TRACK 10

AC/DC – Thunderstruck

"NO! this is… I'm definitely not accepting this!"

"B-but Tenjin-san! Hiyorin is perfect! Just look at her! – cried Kofuku, whose bright pink tailored suit gave an interesting contrast with the producer's office, minimal, elegant, with black leather chairs.

"I can only see a young schoolgirl who has no idea what to even do with her own life!" Hiyori, sitting in front of his desk, lowered her face, ripped apart. "Iki-san, I thought you were a lot more reasonable for you to gather with this flock of imbeciles!"

"Tenjin-san! How can you even say that? We've taken the company to figure in the pop-rock sales top ten!" begged Kofuku, but immediately her voice shifted to a dry, business-like tone. "I thought you had said you were grateful with us for being able to sell in a market that had been so difficult to this label! You can check your numbers again, if you want to refresh your memory!"

"But my dear," said Tenjin, trying to recover some of his cool, "that was during the time Viina still liked to sing with you guys". Yukine catched movement with the corner of his eye and looked at Yato, who was intently looking at his shoes, brows furrowed, shifting his weight from one foot to the other, awkwardly. "It's not possible, Kofuku-san, for you to think this young lady can take the place of someone like Viina and sing like her! Viina imposed you an energy and an image to the band that only a carefully picked up person will be able to give you back, not a sweet highschooler that evidently seems to avoid getting into trouble and taking her own decisions!"

"Hey, didn't you heard the recording?" replied Daikoku, who put both hands in the shoulders of his partner, showing support. "Kofuku and all of us believe in this change because we heard her and we think it's going to work!"

"Pft!" let out Tenjin, and Hiyori could not be more agree with the old man: she had heard the recording herself and she couldn't believe how was it possible everybody else considered her fit for this. "Her voice is like cotton candy. She's way too sweet for you guys. I'm not going to spend one more yen in a project that there's no profit for."

There was a knocking sound and the head of a beautiful girl with short hair entered through the door.

"Sir? Are you ready for your five-o'-clock appointment?"

"Ah, Mayu! Coming right up!"

Before excusing herself out, the girl and Yato traded stares, and both gave each other a hateful look. Mayu pulled one of her lower eyelids down and showed her tongue.

"Bleeeh! Asshole!" she whispered, before leaving.

Yato made the gesture of going after her but Yukine stopped him with an elbow to his ribs.

"Exgirlfriend?" wondered Hiyori, baffled. Daikoku scoffed.

"Natural born enemies. Yato forgot her name one day, called her "Tomone" for some reason, and since then they can't stand each other. He still calls her like that, just to be annoying."

"Oh…" muttered Hiyori, wondering why she had gotten that defensive.

Tenjin finished picking up his stuff, preparing to leave. Kofuku didn't took the eyes off him.

"I hope you reconsider", she said, unmoved. Tenjin only gave her a stern look and shifted the knot of his necktie, briefcase under the elbow.

"Now listen to me" said Yato, talking for the first time since they had entered the place, "Viina is clearly ancient history, and I know you think our music is good enough to give us a bit of credit and let us pick the singer we think is fine" Tenjin moved and faced Yato. The height difference was minimal, "why did you gave us this ultimatum, then?"

"I thought you would be mature enough to go and solve with her all the stupid stuff you did, not to go search for someone else's life to ruin."

Yato was at his limit, he felt the blood rushing through his fists, and he would have been about to snap and through a punch to that old uptight bastard's cheek, if he hadn't heard the voice of Hiyori raising up, doubtful.

"I ch-chose this myself!"

She had suddenly jolted up. Tenjin stared at her, questioning. Kofuku smiled and sighed.

"Actually they… they heard me and… they think I can do this!"

"Wouldn't you prefer to continue with your normal life? Go out with your friends, enjoy your youth, do normal teenager things?" the producer insisted, fixing his stare on her. "You still have a lot of things to live, and if you do this you probably would never be able to return to your old life."

"…I can do this."

"You will have to face many things you wouldn't normally have to, living the way you did until now."

"I…"

"You will be under the spotlight of thousands, maybe millions of people, and you wouldn't be able to react just the way you feel like."

