Chapter 03

Interlude: Music x Luck

Just as music saved me, I want to save someone else with music. As curtains raised and smokescreens cleared, these were the thoughts running though Iwasawa's mind. Soon she and her band members, Hisako, Irie and Sekine were all engrossed in the moment – the beginning of their live concert.

The crowd was ecstatic. Signs featuring 'GIRLDEMO LOVE!' and 'GO IWASAWA!' waved to and fro amongst a constant flashing of cameras. This is the time when the band of 4 girls enter their zone – trancelike, in the atmosphere surrounded by stage lighting and their own music. Nothing on the outside mattered anymore. Iwasawa sang her heart to the world.

This is what she lived for, and this is what she will continue to live on for from now on.

…

"WHAT? You havn't heard of GirlDeMo?" Yui, appalled, made a move to strangle her older brother.

Noda gasped a reply between breaks in Yui's strangle attack. "Arrrgh! Why…should I care…about some random…pop group? …Real power…comes through physical combat!"

"How does that even relate? Girls Dead Monster is amazing! 'GirlDeMo' for short! They perform amazingly for an all-girl band, and above all they have Iwasawa-san on vocals and guitar! She even does the composition and lyrics! My favourite is Crow Song! The climax is absolutely amazing! And you know what's really awesome? Alchemy! You know, Alchemy is…" Suddenly an image flashed through Yui's mind. She was saying these same words to someone…someone with orange hair…? Is this…Déjà vu?

"…Yui?" Noda was grateful to be released from near death, but it wasn't like Yui to keep clinging on after she was done.

"Huh? Aah…nothing nothing nothing!" Yui quickly forgot about the strange occurrence and attacked Noda one more time before releasing him. There was more important things at hand. "Anyway! We MUST win those tickets today! I went through the checkout 33 times to get these extra dockets so don't put my efforts to waste! Got it, Noda-nii?"

"Sure…" Noda sighed. This was, apparently, also part of his big-brotherly tasks. The pair was standing in a prize draw line at a supermarket promotion event. Every docket is a chance to pick a draw, and somewhere inside the waiting box was a prize of four VIP tickets to the next GirlDeMo concert. Because of this, both Yui and Noda had gone through the supermarket checkout numerous times (one willingly, one not-so-willingly), buying one item per trip. They now had a total of 66 tickets to draw tickets with – this equals 66 chances to win GirlDeMo tickets – and this equals 66 chances for Noda to avoid a certain fate (involving a near death experience by the hands of his younger sister).

"NEXT!" The sales rep gestured the eager sister and not-so-eager brother to the stand.

"Come on, come on!" Yui spun the draw-box with great enthusiasm. A small ball rolled out.

"White! Participatory prize!" The sales rep handed a pad of tissues to the still eager sister and quite un-eager brother.

"Ok. Still have 65 to go!" Yui spun the draw-box again.

64 spins later, a still eager sister and a brother who looked as if he was dreading something bad stood in front of the draw-box. They had, in a complimentary plastic bag, 45 small pads of tissue, 12 pencils and 3 small writing pads. Noda looked at the bag and wondered how much of the tissues Yui will get through in the next few minutes. Actually, he thought, if we don't get the tickets now, she would just make us do this all over again…He sighed.

Ignoring her brothers sigh, or rather, having not heard it at all, Yui was revved up and ready to go again. One last time.

"Wait!" a young girl with red eyes and long black hair walked up to the stand, followed by a white husky. "Shift change, buddy." She casually tapped the sales rep on the shoulder. "Come back in 5?"

"Huh? Ah…ok sure." The sales rep walked away obediently. Unbeknownst to everyone, he was actually under hypnosis – Come back in 5. A sweet voice repeated this command in his head. Come back in 5.

"HEERRREEE III GOOOO!" Yui yelled with all her might as she spun the box one last time. "COME ON COME ON COME ON COME ON!"

The box spun around and around then slowly came to a stop. A small ball rolled out. Yui and Noda both stared at the ball. It took a moment to register what they were looking at.

"Gold! First prize!" The mysterious young girl rang the bell – a special service for top prize winners. As realisation dawned upon them, happiness diffused across Yui's face and Noda breathed a sigh of relief while smiling. The ball was gold! The GirlDeMo concert VIP tickets were theirs for real!

Along a road near Sakurano high school, the happy cheers of a young GirlDeMo fan could be heard echoing all the way up to the sky.

…

"Hey! Guess what?"

Iwasawa looked up as Hisako entered the room. "What's up?"

"Someone won the VIP tickets to our next live! A girl called Yui and her brother Noda." Hisako held out her phone featured the text message from their manager.

Iwasawa instantly pictured a short girl with long pink hair and a purple haired boy carrying a halberd. The image disappeared as quickly as it had come.

Huh? Iwasawa blinked. That was weird…

...

"Ok Noda-nii, heres the plan." Yui looked straight at her brother with eyes full of determination. "I'll get Hinata to get Otonashi-senpai to let you help out in the student council – like being their errand-boy or something. Nakamura-senpais also in the student council right? So that will give you a chance to talk to her somehow. Then you just have to find a chance to ask her out to the GirlDeMo live! Easy right? I call it 'The Great Noda-nii x Nakamura Yuri Plan'!"

Noda only heard half of this – he was concentrating on his 'cool and calm' acting. "Well…ok." he stammered, "Sure. Whatever. I..I wasn't asking you to help me, y..you know?"

"Yup, I know." her cheery reply almost made Noda lose the 'cool and calm'.

Noda took the GirlDeMo tickets. "Th..thanks."

As Noda went into his room, Yui grinned from ear to ear. What a simple minded brother.

...

A/N: Thanks for reading! I was originally going to involve more GirlDeMo but a friend pointed out the need to start moving the story onwards (yes..i know it's going quite slow at the moment ."...i'm working on it!). I've also had questions about what Kami is doing...tbh, i have no idea :D! I have some options lined up and still deciding between which plotline i intend to follow..hahahahaha. Anyway, next chapter: Enter Matsushita, TK, Naoi, Shiina, and more! (hopefully).