Angel Beats! エンジェルビーツ!
Our Beats Incarnate
Book III: The Piano
Chapter 1: Setting The Stage
-o-O-o-
Before I knew it I was running,
And you lead me by the hand.
We left yesterday behind us,
We hold tomorrow in our hands.
I thought I heard it,
I even thought I felt it,
With the heart beating in my chest.
The new day is arriving,
Along with the dawning sun,
Your steady beats lift my soul from rest.
I thought it was waiting,
I thought it was calling out to me.
And my soul reverberated,
I know I found our destiny.
Just like my dreams, the day departed.
And as I watch the daylight fade,
I wave the dream a fond farewell,
My soul, your beats, will dawn another day…
Kanade's fingers came to rest lightly atop the polished faux ivory keys of the grand piano as the last mellifluous note faded into the calm night air, the soft intonations of her voice yielding to sweet silence as the song itself evaporated from her lips.
Her chest rose and fell as she sought to catch her breath. For a brief moment, all she could hear was the sound of her own breathing, and the throb of her own heartbeat in her ears.
And then the crowd began to cheer and roar with rambunctious applause.
Kanade's smile was slight but earnest.
-o-O-o-
"Come on, Otonashi! Get your butt in gear!"
With a sarcastic roll of his eyes, Yuzuru ever so slightly increased his pace as he pushed his broom across the stage from one side to the other. The collection of fallen glitter, long pearlescent feathers and plush down that it captured along the way soon developed into an unwieldy pile that threatened to topple and blow away in the light breeze of the exposed open-air arena.
"You know, Yuri," Yuzuru began, leaning an elbow against the handle of his broom, adopting a pose better suited to the locale of a bar, "this would be a lot easier if we just used the vacuum instead of some brushes."
"You know the rules." The green-eyed girl scoldingly reminded him, "We can't use the mech until the piano's been shifted." She pointed over to the polished black grand piano situated in the middle of the stage, lid propped open, several of the spotlights still shining down upon it as if the instrument itself had descended from the heavens above.
Yuzuru looked it over. Apparently it belonged to Angel, the silvery-white haired young woman who doubled as both the pianist and lead singer of the group, Angel Beats. Rumour was that it was her own personal instrument, and that she had it priority shipped from one concert to the next, and that she wouldn't perform without it.
The latter part of that wasn't actually a rumour, Yuzuru knew for a fact. It had been top media news only a few months ago when a concert somewhere on the group's North American tour had begun more than three hours late, all because the piano hadn't arrived at the venue on time, and Angel refused to take to the stage using the alternatives provided by the organisers in a bid to push things forwards.
Yuzuru was never really surprised when he discovered world-famous performers behaving in such a manner. She was probably used to getting her own way, and everybody wouldmake allowances for it. Not that her fans had been overly pleased. But then, who could blame them when the very objects of their admiration and adoration refused to perform due to some misguided sense of priority and instrumental snobbery?
He eyeballed the piano somewhat ruefully. By simply being there, it was making his job ten times as difficult as it needed to be, "It's not like we'd break it." He mumbled as he gave it the eyeball.
Yuri simply shook her head, though, standing firm on the issue, "The owners refuse to risk it." She was obviously more in the know than Yuzuru, although that made sense, since she was a fair way higher up the pecking order than he was, "Besides, at the end of the day it's still in the contract."
"Figures."
Yuzuru resigned himself to the fact that he was doomed to hand-sweep the stage area with his raggedy old coir broom. Sure, it had a wide head. But the thing was so damned over-used, with enough bristles missing, that if he didn't take particular care he'd end up having to do twice the work by needlessly retracing his steps back along the path he'd just cleared for himself amidst the littered stage.
How did he manage to end up with the old ropey brush, anyway?
With a slow glance around it seemed that the rest of the clean-up crew were coping just fine. Was he the butt of some cruel cosmic joke, or were his colleagues just playing tricks on him for their own amusement?
Most likely neither. But it was worth a muse.
With a shake of his head, he returned to his sweeping.
"I heard that somebody damaged the piano during Angel Beats's European tour." Hinata spoke up from a little way away. Yuzuru hadn't even realised that his friend had been within earshot of the conversation, "Just a scuff. The entire clean-up crew lost their jobs over it."
Yuzuru scoffed in disbelief. But a quick glance across at Hinata, who showed no sign at all that he was joking, quickly put paid to that. "Wow." Yuzuru blinked a couple of times as the fact sunk in, "Sounds like she takes it a bit too seriously."
