2: Brainstorming
(N/A: Shinra's struggle is that of all Shizaya fanfic writers everywhere.)
"I just can't get it right!" Shinra cried, throwing another crumpled piece of music paper into the already-full bin.
[You can! Don't give up!] Celty patted him on the back.
"I just have no idea what kind of things Izaya and Shizuo would say to each other if they were in love... Celty, they'd be a hopeless couple!" He paused to think about it. "Well, actually, they'd be an incredible couple! High above us! But I have no idea how to write that!"
[Shinra, why don't you go out for a walk? It'll clear your mind a bit.]
"That's a good idea, Celty. Thanks." He got up. "I'll only be ten minutes."
He didn't feel the need to put on his coat since it was mid-summer. He was wearing a short-sleeved grey top and dark grey trousers. He walked down all the stairs because the elevator was out of order, and took the long way round Ikebukero.
He was walking past the large fountain in the centre when he saw two figures whispering on the bench on the other side. One of them had a dark green top with pastel yellow short-shorts and the other had a pastel yellow top with dark green short-shorts. Then Shinra had the realisation that they were-
The fountain suddenly flared up, blocking his view of the figures. He sighed and waited for the pastel-pinky-white froth to dissipate and looked across once again.
They were gone.
Shinra turned his head inquisitively like a dog would. Where did they go? He was certain he'd seen them there just a second before. He walked around the fountain to look for them.
He stood right next to where they'd sat. He looked around to where they could've gone and saw nothing, so Shinra sat down on the bench in defeat. Not much he could do now.
Suddenly he felt arms wrap around his head and hands covering his mouth and eyes before he was pulled into the bushes.
The hands went off and he let out deep breaths, looking up, already quite confident that he knew who it was.
"Shinra! What are you writing in the love song Iza-nii has to sing with Shizuo-kun? Tell us!" Mairu said demandingly, pulling her glasses down to add suspense. She was the one in the pastel yellow top. Shinra hadn't noticed earlier, since he was far away, but there were cat faces on her shoulders.(n/a: you get what I mean. They have hoodies like this in the anime.)
"Well, truthfully... I'm not sure. I can't think of anything to right, I was just on a walk to fresh my mind." Shinra smiled nervously and rubbed the back of his neck.
"Fangirls, opinions romantic." Kururi offered. She said little, but basically it was 'Ask fangirls, they have opinions on romantic things.'
"Kururi, you're a genius! Thank you so much!" With one leap, Shinra was out of the bush and racing home to make a call.
...
"Welcome to TalkJapan! I'm Aira Takumi, your host! And today, our first story: Shinra Kishitani, the songwriter and line distributer for the legendary Izaya Orihara and Shizuo Hewajima's covers, is here today for an interview and to answer all your questions, but he also has a statement later on! Welcome to the studio, Kishitani-san!"
"It's great of you to have me, Takumi-san! Thank you for letting me come in today." Shinra smiled sweetly at her.
"It was a pleasure. Starting off today is our interview but first- anyone watching this live, send your questions for Kishitani-san in through our Twitter and Facebook pages, and also text us at..." She went on with the ways to send in questions. "Some of your questions will be read out at the end of the half hour Kishitani-san is staying, so stay tuned for that! But back to it."
She turned to Shinra now and asked, "Starting off, is it true that right now you are writing an original song for Orihara-kun and Hewajima-kun to sing that is about LOVE?"
"Yes... That is true." Shinra said nervously. "And yes, it is going to be about love. And they will sing it to each other..."
"But they hate each other! How could this come to be?" Aira asked incredulously.
"Well, Shizuo lost a bet." Shinra said, gaining confidence. "It was rather foolish of him to agree to it in the first place, though!" He chuckled.
"What did he bet on?"
"Well, Shizuo and Izaya bet on which of them would get the most retweets on Twitter. Needless to say, Shizuo lost."
"What would Shizuo have gotten, had he won?"
"He would've gotten the same as Izaya- I would have to write a song about a subject of his choice, and he could chose which lines Izaya got."
"So Izaya chose for the song to be about love!"
"Well, yes... Uh," Shinra's confidence shrank a little, "He said something about seeing Shizuo's redaction when I gave him the lyrics."
"Does that mean the lyrics with be... Embarrassing?" Aira raised her eyebrows.
"Not really. It's just... When Shizuo- well, they'll probably kill me for saying this, but Shizuo doesn't get embarrassed often, and I think Izaya might think when he's embarrassed he's..." He murmured something quietly.
"What was that last thing?"
"Well, it's just a hunch, but I think Izaya thinks Shizuo's face when he's embarrassed is cute. I mean, since it happens so little we all usually laugh- at least until he punches us in the face-" he chuckled, " Since Shizuo always tries to look away when he blushes. It's pretty funny. I know I'm not alone in this, because my girlfriend thinks so too, just she's mute so he doesn't realise it."
