Face The Music, Chapter 2
By: Storychan
A/N: Thank you to the two people who followed this story! I can't wait to hear your reviews of this chapter!
Carly dragged herself back to her apartment that night, sinking down into a chair in total exhaustion. What was she thinking, telling her editor she was going to find and interview Yusei Fudo? Nobody had heard from the former lead singer of Team Satisfaction since that infamous press conference two years ago, when he'd announced that the band was breaking up. He'd completely gone off the grid since then. It was strange. Normally, one-hit wonders would cling to the last shreds of their fifteen minutes of fame, milking it for as many interviews and as much financial gain as they could before the public stopped pay attention them entirely. She'd heard that MTV had even offered Yusei his own reality TV show, but he'd declined. He seemed to want to stop being famous as quickly as possible. It was completely unexpected, especially given the amount of die-hard fangirls he'd had before he suddenly quit the industry (Carly's college roommate, Aki, in fact, had fainted when she saw Yusei take the stage for the first time).
I don't get it, Carly thought. She was falling asleep in her seat when she suddenly heard the phone rang. "Hello?" Carly answered uncertainly. She didn't recognize the number.
"Hello," a feminine voice answered. "Is this Ms. Nagisa of Domino Music Monthly?"
"Yeah, that's me," Carly replied. "Who is this?"
"Oh, you don't remember me?" the woman said. "Oh, that's fine, your magazine only interviewed me very briefly, after all. My name is Mikage. I was a roadie for Jack Atlas."
The one who got a speaker thrown at her, Carly recalled. She considered herself lucky that she'd escaped her disastrous interview with Jack fairly unscathed. "What can I do for you, Ms. Mikage?" Carly queried.
"Actually, this is about what I can do for you," Mikage explained. "Listen….after I was fired from Mr. Atlas' tour, I took a job with the Public Maintenance Department."
"That's quite a career change," Carly noted.
"Yeah," Mikage acknowledged. "After what happened with Jack, I decided I was….done with showbiz for the time being."
"Understandable," Carly nodded empathetically. "But, what does that have to do with me?"
"You're looking to interview Yusei Fudo, right?" Mikage guessed. "Sorry, your editor told me."
"Yeah, I am," Carly admitted. "Are you saying that you can help me with that?"
"My job gives me access to a lot of files on certain people," Mikage confided. "I could give you Mr. Fudo's home address, if you would like."
"Couldn't you lose your job for that?" Carly wondered, brow furrowing.
"It's worth the risk," Mikage decided. "I just….have to know what happened in Jack's life to make him…like this."
"You mean, a jerk?" Carly scoffed.
"He's not so bad when you get to know him," Mikage argued.
"He attacked you!" Carly protested.
"He's….screwed up," Mikage sighed. "One of my friends, Rally, was his roadie back in the Team Satisfaction days, and he says Jack never used to be like this. He and the rest of the band – especially Yusei – used to get along just great. A bromance for the ages. And everyone thought they were going to make years' worth of great music together. Then, one day, something just….changed. Nobody knows why. I wish I knew what happened between them.
When I worked with Jack, he was normally a nice guy. But, Yusei just….brought up bad memories with him. It's the one thing he couldn't stand to talk about….no matter how many times I tried to get him to open up to me about it, he'd just…snap, and push me away. If anyone can get the whole story, it's you, Carly. I just….want Jack to be able to move past this. For his own good."
"Ok," Carly decided with a determined expression, whipping out a pen and paper. "Give me the address, and I'll pay Mr. Fudo a visit, and see if I can finally solve the mystery of what broke up the greatest band in the world."
….
The Next Day
As Carly looked up at the dingy windows of the building she stood in front of, she wondered if she had the right address after all. It didn't even look like a place of residence. In fact, it looked more like a garage. Fearing she might get her hands dirty, Carly tapped timidly on the door.
A man in a blue beanie hat and aviator sunglasses answered. "Are you looking to get a machine fixed, ma'am?" he asked.
"Uh….no," Carly replied. "I'm actually looking for a Mr. Yusei Fudo."