"Yeah, well," Hinata swept his pile of glittering confetti and feathers over to join Yuzuru's, "when you're pretty much the biggest star in the world and have that kind of influence, you can make things like that happen."
Naturally, that made Yuzuru begin to wonder precisely what this Angel was like as a person. Somebody who got other people fired just for scuffing her piano? That made her seem like a bit of a prima donna, with a clear penchant for the dramatic. Surely it wasn't that much trouble to have a scuff buffed out and repaired between gigs? It hardly seemed worth ruining somebody else's life over.
Much less an entire team of people…
But then, Hinata had been right; it wasn't as if it was too out-there as far as superstardom was concerned. Stories made the tabloids all the time about celebrities behaving in this way or that, their pompous arrogance leading to some form of outrage that seemed strangely noteworthy, despite how petty it all seemed.
Even if it did sell papers to the masses, it was just one more reason for Yuzuru to avoid reading them, and avoid celebrity wherever possible! Who had time for the selfish whims of the stars when they had a job of their own and day-to-day life to live?
With a shake of his head, Yuzuru banished the thoughts entirely. No point pondering about this Angel now. He had work to get on with.
-o-O-o-
Sweeping the stage always seemed to last a lifetime or more when it was being done by hand, especially as the in-house clean-up team was comparatively small. Still, at least the rest of the mess and litter – left by a crowd that had been tens of thousands strong – could be left to the external company that the venue contracted specifically for their larger events.
That was a little bit of relief for Yuzuru. They'd be working well into the middle of next week, if it hadn't been for that small reprieve! But even with the sweeping done, that left all the equipment to be properly stowed away into storage until it was needed again. And that meant the meticulous monotony of checking, double-checking, and even triple-checking it all against the checklist of inventory as it went back into its allocated spot.
But, in the end, even that mind-numbing task eventually passed. Home time just couldn't come soon enough.
Of course, there was always that one remaining item that managed to evade all the checks. And for some reason, it was always something overly heavy, bulky, and difficult to carry.
Yuzuru grumbled to himself as he carried a box full of what he felt amounted to little more than weighted junk all the way from the stage area towards the nearest store room. It didn't matter to him if it was in the right place or not – he'd just mark the new location down on the list at his earliest convenience - as long as it was away and accounted for. He just wanted to get home.
Moving it by hand was proving a challenge, however, and he was beginning to regret the decision not to retrieve one of the transport trolleys to carry the weight for him. Though bulky and ungainly, obscuring half of his view and resulting in a pitiful gait somewhere between a limp and a shuffle, he was making some slow-but-steady progress.
But he couldn't really see where he was going.
The sudden, unexpected creak of hinges caused him to stall. A door, immediately ahead, but completely obscured from view by the object in his arms was quickly flung open. Whoever stepped out of the room obviously didn't see Yuzuru.
They collided with some force; enough to knock the box clear out of Yuzuru's hands.
He didn't have any time to react, sharp solid edge landing directly on his foot, all the mass within putting enough pressure into the impact to draw a yelp of anguished pain from Yuzuru's lungs.
Reflexively he stepped back, eyes clenched in a tight wince as the shock surged through the nerves in his foot like molten lava.
"Geeze!" he yelled, angered and aggrieved, lifting his foot and holding his shin just to take the weight off, "Watch where you're going!"
When the pain in his foot reduced to a heated throb, tempered to a mere sulphuric burn, Yuzuru was able to relax his cringe enough to reopen his eyes and see what damage had been done. His foot returned to the floor, testingly – it didn't feel like any bones were broken, though he found that he couldn't put his entire weight on it just yet. Hopefully it was alright, a mere bit of bruising and not just adrenaline hiding the true depths of the pain.
The box he'd been carrying had somehow managed to roll clear across the corridor – a remarkable feat for a loaded cube - though it remained thankfully intact. With just a little bit of luck the contents were undamaged too, or at least not too severely out of shape.
And then there was the person who bumped into him. A woman, surprisingly short in stature given the force of the impact, with tussled cascading locks of platinum-white hair framing a porcelain face that seemed remarkably neutral, given the circumstances. Eyes of a deep, almost fathomless auric hue looked not just at him, but seemingly into him as he simply stared back.
"You need to be more careful when you're carrying heavy things." Her voice was quiet, level, and curiously devoid of any force or assertion.
Yuzuru felt his hackles rise defensively without so much as a moment of delay, filling his cheeks with angry fire, "You need to watch where you're going!"
A voice buried somewhere in the deepest recesses of his mind admonished him for giving in to his anger and making such a petty retort. But between the discomfort in his foot and the indignant anger twisting his face into a scowl, he dismissed it easily enough.