"Your girlfriend? Tell us more!" Shinra smiled inwardly. Finally, they were on a different topic.
"Yeah. Her name's Celty Sturleson. She transports the lyrics and instrumental tracks to each of them when we do a cover."
"And you mentioned that she's mute?"
"Yeah. She uses a little PDA to talk to people, but I love her all the same." Shinra blushed fiercely. Aira chuckled.
"Well, Kishitani-san, I think that's all the time we have left for the interview. Onto the viewer questions!"
"Yay!" Shinra smiled.
"First off, this one from Tsuki-chan: In the recent Lights and Ghosts mash-up cover, how did you do it? We're there more people involved? I loved the vocaloid style of the video!"
"Well, in that video first I made the music for the songs separately. I gave them each a song- Izaya did Lights and Shizuo did Ghost- to cover on their own. Then we sent the music to our great friend Simon, a DJ at a Russian-run nightclub in Ikebukero. He mashed them up together.
Our two great editors Namie and Tom decided on vocaloid style- I'm glad you liked it, Tsuki-chan! Then our good friend Walker drew the artwork for it. He has a YouTube channel along with our other friend Erika, go subscribe to them! Lastly Namie and Tom edited in all together. "
"Next question, from Aoi-kun: How many musical instruments do you play? And how did you learn them?"
"I can play 8 instruments. Guitar, piano, drums, flute, clarinet, trombone, violin and cello. Any other instruments used in covers are played by my father, and from there I can answer the other question. My father is the reason I have such a passion in music. From a young age he taught me to play instruments. At the age of four I was halfway to mastering my first instrument, the flute.
In total he taught me four of those eight I know. They were in order of when I learned them: the flute; the guitar; the piano; and the drums. The others I went out of my way to find instruments he didn't know and learn. I hope this helps. Anyone interested in music should dive right in and learn an instrument, it's a skill that you rarely get and you can boast about when you're older! Wait, I'm meant to be adult-like... Uh...it's a skill which will help you later in life?" He chuckled.
"Haha! So, next question, this time from Niomi-chan: How did you and the rest of the team start? What influenced you to make duet covers?"
"Oo, that's one I don't normally get asked. How we started? Well, I should just go from the beginning then. My and Shizuo knew each other in elementary school, then me and Izaya met in middle school while Shizuo met Tom in a middle school on the other side of Ikebukero. Then we all went to the same high school, and they instantly took a dislike to each other.
I didn't realise their singing talents until I one day heard Izaya humming a song while we were doing our detention one day- Shizuo had wrecked the campus going after Izaya, and I was wrongly accused of being an accomplice... Hehe. Anyway, Izaya was humming one song in one room which we were cleaning- that's where we were doing, cleaning the mess we'd made.
And then I went into the other room, and Shizuo was singing the song with him, he just didn't realise! So I just sat in the doorway, tapping with my feet as they went from humming to singing. I didn't tell them until the next day. They were about to fight when Celty intervened.
A few weeks ago, I was looking at old photos, and saw a photo of that moment. At that time, Celty and I had moved in together, and we were skint for money, so we got Shizuo and Izaya to do it without them realising. Then we got Namie and Tom to edit it and put it on YT. When they saw they were angry we'd tricked them, but when they saw how popular it was, they shut up and went along with the flow. We set up a account and split the money evenly. We were so delighted that people appreciated our work.
And then we basically quit our full-time jobs and got part-time work instead so we had more time. Since then, we've gone to not having day jobs at all to do more covers more often. Usually we can complete a cover in a few days, when it used to take weeks, and because of people's donations, we're staying afloat. Thanks for that question, Niomi-chan, I haven't said all that in one go before, really... "
"Sadly we don't have time for any more questions!" Aira pouted, before smiling again, " But Kishitani-san has a thing to say, hmm?"
"Ah, yes! I have a small statement to make.
You see, I'm the one writing the love song, but I just can't write it. You may not understand, so let me explain. Me and Celty have our relationship, but if Izaya and Shizuo were to have a relationship, it would be on such a high level, one which I haven't experienced ever, so I don't entirely understand what they'd do. This is all hypothetical of course. But what I'm about to say isn't.
Because I'm having trouble writing the lyrics, I realised who better to understand such a relationship but the ones who listen to them every day- the fans! So I'm asking YOU. Send any suggestions to my email, shinrakishitani and I will hopefully I crude them in the song! Thank you all a lot in advance for your help!"
"With that, here ends the TalkJapan session. Thank you for coming, Kishitani-san! Goodbye, do come back on the show anytime!" The show ended.
(N/A: Seriously, people. I need suggestions for the song. Leave them in reviews and PMs. This will be open until the time when the fic is complete, as it will only be sung in the last chapter, so SEND IN SUGGESTIONS! Just not through Shinra's made-up email XD )