Hiyori lowered her face again.

"You heard her already, Tenjin. Don't be nasty." Yato warned. Tenjin turned again to him.

"I hope you know how to behave. The next deadline, I want you to give me something I can sell."

Yato came even closer to him, with a defying attitude. Both noses were almost touching.

"I'm going to give you the best damn band of Japan."

"I wish I could believe you, Yato."

Tenjin left, leaving them all feeling the tension prickling on the skin. Kofuku plopped down on a couch next to the window, and Daikoku sat on the armrest, taking Kofuku's little hand between their own.

"Tonight I'm going to need something stronger than a beer", she muttered in dismay.

"Guys, I'm…" began Hiyori. Yato turned around, ceasing to look with rage the door who had just closed.

"We owe you a big one, Hiyori" he spat.

"What?"

"Tell you the truth, I didn't thought you'd talk, much less against Tenjin".

One by one, they thanked her for it, and made her feel part of the band. Yukine stucked his hands on his pockets and turned his face away when he spoke.

"It was fine I guess…"

Hiyori smiled, flushing.

"So, ready for another rehearsal? We can go to my place, it's the nearest…" said Yato. He was living at his basement again, a few days ago.

"Nah, I need to go to Suzuha's…"

"Oh? What is up with you both, little brats?" chimed Kofuku, and Yukine immediately took an awful shade of red.

"W-w-we'rejustrehearsing!"

"Oh, right!" said Daikoku, remembering, "Your school's talent festival is coming up… Don't forget we want tickets!"

"It's actually not that big of a deal…" the kid said, and walked to the door. "See you later tonight."

"C'mon Hiyori, I'll take you home then." Offered Yato.

The girl wasn't able to understand why Yato didn't simply just left her at the station and left. She was not exactly uncomfortable with the silence imposing when they ran out of stupid subjects to speak about, but she didn't liked to begin asking herself questions that she didn't had any answer for; Yato's past, Yukine's attitude, things of that sorts. She looked at Yato, sitting at her left in the long seat along the wagon's wall. He was using today his blue jersey, but on top of that, the cold had forced him to wear a gray cap and a long jacket. He had his head leant on the window and he seemed to be sleeping. Who was this dude, really?

"I know you have questions. Shoot'em already."

Hiyori was startled and at the same time she flushed. Yato seemed to know all that happened through her mind and showed it at the strangest times. She couldn't just simply remain silent, so she asked what was bugging her more lately.

"Do you really think Yukine hates me that much?" Yato widened his eyes, but didn't moved an inch.

"People change over the years", he began, Hiyori thinking he may have not heard quite well. "I thought Yukine would be one more showing a radical change after going through puberty, but funny enough he has been someone that time seems to not affect". He finally looked at her. "Yuki has a very difficult character himself, and it's way worse when he doesn't know people. But don't worry", he said, when she broke the eye contact to stare at the wagon's floor. "Once you get his trust, you'll realize he's just a big ol' softy".

How to get the trust of someone who was that difficult to get along with?

"He really means a lot to you, right?" Smiled Hiyori, watching the kind expression Yato was using at that moment.

"Well…" he stuttered, "I probably shouldn't let something like this to leak on my end 'cause probs it would be better if he told you himself, but actually Yukine's something like my padawan."

"Seriously?" questioned Hiyori, with wide open eyes.

"Why are you so surprised?"

"Well, it's kind of hard to believe you can take care of yourself."

"That car coming my way is completely out of this subject!"

"And your feeding habits, your clothing and your sleep schedule can't get you an idea?"

"I pay my rent and I take good care of myself!"

"At some point!"

"What are you implying, kid?"

"Why are you calling me kid?!"

"You live with your parents and you're stil on highschool! You can't go around life thinking you can judge a responsible adult!"

"Responsible."

The argument, of course, ended with Hiyori slapping on Yato's arm, who laughed trying to hide the fact it really had hurt.

"What you mean with padawan?" Said the girl, when they finally got down the train and were walking home. Yato took a lot of time to answer. After long seconds of silence, which he used to ponder his words, he spoke.

