Chapter 5
Fran was glad that his annoying sempai left because of a mission that Xanxus gave him. He would be gone for at most a week. He would have all his thoughts to himself because no one bothered to irritate him anymore… well, for a short period of time anyway. But there was still one thing that Bel managed to do before leaving. It was now the mist user's turn to put Aoi in a trial. He sighed. Why would he even do that? The task was just a waste of time, it's not like he would gain benefit from it. He thought more about it. Why not make the test simple? All the complicated ones that his sempai-tachi thought of failed. Besides, it would be such a drag to squander effort on it anyway. He sneaked to the unsuspecting girl's room. Fran's eyes swept around the area and they fell on Aoi's guitar. He used his illusions to quadruple the amount of the said instrument. He left a note he wrote saying:
Find your guitar and you'll past my test. If you do, show it to me, I'll be inside my room.
-Fran
He left and closed the door. Fran walked to his room and fell asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow.
Aoi woke up. Her eyes squinted in the brightness, for some reason, when she tried to rub them, it hurt. She gave up on the act and reached for her electric guitar. Confused, she saw there was four times the amount of them. She picked up the scrap of paper on the floor and read the instructions Fran left behind. She almost laughed aloud. She could pick her real guitar among all the copies. It was no big deal. The real problem was to find Fran's room around the huge Varia base. Aoi run her hand through all of them. Her fingers felt a tingle on the last one. She grabbed it and played a few chords. Yep, this was her guitar. In an instant, the duplicates faded away into thin air. Now the gruesome task of locating the illusionist's room was on hand. Aoi had no choice but to start finding it. She wandered around all the hallways. Then, her ears picked up music coming from afar. It was the sound of an electric guitar crying behind the wall across her. Hell, the one playing was awesome! She couldn't stop herself from sitting down and playing the instrument she was holding. Yep, that was her weakness. Aoi had a weakness for electric guitars, no matter how queer it is.
Fran heard another electric guitar playing in the hallway, its tones identical to the one he was listening to. He opened the door and discovered Aoi contentedly plucking, her fingers becoming a blur on the fret board. He used the remote he carried to stop the music blaring from his speakers. Aoi's head snapped back up, irritation written on her face.
"Aww. Why did you stop it? It sounded real cool too," she said, her fingers doing a quick dance on the frets of her beloved guitar as she pouted. She seemed unconscious about it. Suddenly it dawned to her that she was talking to Fran. "Oh yeah, I got my guitar," she said lamely, even though he could plainly see the thing on her arms.
"Yeah, bye," Fran replied, reentering his room, but the doors didn't slam shut. He turned and saw Aoi blocking it with her body.
"Hey, can I please listen to the song you were playing a moment ago?" she pleaded.
Fran stared at her blankly like 'why won't you go away?' he nodded and pointed at the things Aoi were supposed to press in order to hear the sound again. Fortunately, she brought her amp and headphones along so everything was fine. She sat on the floor, clamped her headphones on (they were plugged on the music player), cranked the volume up, hit the play button, and waited for the song to start playing. Fran sat on his bed, wore his earmuffs to block all sound coming from Aoi's direction. He didn't want to hear her playing at all. He grabbed whatever book was in front of him and started reading.
WAKE UP, YOU READY? sou yume wo RIARU ni shiteku JOURNEY.
DON'T STOP michi naru michi ne OODAA MEIDO no GR8 STORY!
Aoi began plucking like crazy. She didn't want to sing for it would attract even more attention to herself. If someone she knew heard her sing, she might just die of embarrassment. But that didn't stop her from mouthing the words along.
Onaji toko guruguru rotou ni mayou BABY
Kakkotsuke kata mo shiranai kuse ni iki gacchattari shite
Hadaka ni narya kowai mon nashi shinu ki de GO MY WAY
Kagirareta toki no naka de saa boku wa nani ga dekiru darou?
Mou chotto mou chotto nemuttetai kedo mou jikan sa
Kakagero chikatta tatta hitotsu dake no mono wo
She couldn't help shake her head to the beat of the music as the chorus came along.
Jibun rashiku jibun uragire souzou koeteku STOORII
Shibarareta mama de tamaru ka saa buchi yabure genjou no toushindai
Fran's eyes slipped away from the book he was attempting to read. He was ogling Aoi from her position. She seemed really engrossed in the thing she was doing. What was so interesting about playing the guitar anyway? Where's the thrill in producing random noise from metal strings?
Tarinee noumiso ni tanonna ashibumi no hima wa nai
Ushinau tabi tsuyoku nareru sa
Hito shizuku no namida to tomo ni
Aoi started humming. Her body was feeling the music. Rather, she was music herself. With this, she could forget all her problems and everything she was confused and angry about.
Mata ashita mata ashita tte nigetai kedo tada shinjiro
Bokura ga mamoru beki tatta hitotsu dake no mono wo
She tentatively began singing; her voice was very soft, only a person who sat right next to her would hear it. But that wasn't the case, Fran was a few meters away from her and in addition to that, he was wearing earmuffs, a gesture that screamed that he didn't want to listen to her playing. She sang the chorus in her normal voice level.
Jibun rashiku jibun uragire souzou koeteku SUTOORII
Shibarareta mama de tamaru ka saa buchi yabure genjou no toushindai
Fran couldn't resist the urge to take of his noise separators; he did so just in time to hear Aoi sing the last verse. She was concentrating too much on the chords to notice him move and if she did, she refused to stop playing.
THE DAYBREAK HAS COME. mata atarashii kyou no makuake
THE RAIN WILL STOP SOON. yamanai ame wa nai kara susumo OODAA MEIDO no GR8 STORY!
He raised his eyebrows once Aoi was finished. Ookay… so he had just heard the last two lines of "Gr8 Story" by SuG in Aoi's rendition. She took of her headphones, she beamed at Fran. She thanked him for being so kind in sharing his music. Before he could reply, she ran towards her room whisking away her amp, guitar and headset.
"Well, that was annoying," Fran thought, "it seems like Bel-sempai already has his replacement." It was the first time anyone had ever apologized and thanked Fran. He was seriously overjoyed at this motion but his face remained expressionless. It would take an expert to decipher his emotions. He did show them once in a while, when he wasn't aware but that only happened during extreme situations. Like whenever he was really really angry or feeling absolutely depressed which almost never occurred in his whole life.
Aoi ran; she was ashamed to be caught singing in a boy's room. And the boy was Fran nonetheless. Ugh. I'm such an idiot. She knew he heard her sing the last part of the song, and she had this strong gut feeling that he was there when she sang "Akatsuki no Kuruma". Ugh… he heard her sing twice, TWICE! How annoying. She made up her mind not to sing inside the headquarters anymore. Unexpectedly, a thought crossed her mind. "Hey! Tomorrow's my birthday!" she shouted, immediately covering her mouth. Fran was a few hallways away, Belphegor was gone, Lussuria, Squalo and Levi were fighting and arguing in the lounging area which was a few rooms away and Xanxus was probably talking on the phone and calling people trash, no one would hear her above the din they made. She inhaled. That was good; she didn't want them to know any personal info about her at all.
Unfortunately, she was wrong. There was a certain green-haired guy who heard her holler. He was just on his way to the kitchen when he did. Eh… her birthday. I wonder what she's planning to do… Fran thought while keeping his apathetic look. He walked over to the fridge and grabbed the special sweet Belphegor hid, threatening anyone who would dare and steal it; and a spoon. He couldn't wait to see his sempai's reaction upon knowing that somebody ate the Mocha-flavored ice-cream with chocolate sprinkles and marshmallow bits on top. He probably would blame Aoi.
Tomorrow's going to be fun…