The girl offered only a simple shrug as her reply, before collecting her coat around herself and stepping past Yuzuru and his spilled box, heading in the direction of the nearest exit from the building. Yuzuru could only grumble a few choice words under his breath as he let her go, moving to retrieve the fallen container instead.
Naturally his supervisor, Yuri, picked that precise moment to turn up.
"Wow" she mused idly, looking back over Yuzuru in the direction the white-haired girl had retreated, "Were you just talking to Angel?"
"No." Yuzuru responded tersely as he crouched, wrapping his arms around the box and setting himself as counterweight against it so that he could pick it up, "Just somebody who knocked into me… Made me drop all of this!"
With a grunt, he straightened up again.
"That was Angel, you moron!" Yuri rolled her eyes, "Geeze, didn't you recognise her?"
In all honesty, Yuzuru wouldn't have recognised Angel if he'd so much as tripped over her. The irony was, of course, that he'd just done precisely that. Or at least walked into her – her into him…
Whatever.
His mind quickly traced back to just how angry he'd been, and the rude little tirade he'd descended into. He also remembered Hinata's words about Angel supposedly getting somebody fired for scuffing her piano. What would she have done to somebody who'd effectively hurled abuse and accusations at her in a moment of rage?
He felt a distinct chill run down his spine.
"Shit."
He dropped the box again. Thankfully his injured foot once again broke its fall.
-o-O-o-
Shit shit shit!
Yuzuru ran at an almost panicked hobble, all but dragging his injured foot behind him as he made his way quickly down the corridor. He was eager to catch the young woman before she left the building, if only to save his job! The way she'd taken off after the incident with the box, he presumed she was heading for the main back stage exit.
Sure enough, as he rounded the final corner, there she was with her arm outstretched to the door's release bar. It looked like Yuzuru was just in the nick of time.
"Hey!" he yelled, waving his arms frantically to get her attention, "Angel!"
The girl looked up, a little bit of confusion in her eyes, mixed with something that looked an awful lot like weariness. It was a fleeting moment of insight for Yuzuru, the neutrality returning to Angel's face with a vengeance mere moments after her eyes fell upon the flailing, hobbling fellow. Had she been expecting somebody else? Somebody she really didn't want to see?
Panting as he drew in closer, Yuzuru tried his best for a big confident smile, but it seemed that the best he could muster was an almost nervous smirk. He tried to keep the fact that he was currently addressing one of the biggest, most influential names in the music industry from playing too heavily on his mind, "Look, I wanted to-"
Angel caught him completely by surprise when she silenced him, a single small finger pressing to his lips with a little bit more pressure than was actually comfortable, "Shhh! Keep it down." She released him, taking her finger away so that he could talk, "What do you want?"
"I just wanted to apologise for earlier." Yuzuru lowered his voice, rubbing the back of his neck somewhat uncertainly, "I didn't think…"
He faded to silence – the girl didn't really seem to be paying him much attention, her focus returning to the door the instant he started speaking. It seemed almost as if she was trying to gauge whatever happened to lie beyond it. She still held the release bar with her other hand, almost leaning against it, though she didn't actually make any immediate move to depart
"You know it's rude to not pay attention when somebody's trying to apologise to you." Yuzuru pointed out in irritation.
If Angel heard him at all, she gave no outwards indication.
Yuzuru felt the frustrated anger begin to rise up once again. Here he was, trying to put things right after what had happened earlier on, and the girl before him couldn't even show enough courtesy or manners to actually listen and hear him out! It was the height of rudeness, "Hey! I'm talking to you!" his voice began to rise.
Angel turned back to face him, the silencing finger returning to his lips again.
"I have to go." Before Yuzuru could so much as muster an objection, she pressed down on the bar and slipped out through the exit.
As the door slammed shut in his face with a highly audible click of the lock, Yuzuru was left alone, fuming in the now completely silent corridor..
-o-O-o-
At last out of the building, Kanade made her way down the service alleyway at a brisk pace, eager to get back to the car and away from the venue as quickly as she could and without further incident. There were always fewer fans around the back-stage exit, oftentimes none at all due to venue security, and that kept things quiet – just how she liked them.
It wasn't that she didn't like or appreciate her fans. She knew that without their support, she wouldn't be where she was today. It was just that wherever the fans went, the paparazzi were bound to follow. And it was them who she was trying desperately to avoid. Despite her music, despite the band, despite the fame and fortune that had swiftly followed after their breakthrough performance those short few years ago – had it really only been a couple of years? – Kanade still didn't feel comfortable speaking in public, much less about her private life and things of that nature. And that was all they ever seemed to want to discuss, trying to draw it out of her so that they could dissect it in the most public way possible.