"A few years ago, because reasons, we were sheltering ourselves in Daikoku's family business; they've had that for ages. Is a little souvenir store in the outskirts of a park not that far from here, and the store is glued to a house in which we loitered a lot, Viina, Kofuku, and myself. We were just a little older than you." Yato stopped to light a cigarette, and he let out a big cloud of smoke. "A winter day I was arriving there, walking slowly, like the useless piece of garbage I was, and I saw a brat trying to force open the cash register". He smiled to that memory. "Nobody was outside, so he thought it was easy to just jump over the counter and try to force that thing open. He wasn't counting on the fact I would catch him faster you can say rat."

"Was that kid Yukine-kun?" asked Hiyori, concerned.

"Right. I took him inside with an arm bent behind his back and told Daikoku."

"What did you guys did?" Yato took a few steps ahead, stopped in front of her and looked at her dead in the eyes. Hiyori felt a spark going down her spine.

"You should really begin to understand, at this point" Yato said, with a deep, calm voice, "that all of us have our own stories and our reasons to do things. That's why we all had troubles of this sort, big or small" the strength of his words let her freezing. Was he implying that all of them had records? "Yukine was obviously not completely conscious."

"And he was stealing to pay…" cried Hiyori.

"Precisely. He was completely idle, and many years after I wondered how it could be that he showed that dependence degree being so young; but I really didn't knew until he told me, and I want to respect that" he said, continuing his way. Hiyori didn't insist on knowing the background, but waited for Yato to keep talking. "We never called the cops. At first he behaved like an ungrateful brat and several times he tried stealing again and running away, but we never thought about turning him over. I took him living with me to my apartment back then, and I began teaching him music, until the others made me realize having a kid his age sheltered with me without his parents consent could get me into trouble, so I let Kofuku and Daikoku follow a procedure to keep his custody. Now they're the legal tutors and Yukine lives there."

"What about his parents?"

"That's a part of the story you would have to get from him" Yato laughed. "It's really rare when Yukine talks about them."

Hiyori plopped on her bed with a hole in the stomach. Suddenly she realized how much her life was different to everybody else's. Even Yukine seemed to had lived much more time than her at his short age. Much to her dismay, she also realized she was beginning to ask herself if it was okay to keep being around people that clearly had been involved in situations people regularly frowned upon. But overall, she was also able to notice, maybe a little late, what she meant before Yukine's eyes: a spoiled kid, that barely had gotten to show her nose to the world, outside the pink cotton candy setting her mother had laid around her, lovingly. Somehow, she felt she owed Yukine an apology.

"Hiyori-chan, what happened with the club's thing?"

"Isn't the deadline near?"

"The deadline is next week" answered Hiyori, defeated, while picking up her stuff at the end of school day, during which she constantly remembered what Yato had said about Yukine recently. Her problems right now were the last thing she was worried about.

"And do you already know what you're going to do?" asked Ami, closing her suitcase.

"To be honest, Ami-chan, I have not the slightest idea."

Yama let out a big laugh.

"That's an answer worth of me! Who are you and what did you do to Hiyori?"

Embarrassed, Hiyori put her hand in her forehead. "I've been really out there lately."

"Maybe you just need to relax" figured Yama, who had not made any effort in putting her stuff away, and whose feet were high above the desk.

"Actually, I think relaxing is right now the last thing I need", answered Hiyori, with a light laugh, and excused herself out when the bell rang, running down the hallways up to the main gate.

After a few stations and some streets, she found Yukine's school.

She smiled sincerely with her ticket on hand, remembering the blonde's face when she told him she wanted to buy the entrance to his school's festival. He had been a comical mix of shyness, horror, and not being able to say no.

"Over here, Onee-chan" pointed the girl at the door, after cutting her ticket in two.

"Has the band contest started already?" asked Hiyori, smiling and a bit hurried.

"It starts on a few minutes, the auditorium is over there" the girl indicated a point straight across the main yard.

"Thanks!"

"Ah, Onee-chan!" yelled the girl again, "At the end of the festival we will do a raffle!"