"You mean, the celebrity?" the man raised a confused eyebrow. "Sorry, ma'am, this is a machine repair shop. I think you're looking in the wrong place."
"Oh." Carly replied with a sigh. She'd come all the way out here for nothing. She should've known Mikage's information would be faulty. It wasn't like the Yusei Fudo's real address would actually be this easy to find. "That's ok," she said dejectedly. "I'll just….be going, then."
As she turned to head back to her car, her phone rang. It was probably her editor, asking if she'd made any progress. She didn't pick up. She didn't have the heart to tell him she had absolutely zero leads.
"Hey…." the man called after her. "Is that 'Satisfy Me'?"
"You mean, my ringtone?" Carly blinked. "Yeah. Why?"
"Nothing," the man smiled, shaking his head. "I just really like that song. You don't hear it too often these days."
"Well, it is true the radio doesn't really play it anymore," Carly shrugged. "But, it's still one of my favorites."
"Not your absolute favorite, though?" the man asked curiously.
"No," Carly shook her head. "My number one favorite song is 'Stardust'."
"That was a B-side on Team Satisfaction's debut album, wasn't it?" the man recalled. "It never got really popular. They didn't even make a music video for it."
"Yeah, it wasn't the band's biggest hit," Carly admitted, "but I personally think it was one of their best songs, even if it didn't have much commercial success."
"Really?" the man said, tilting his head in surprise and interest.
"Oh, absolutely!" Carly gushed. "I just loved the direction they went with the vocals. They were rougher than their normal sound, and had this more natural, garage-band vibe that I really liked. I liked how they changed up the instruments from their normal style, too – less electric guitar, more acoustic. I thought the lyrics were really poetic, too: Clustering wishes will become a new shining star…."
"Become the path its light shines upon far," the man finished. "Yeah, I thought that was a really inspired chorus."
"Hell yes! Ugh, I love it so much! I could totally sing the whole thing right now from memory!" Carly grinned fangirlishly. "But…er…you probably don't have time to listen to that, do you, Mr…?"
"Taro Daimon," the man introduced himself. "Sorry, I should have said that before. And you are?"
"Carly Nagisa," Carly provided.
"Well, actually, Ms. Nagisa," Taro offered, "Business is actually pretty slow today. I'm sorry I couldn't help you find the person you're looking for, but, since you came all the way out here, do you want to have a cup of coffee or something before you have to head all the way back to your office?"
"Actually, that'd be great," Carly said gratefully. She'd gotten barely any sleep last night, because she was desperately trying to bullshit an article about Jack Atlas before her deadline, despite the fact that he'd barely answered any of her interview questions.
She followed Taro into his shop. There was scrap metal and tools everywhere. "Sorry, the place is kind of a mess right now," he apologized. "I live upstairs, above the shop. We can have our coffee up there."
"Ok," Carly smiled, and allowed Taro to lead her up the staircase and into his small apartment. It was fairly spartan, as far as furnishings went – a simple couch, a TV, a kitchenette, and a door that most likely led to a single bedroom. Not a lot of decorations, Carly noticed. He seemed to live a pretty simple life.
He grabbed a coffeepot from the kitchenette and two mugs, handing her one and pouring in some joe as he gestured for her to sit down.
"So, you're a fellow Team Satisfaction fan, huh?" Carly said conversationally as she sipped the black coffee, enjoying the caffeine fix. "I don't meet a lot of those. I mean, they never had as many Top 40 hits as Jack did after he went solo."
"I'm not really a Jack Atlas fan," Taro frowned into his coffee cup. "But, I know that's an unpopular opinion. A lot of fans were delighted to hear that he was still going to make music after Team Satisfaction broke up."
"Of all the members to start a solo career, I'm surprised it was him," Carly disclosed. "Honestly, I thought the first to have a hit single on his own would be Yusei…but, of course, he quit the business instead of trying to perform without the band."
"Yusei? Really?" Taro batted an eye. "What makes you say that?"
"Well, Yusei was the lead singer, after all," Carly clarified. "I mean, before he went solo, Jack had only ever done backing vocals for a few songs. His main function in the band was playing guitar. Some people weren't sure if he could be a singer-songwriter without Yusei's support. But, then, he wrote 'Wheel of Fortune', so I guess he proved that he was up to the challenge. It was just like when the drummer of Nirvana started The Foo Fighters – people weren't sure it would work, but it did."
