes his eye with the back. He has no idea how they ended up in the middle of a plaza in Ueno with the rest of the band and couple of staff and their manager. He had deadline earlier that morning and tired is an understatement as to what he is currently feeling. Beside him is Furihata dressed in a simple dark cargo pants and white shirt, on his other side is Kagami and Kuroko. Kuroko wears a denim jacket over his gray statement shirt paired with dark jeans, his recognizable blue hair hidden under his favourite baseball cap.
"There will be a good amount of people here that day." The raven haired bassist hears Furihata says in a low voice. The bassist looks up at him and quirks an eyebrow. "There is a Matsuri on the same day, the local government agreed and gave us permission in exchange of doing it exactly here as some performance to gather up crowd for the Matsuri."
"That's smart." Takao remarks.
"We're hoping you could perform as some closing act for the whole event." One of the city officer tells Aida with a kind smile. "We can arrange the schedule so that the last performance coincides with the fireworks."
"I like that." Aida says with a smile.
Takao couldn't help but feel a sweat drop to the side of his head, their manager has surely seen this coming which is probably why she decided to come here. He turns his head where Kuroko is standing observing quietly, the bassist doesn't understand yet how they ended up in Ueno scheduling a performance on a crowded plaza instead of their prior engagement at the stadium.
"Kuroko, didn't we have a reservation back in the stadium on the same day?" Takao asks.
Kuroko nods. "We had a problem apparently with the stadium. We can't perform there at that day."
"What?" Takao exclaims. "But why? We made that reservation months ago."
"Eh, is that true?" Furihata asks.
"Some foreign bands made the same reservation and they want it on the same day." Kagami answers them.
"But we had it first." Furihata says with a small pout. "We were about to announce it tomorrow too."
"We don't have any choice in that matter, instead of mulling over it we improvised." Kuroko replies.
"But that's unfair." Takao says with a huff.
"I agree." Kagami says, "Not because they're from the States they get a different treatment. Where's the equality in that."
"Well life is unfair Kagami-kun." Kuroko says nonchalantly. "It's not uncommon that some stadiums or arena would give priority to foreign acts as they would often pay higher."
"That's just fucked up." Kagami grumbled.
Furihata sighs, they've already had a plan for the whole set up as well as the choreographies all should be good to go. But as Kuroko said it can't be helped. The brunet decides to focus on the current situation now, at least they have the plaza and with this there can be more people to come and see them and with so much stalls and booths on that day they could also enjoy the festival before the actual performance. Silver linings, he reminds himself.
"It's not that bad." Furihata says with optimism and Kuroko nods in agreement. "We haven't done this before."
The brunet's optimism is contagious and soon they are all smiling and looking forward to their new venue. There is so much they could do with this, Takao thinks, with a blank slate like this they could come up with all sorts of design to utilize the space. Kuroko on the other hand is beginning to discuss to Furihata, Kagami's trouble with the recording earlier hoping for a quick insight from the brunet. For a moment they settle again to their own little worlds.
"Kagami-kun misses this part a lot." Kuroko says as he pulls out a folded music sheet from the pocket of his pants which makes both Kagami and Furihata smile awkwardly. He points at the part of the music sheet, and hums the tune at the brunet drummer before speaking again. "The beat we had here is fast, do you think the song would suffer if we change it a bit?"
The brunet drummer reminds himself of the beat and taps his foot accordingly. Though they have directors, producers and editors and most of the time they would confide with Kuroko, the teal head would still come up to them for suggestions for possible improvements before coming to the directors and producers for possible modifications. Kuroko had been very keen for Furihata's opinion as they usually do come to be the most critical.
"Oh I—"
CRASH
.
.
.
Kuroko's eyes widen as he finds Furihata down on the floor when a larger body bumped on the brunet.
"Furihata-kun!"
"Furi!"
Furihata groans as he feels his wrist strain under the weight and force he put on it after trying to brace his crash. He cradles it and looks up at the man standing in front of him. His eyes widen seeing a tall figure in front of him.
"Watch it, prick." The stranger says in English.
The insult doesn't escape Kuroko's ears and he whips towards where the man who bumped his friend stands. His breath catches in his throat for a brief moment as he sees not just one man but a group. Standing across them are five towering foreign men. A dark skinned, mascular man with piercings in his ears and lower lip and an unforgettable silver hair stands in the middle of the group glowering at them, beside him are two other dark skinned foreigners both with an intimidating look and a pale skinned short haired blond. Lastly, there is a man standing up front, eyes gleaming with a familiar arrogance. Kuroko frowns as soon as he recognizes the man's gold-blond hair and unmistakably tribal tattoo running down from the side of his neck to his arm.
"Why, so many little monkeys on the street these days." One of them said and chuckles.
"You said what, you little shi—" Kagami replies in his heavily accented English.
He steps forward but before he could do anything harsh, Kuroko reaches to him and stops him. The teal haired musician doesn't spare to look at Kagami knowing fully well the seething anger in the man's eyes. He knows this as they are probably the same with his.
"You could just apologize." Kuroko says. "Apologize please."
The blond raises an eyebrow at Kuroko's words almost as if he understood him.
"Ah, talking monkeys you don't see them often these days." The shortest of the group says.
"I-It's okay, I-I'm fine." Furihata says as Takao assist him to sit up.
"Your wrist." Takao says with a gasps notice the obvious redness in the area. "K-Kuroko, I think Furi got his wrist sprained."
Kuroko turns his eyes off from the foreigners and to his friend, his eyes widen.
"I-Its fine, j-just hurt myself for being a klutz—"
"Apologize." Kuroko says grimly before shooting a glare at the foreigners.
The ice cold glare makes the group stand still and turn quiet for a moment. The blond man with tattoo stares back at Kuroko for a moment, then it happens fast. Kagami didn't have enough time to react when he finds the man grabbing Kuroko harshly by the arm towards himself.
"Are you ordering me, you mongrel?"
Kuroko winces as the man tightens his grip, before the man could hurt him further, Kagami springs into action pulling Kuroko away from the man and shoving the man away with an intended force. The commotion doesn't go unnoticed by the staff and soon enough Aida is rushing towards them.
"What's happening here?" Aida asks as he looks at Furihata and Takao then to Kuroko and Kagami, before shooting a look at the five foreigners.
Her brown eyes widen and she almost steps back at the sight of the members of the infamous Jabberwock. Security personnel begin to rush to them making the blond lead step back.
"I said watch it." The blond says with his tone laced with threat as he moves pass them.