Hiyori waved thanks with her hand and jogged searching for the auditorium. Going through the point the girl had pointed, several food stalls formed a path. Roasted squid, takoyaki, crepes, all of that delicious food popped to her eyes and stole her nose's attention. Making an effort Hiyori continued down the way, and she had made it to the auditorium quicker if a quirky attire hadn't gotten her attention. He was right in front a taiyaki stall.

"Hey, Hiyori! Have'cha tried the food already? It's great! I just love all this junk they sell at festivals…" saying this, Yato put directly in her hand a warm little bread fish, that had an incredible smell. Hiyori looked at him directly in the eye. Yato was taking a vast selection of food between his arms.

"I assume you haven't even looked at the time."

"What're you talking about?" he said, taking his cellphone out of one of his gray wool cardigan's pocket. He looked at the screen. "Oh, shit!"

They both ran to the auditorium's entrance, Yato surprised her arm was so thin he could place his entire hand around it, and Hiyori trying not to drop the taiyaki he gave her.

A big group was waiting outside, in a side entrance. The girl, even from afar, got a hint of the spark of joy Yukine's face got lit with as soon as he saw them running; but it was quickly replaced with nuisance when he saw the ton of food Yato had purchased.

"You really couldn't finish until the show was over?"

"Do you really wanted me to stay still and walk all the way down here on such a path without buying anything? Here, eat a Konnyaku!" Yato practically pushed a big gray squishy konnyaku chunks skewer to Yukine's face, who took a step away.

"N-now stop it you idiot! Where is Daikoku and Kofuku?"

Yato was surprised.

"They're not here yet? 'thought those two were arriving first…"

Yukine's phone began ringing. The boy picked up and after a few minutes of walking around while talking, he looked as down as the beginning.

"Daikoku says something came up with Kofuku at the office and they're not gonna make it… it'll be good if they could be here for a change…"

"THE ODEN STALL IS ABOUT TO OPEN!" announced a teacher in a megaphone, and Yato sprinted towards him.

"Could you even listen up you fucking idiot?!" after yelling, Yukine sighed and turned away, kicking gravel off his way.

"Yukine-kun?" called Hiyori, shyly. The teenager turned to her. "Break a leg!" she said, smiling. Yukine blushed, and looked down to his feet. He nodded, letting out a faint "Hm" and continued walking.

Entering the auditorium, instead of finding a seat, she stood by the door. It would be more convenient to stop Yato right there and tell him a couple of things than try to reach him from amidst the crowd. The lights went off, and the stage of Yukine's middle school lighted with several lights of vivid shades and shapes. The amount of bands at that school only allowed for one song each. After a few numbers, Hiyori could hear the anxiety from the girls around her. On the stage's speakers a voice raised and announced the name of the next band.

"Coming next, the official music club's ensemble: Snowbell*!"

The roar of the girls next to her took Hiyori completely by surprise, until she remembered Yukine was in his usual life an actual celebrity. The hype of schoolgirls seeing him in a different band playing right before their eyes was completely understandable. Hiyori had only met Suzuha a few times herself, and she had though he was a kind and respectful young man. In that moment, she also realized Yukine and him really had a unique type of friendship. Their chemistry flooded the stage, and even surpassed the connection they had with the rest of the band members. Yukine held completely the structure of what Suzuha was doing on the guitar. The singer gave impressive jumps through all the stage and the drummer didn't fell behind keeping the beat of a punk-rock song. Hiyori had her mouth open, impressed.

"They're good, aren't they?" said Yato, standing next to her. "You haven't eaten your taiyaki."

Coming back to the real world with a startled jump, Hiyori bit on her mushy anko filled fish, thoughtful.

"So this is the real Suzuha-kun." She muttered. "They are amazing."

"That's their effort paying up." Explained Yato, proudly. "I almost can't believe this kid is the same brat I met years ago."

"I get you." Said Hiyori, swaying a bit to the beat, side to side. "They're seriously great!"

Inside of the girl's mind, slowly, a resolution so vague that could barely be put to words was beginning to form, but she know real well what was it about. If you could do this in the music club… and they were this good… could she improve?