Taro glared back at her, silently gulping down the rest of his espresso.
"What?" Carly scratched her head, wondering what she'd said to offend him. "Not a fan of the Foo?"
"No, it's not that," Taro muttered, taking the now-empty coffee cups and throwing them in the sink. "It's nothing. Do you need anything else before you get back on the road?"
"Uh, actually I was wondering if I could use your bathroom," Carly requested politely.
"Oh, uh….in there," Taro pointed to the one door in the corner. "The bathroom adjoins to my room, so you'll have to walk through my room to get there."
"Ok, thanks," Carly bowed, heading that way. She quickly found the way and took care of her business, and was about to walk back through his room to the living room and say goodbye when something caught her eye. It was a framed picture with one face cut out, as if with scissors. But, she recognized the other three faces in the photo: Yusei, Crow, and Kiryu, three members of the legendary Team Satisfaction!
Probably fan memorabilia he bought at a concert, Carly guessed. Then, the fourth person in the picture was obviously Jack…..but, why would a Team Satisfaction fan deface a rare and expensive piece of memorabilia by cutting out Jack's face? Moreover, the photograph didn't look like an official, promotional photograph of the band, like the kind vendors sold at concerts (Carly was pretty sure she'd bought all the official photobooks, anyway – she was a diehard fangirl). No, this looked more like a candid shot, the kind taken backstage by someone who knew the band personally. But, where would Taro get his hands on something like that? Carly wondered in awe. She picked up the picture frame to look at it closer. That was when she saw something else hidden behind it.
It was a CD in a clear case, with the words "WHEEL OF FORTUNE" hastily scribbled on it in Sharpie. But, that's the title of Jack's hit song, Carly remembered, perplexed.
"Hey, what are you doing in here?!" Taro cried, and Carly almost dropped the picture frame in shock. "Who said you could go through my stuff?" he complained, eyes narrowing.
"I thought you said you didn't like Jack Atlas," Carly said defiantly.
"I don't," Taro insisted. "Now, put that down, it doesn't belong to you."
Carly set down the photograph obediently, but then she picked the CD up. "If you don't like Jack Atlas," she demanded, "then why do you have his song on your desk?"
"It's not his song," Taro murmured.
"What are you talking about?" Carly asked, totally confused. "Of course it's Jack's song. I don't know any other artist with a song by that name."
"It's not his song."
"You're lying, Taro!" Carly claimed. "Why don't you want to admit it? Is being a Jack Atlas fan just that embarrassing to you? What?"
"Oh, you think I'm lying, Carly? Listen to it, then," Taro challenged. "I dare you."
Uncertainly, Carly took the CD out of the case as Taro crossed his arms and watched. He slid a CD player towards her. "Go on, put it in," he insisted in an almost threatening tone. Perplexed and getting kind of weirded out – why had she agreed to have coffee with this stranger, again? – she popped the CD in and pressed play.
The familiar guitar intro of "Wheel of Fortune" greeted her. I knew it, Carly thought to herself. She waited for Jack's smooth vocals to come in with the catchy first verse that she knew so well. But, instead, acoustic guitar joined the usual guitar solo, and then a different voice came on and began to sing those familiar lyrics. Stranger still, it was a voice Carly recognized – the voice of Yusei Fudo!
"But….that doesn't make any sense!" Carly protested. "Jack wrote the song, not Yusei! And it didn't come out until two years after Team Satisfaction broke up!"
"Jack didn't write 'Wheel of Fortune'," Taro revealed. "I did. That traitor stole it from me! He totally plagiarized me after he quit my band!"
"Your band?!" Carly repeated, her quick mind already beginning to connect the dots. No way….it couldn't be!
"That's right," Taro said, tearing off his beanie to reveal jet-black hair with bright golden highlights, and removing his sunglasses to uncover eyes of the brightest shade of blue. "My real name isn't Taro Daimon. It's Yusei Fudo!"