How's life on the road?
Any tensions between you and the rest of the band?
What are your plans for the future?
Is it true you've been dating Mr X, Y or Z?
It all made her terribly uncomfortable. It wasn't often she'd offer private interviews, either. Not after the few she'd tried in the past, and the long, uncomfortable silences that it had entailed.
Since then, she'd been playing the role of the strong silent type, at least as far as the mass media were concerned. And in a way, so far at least, that had worked out for the best. It cultivated an air of mystery about her, one that the band's management had been more than willing to cultivate and exploit Knowing how much she valued her privacy, her band mates – her friends – also had no problem with playing along. And in a way, it even seemed to endear her further still with the fans.
She was content with that. The only people who really knew her all that well were the other members of Angel Beats; her closest friends.
Reaching the end of the alleyway, sure enough the limo was waiting right there for her. The tinted windows denied her any clear view through to the inside, but she already knew who'd be waiting for her within.
Readily enough, as she approached, the door began to open from the inside, revealing the scruffy pink hair and welcoming carmine eyes of Masami Iwasawa. Kanade thankfully repaid the smile in turn with a slight smile of her own, Iwasawa sliding out of the way and letting Kanade into the limo.
As Kanade had expected, the other three band members were there to greet her too. From the looks of things they'd all just finished dealing with the group's fans themselves, and were ready for some rest and relaxation back at the hotel – Miyuki looked like she was actually on the verge of drifting off to sleep right there in the limo, eyes half closed and head slightly lolling off to one side.
Kanade often wondered how they withstood it all.
"So," Iwasawa began, "What kept you?" there was a slightly teasing tone to her voice.
"Bumped into an orderly." Kanade explained simply, settling into a vacant spot and allowing herself to relax, any remaining tension slipping from her shoulders, "He held me up for a bit."
Hisako, closest to the front, lightly rapped her knuckles a couple of times on the one-way glass that separated the band from the driver. Barely a moment later the car began to move off. A comfortable bed was just that little bit closer…
"Oh yeah?" Iwasawa raised her eyebrows suggestively, a full-blown smirk settling across her lips.
"It's not like that." Kanade frowned slightly, "He wanted to apologise for an accident. But I had to get away before the "mob" made it to the back stage entrance."
"Avoiding the fans again, huh?" Iwasawa obviously wasn't quite done with her teasing yet.
Kanade didn't really mind too much, though. Even if it felt like a grilling, Iwasawa was far too laid back for either of them to take things too seriously. This amicable ribbing had simply become a comfortable part of their friendship, not to mention their post-concert repartee. They were both just letting off steam, even if it was a rather peculiar way to wind down.
Still, the adrenaline from their avid performance had to go somewhere.
So Kanade simply dismissed it all out of hand, "All of the sane ones probably went home a while ago."
With a knowing chuckle, Iwasawa couldn't help but agree, "Yeah." She'd just spent the last hour or so dealing with the mass of stragglers. But it was something she was used to, and even quite capable of handling, "It's all stalkers and lingering photographers at this hour." She winked playfully.
"Yeah." Kanade remembered the few times she'd been forced to endure it. Now, she simply avoided it like the plague. With a simple shrug, she dismissed that out of hand too, "Anyway," she looked out of the darkened window as the lights of the city rolled by, "Moving on to other things..."
The rest of the journey back to the hotel was filled with much lighter conversation. It was always good to unwind after the stresses of a sold-out gig.
They needed to be as refreshed as possible as quickly as they comfortably could. After all, the next one was always just around the corner.
-o-O-o-
Chapter 1: Setting The Stage
Author's Note: Operation Book 3: Start!
Do you see where I'm going with this? I sure hope not, or there's not much point in my writing it…
Anyway, I'm sure that at least some of you are wondering why I didn't call the band Girls Dead Monster, since it obviously contains GirlDeMo's members, plus one. I won't go into the dynamics of the band just yet (it's likely to crop up in later chapters anyway), but needless to say, it's Angel Beats for a reason, and because it amuses me.
Also, regarding the song at the beginning... There's a fair chance you may recognise the inspiration. I'll leave it at that.
Looking forwards to getting some feedback on this. Any questions, please ask. I'll answer, though I won't give out spoilers. Constructive criticism is also welcome.
Thanks for reading!
NKC