"Hey, let's go right there!" said Yato, taking her hand.

"But I haven't finished my taiyaki yet!" she replied, trying to ignore the sudden jolt of electricity that went across her starting from the point where their hands were touching.

"Leave that!" he said, tossing it to a near trashcan and dragged her up the front, right in front of the stage. The speakers loudness hit her ribs, the instruments sound slammed against her ears and she wasn't able to even listen to her own thoughts. She looked at Yato, who smiled saying something she couldn't manage to hear, and threw both hands to the air, moving his head. Swimming in the euphoria of the rest of the students, she also let herself go and imitated him. During a few moments she simply danced, forgetting everything, even from herself, and she only made it back to earth when the spark of joy of the boy's amber eyes over the stage seemed to smile at her. The song ended, and Hiyori joined the roar of everybody else, clapping. She was not only clapping to the boys who just won the audience's heart, but also to herself, since she had already found the solution she was so eagerly looking for.

Yukine joined them when the raffle was taking place. The night had already fallen and everybody were joining them at the light of the central yard's stage.

"It's really a shame Kofuku and Daikoku had missed this festival, Yukine-kun." Hiyori praised him when she saw him jogging to them. "You were absolutely amazing."

"T-thanks." He said, sincerely, slipping one finger below his nose.

"Hey, don't get too cocky, you brat." Scoffed Yato. "Here, eat some squid."

"Stop giving me food!"

"One of the winner tickets number is 90839!" Announced the school's headmaster, which was doing the honor of conducting the raffle, officially giving the festival a closure.

Hiyori went pale.

Never, in all her life, she had won something. However, it was completely clear. In her entrance ticket, with red numbers, was printed "90839". Yukine and Yato practically pushed her to the stage, where she waved her hand, shyly, accepting the price from the school's headmaster's hands. Yato's yell was heard in the entire school.

"A CAPYPER!"

"I can't believe you gave your prize to this piece of idiot." Commented Yukine later, seeing her off at the station.

"Well, see it this way: I don't have to carry it all the way down to my house."

"CA-PY-PEEEEER!"

"You're right about that." Said Yukine, doing no effort to conceal the disappointment he was aiming at Yato right then.

"THANKS HIYORIIIIIII!"

"Okay, see you guys later." She answered, trying to ignore the blue eyed boy, hugging a humongous Capyper plush by the neck, crushing it as if he wanted to deflate his lungs from oxygen.

She laughed again when Yukine had to drag Yato through the station by the cardigan's neck.

"Music?" said the headmaster, almost yelling. He lowered the request form and found an impatient Hiyori smiling, defiant.

"Yes, sensei."

"That's… unusual, Iki-san. I was thinking you might choose a more… academic club, so to speak."

"Sir?"

"Anyways, take this to room 18 on the third floor. The main teacher is on a temporary sick leave but the substitute teacher should be there right now. He's a very talented young man."

The sunset light filtered through the building's windows. Hiyori passed by the board she had looked weeks ago, searching for an answer to the dilemma of what club to pick. The music club flyer was written by hand, in a mature, professional and elegant way. She was almost completely sure this club was not going to be remotely similar to the one at Yukine's school, but she didn't care. Practice was practice, and if she could take her voice to a level in which she could listen to herself in a recording without being embarrassed to death, then she would take any help she could get.

She walked down almost desert hallways until she found room 18, on the third floor. The club's room was strangely silent.

"Excuse me…" she muttered, popping her head inside.

"Ah, so you should be the new girl they were talking about a while ago!" said a youthful voice coming from the bottom of the room. Hiyori entered and turned on a white tungsten light who buzzed uncomfortably. A young guy was sitting behind a violoncello. Skillfully, he began playing it with soft movements of the bow.

"My name's Iki…"

"Iki Hiyori, right?" He looked at her with an interested gaze, without leaving his spot. His brown eyes fixated on hers, keeping the eye contact like a padlock. "I'm the substitute teacher, Fujisaki Kouto."

*SHRINE's name is a joke I enjoyed a lot making, Snowbell is also another joke I thought about mixing both name's kanji, Suzuha and Yukine's.