After practicing the new song Dethklok wrote, the musicians concluded their performance for the night to rest up. "Have to admit, never expected a bunch of little girls to be playing with us," Nathan said.
"I doubt you expected a bunch of ghosts with powers to play with you either," Lyrica replied. "But anything can happen in Gensokyo."
"Good point. Well I'm beat, you guys?" The rest of the whole ensemble nodded and adjourned to go to their rooms. While walking back to the guest rooms, Nathan decided to get some opinions from the band. "Hey guys," he said. "We're not going to lose our brutal status if we let the Prismriver girls put non-metal instruments in a song, are we?"
"Nathan, ya gotta relax man," Pickles reassured. "That song we wrote was no less brutal than da last hundred'r so we wrote. Besides, metal bands use orchestra instruments all da time."
"Da," Skwisgaar agreed. "For example, Childrens of Bodom use a keyboards like Lyrica. Beside, the girls are only playings the intro part and the rhythms like Tokis. Nothings to worry about."
A few more steps and then Yukari gapped right in front of them, spooking the band a bit. "Seems to me you're all ready to go for tomorrow night, is that right?" she asked.
"Jeesh, will you shtop doing that!?" Murderface complained. "I swear, thish place is gonna give me a (guitar screech)-ing heart attack!"
"Oh pipes down Murderface," Skwisgaar scolded. "I thinks we ams ready to go, what abouts you guys?" They all nodded in agreement.
Yukari clapped her hands together. "Glad to hear it! It seems you and the Prismrivers hit it off pretty good despite the differences in music."
"Theys ams so sweet!" Toki said. "Plus I never expected to sees them keeps up with our playings either, it's pretty cools."
"Well I'm sure you'll be pleased to know that even though they're professional musicians, they said that this would be their biggest moment in their living and dead lives." She yawned. "I think it's time we all got some sleep for the night though. I'll get you five out of bed when it's time to start setting up." They all bid each other goodnight and headed to their respective rooms (Yukari to her home) to rest up for the big show the following night.
The following morning, Dethklok was gapped to the site of the performance being held in the Forest of Magic. The kappas and, by personal request, the Klokateers (via Yukari), were brought over to help build the stage and scaffolding for the entire festival performance. They worked tirelessly since 6AM that morning to get it all done.
A Klokateer and one of the kappas walked up to the band and Charles with design plans in her hands. "We did all we could to build it to your expectations," the kappa said, twirling around a wrench on her fingers. "We couldn't make a statue that spat out real blood, so you'll have to forgive us for that, but we covered everything else." She handed the blueprints to Charles. "So what do you all think?"
They all looked at the stage with admiration. The stage was created to represent a red-and-black visual with statues of youkai and humans fighting each other, almost like old Greek and Roman statues. They saw a smoke machine made with real smoke, pyrotechnics powered by the Hell of Blazing Fires (courtesy of Utsuho and Rin being fans themselves), and a whole wall full of amps.
"Holy (guitar screech)-s," Toki said, awestruck. "This ams the most brutals stage I've ever seens."
Charles was reading over the design blueprints a little more. "This is a little more than I expected for a stage," he sighed. "What's your name miss?"
The kappa saluted. "Nitori Kawashiro of the kappas and project manager Mr. Charles sir!" she introduced.
Nathan turned to Nitori and the Klokateer in shock. "Project manager? "What the (guitar screech) Dave!? You're usually the manager for us!"
The Klokateer known as Dave shrugged in surrender. "My apologies Sire, but Miss Nitori and her team had more access to resources than us and therefore I had to relinquish command to her. Please forgive me."
"You guys should put together this kind of stage when we're on tour," the singer ordered. He turned to Charles. "Remind me to suggest Gensokyo on our next tour if this is the kind of thing we're going to expect from now on."
"Duly noted." Charles turned back to the kappa. "So Miss Kawashiro, we're all very grateful for you and your team's hard work in working with us to put together the stage for the show. I'll see to it that you're all compensated for it in some way or another."
"You don't have to give us money," Nitori rejected. "Us kappas love helping out the humans so long as we're not taken advantage of."
"Aw come on," Pickles reasoned. "You girls put on all of dis just fer da show tonight, somethin' we usually pay da Klokateers to do! Ya sure ya don't want nothin' fer all of the hard work?"
She thought it over for a second before grinning. "Well if you insist on rewarding us," she began. "There is one thing kappas absolutely love as gifts besides my love for mechanics."
The manager pushed his glasses up. "If I remember correctly from my mythology courses, the thing kappas love the most is cucumbers. Is that correct?" She shook her head up and down in glee. Charles got out his dethphone to call back to Mordhaus. "Uh huh, yes. Please buy a semi truck full of cucumbers. We will send someone right away to come and get them."
He closed down his phone while Nitori stood there in awe. "A t-t-truckload?" she stammered, her mouth drooling.
"Kinds of a weirds thing for someones to enjoy, but if you ams crazys about them, then it's a betters payments than what we pays our Klokateers," Skwisgaar added. "I'd buys an armadas of cucumbers trucks for this kind of stage."
"Probably the cheapesht shtage we've ever (guitar screech)-ing had," Murderface said. "We should make the kappash Klokateers!"
"I don't think that's going to be a possibility Murderface," Charles said, bumming out the bassist. "Anyways, I will get in touch with Yukari and have the shipment delivered to the Kappa Valley some time this afternoon or evening." Nitori was still in a daze at the sound of so many cucumbers coming their way. Charles waved a hand in her face to make her snap out of it. "Erm, Nitori?"
She shook her head and returned to reality. "Sorry, had a bit of a daydream there. But don't worry Dethklok, us kappas are going to make this stage worth that payment one way or another! You can count on us!" She walked back to the kappas and Klokateers to continue putting the finishing touches on the stage and test the sound equipment.
Charles faced the band. "So are you boys ready for the big night tonight then? This is the first show you've played for supernatural beings and humans all in one show, it's quite unnerving to say the least."
"Charles, we're Dethklok, we'll play a show no matter who shows up," Nathan declared. "Playing a show for youkai that kill each other, plus with ghosts? This is gonna be brutal, especially with the set-up we have now."
"Very well then, I will see you here later this evening for the festival. In the meantime, the rest of the afternoon is yours to explore now that you have a map and got a tour of the place. Just promise me you're not going to get yourself killed by pissing off a youkai or some other otherworldly being. Your fans wouldn't like that no matter how 'brutal' your death is."
The boys said goodbye to Charles and decided to go check out more of Gensokyo thanks to Reimu's previous tour.
They spent the afternoon doing a bunch of different things. First, they went over to the Human Village, where Alice was doing a small doll show on the street, something Toki absolutely gushed over with how cute they looked.
Next they went up to the Moriya Shrine, unfortunately making Skwisgaar get the uncanny nerve to hit on Kanako since he had a thing for old chicks. Needless to say she wasn't happy about not being able to blast him to smithereens.
Next up was the bar (again). Once again, Suika was there, but this time with Yuugi, and they had Pickles try a bunch of different kinds of sake, which caused him to get drunk, but not enough to carry over into the evening.
Fourth stop was the Garden of the Sun, housing the only person Murderface was on near-equal personality with: Yuuka Kazami. Those two talked a lot about sadistic stuff, until he accidentally uprooted a couple of flowers and Yuuka chased them all out of there, firing warning shots of danmaku at them.
Lastly was the Bamboo Forest of the Lost. Nathan paid Mokou to pick a fight with Kaguya just so he could see the "brutal bloodshed" one more time, much to her delight and victory.
It had been a fun afternoon for Dethklok, but now was time to begin the festival. What awaits the boys for the evening?