Once more, it was showtime. Saga prefecture had recovered from the storms, the floods, the aliens, and okay, they were still having a bit of a problem with middle-school murder-ghosts, but so was the rest of the country, so they were good!

The crowd was sizable, the tickets had been presold on pain of their manager joining Franchouchou in death, and they had overcome the sudden disaster that had rendered Franchouchou low again after their EFS concert. Holding light sticks, fans, towels, and other Franchouchou merchandise, 6000 Franchouchou fans all prepared to watch a new amazing show by the prefecture's own home-grown idol group. Salarymen rubbed shoulders with senior citizens, delinquents sat side by side with old lady factory workers, middle-schoolers with thousand-yard stares and covered with ofuda to keep from being dragged to death by whatever murder-ghosts they'd managed to get away from were comforted by metal-heads, and that crazy woman who insisted Number Zero was her best friend who'd died years ago by getting hit by a truck was waving around her Fortune Lover incest doujins.

The lights dimmed, and the crowd roared in anticipation as Franchouchou stepped out onto the stage of the relatively small venue. Their costumes were perfect as they waved to their fans, taking their pplaces on stage and—

Wait, what was this? Why was Number Zero standing in the center? Everyone knew she never sang, for she barely talked except to meme. Instead, she wore a shy, nervous smile and raised her microphone to help lips.

"Hi, everyone! Thank you for coming!" She grinned, waving with a pure, sincere innocence that seemed to surpass the actual child of the group.

Everyone stared. Throats clenched. And from the youngest child who'd become a Franchouchou fan because they'd seen Number Six's final number on 'Japan's Got Performance', to the golden oldies who had long left their youth behind, among lonely salarymen and Christmas Cake office ladies, the delinquent biker chicks who thought romance was stupid and had no place in their lives, to a slightly unhinged Sasaki Atsuko, their hearts skipped a beat as they were all charmed.

Then Number Zero performed her center solo number, and the audience all lost their shit.

Welcome to the Franchouchou Fanatics message boards.
You are currently logged in, I_Miss_You_Tae-chan
You are viewing:
• Threads you have replied to
• AND Threads that have new replies
• OR private message conversations with new replies
• Thread OP is displayed.
• Twenty five posts per page
• Last ten messages in private message history.
• Threads and private messages are ordered chronologically.

Topic: NUMBER ZERO ACTUALLY SANG!
In: Boards ► General Forums ► Concerts ► Post-Concert Reactions
NeonDriedSquid (Original Poster) (Verified Official Fanclub)
Posted On Aug 7th 2021:
They said it would never happen. They said it was too much to hope for. They said her voice was too important, and could only be used for memeing.

BUT THEY WERE WRONG!

Earlier tonight, scant minutes ago, NUMBER ZERO DID A VOCAL SOLO! I am literally typing this as they're doing their next number, because it's THAT important!

I'm pretty sure I saw the Fortune Lover-girl faint as soon as they number was over.

(Showing page 1 of 2)

►DeathMusume4EVA
Replied On Aug 7th 2021:
The disrespect! I at least waited until people started asking for an encore!

But yeah, I understand.

Also, Fortune Lover-girl is okay, I say Number Seven taking care of her. Former Franchouchou, and still worthy! Our girls are the BEST GIRLS!

►SteelFril
Replied On Aug 7th 2021:
How are we sure that was the real Number Zero singing? It might have been an impostor! Or worse... LIP SYNCHING! /jk

But seriously, I hope this marks a new era of Number Zero!

►gotosleepreturner
Replied On Aug 7th 2021:
Not gonna lie, I genuinely thought Number Zero was nonverbal. Obviously she was just saving up her awesomeness until it reached critical mass and exploded.

►fanchouchou
Replied On Aug 7th 2021:
That bit in the middle where she was flying around in the air was crazy though. Still, glad FCC still goes all out on the special effects for their concerts! They even ended with their classic 'Number Zero's Head Comes Off' bit.

►SachikoNeverAfter (Verified Murder-Ghost Survivor)
Replied On Aug 7th 2021:
That wasn't special effects. My ofuda slipped off and allowed my school's murderghost to find me. Number Zero was riding it and dragging it onto the stage.

I have seen things. I have walked through the halls of my school in a mirror of hell, filled with the souls of the damned that try to make you join them. Some drive you mad. Some twist your perception to kill your friends and then yourself. Some drown you in the toilet. I barely escaped with my life and I know it's not over yet.

But trust me when I say that the sight of Number Zero and Number Five beating that ghost to death with their microphones and kicking the crap out of it with choreography has awakened in me a burning hope and knowledge that the darkness in this world could be overcome. Overcome by persistence and FRANCHOUCHOU!

When I got home, I gathered my fellow survivors and risked taking off one of my ofuda, giving the murder-ghost that dragged me to her personal hell power over me and bringing her to my house.

She came at me through the walls, wailing my name and accusing me of horrible things. Bullying. Killing my fellows classmates. Spreading nasty rumors. Cutting her up and burying her in the school vegetable patch. But when I showed her my Number Zero poster, her soul was purified and... well, let's just say the world now has one more Franchouchou fan and I no longer have to wear ofuda while taking a bath.

Also, I have a girlfriend now. I figure i'm going to die soon, but this is a much better way of getting murder ghosted!

►RomeroStan
Replied On Aug 7th 2021:
Is that what they were doing? I thought they were just doing that jerky dance Number Zero is known for.

►PM_me_Number_5_pics
Replied On Aug 7th 2021:
For the first time in my life, I got turned on by someone besides my dear Number 5! I feel so ashamed!

But that VOICE! They were right to keep it hidden for so long! The world is not ready for such magnificence!

►I_Miss_You_Tae-chan (Verified That Girl Who Thinks Number Zero Is Her Dead Best Friend)
Replied On Aug 7th 2021:
I can die happy. I no longer need to prove Number Zero is my old friend reborn or resurrected or somehow brought back as a zombie. I know she is. When she sang, I felt her presence wash over me. It was just like when we were in high school again.

►mudskipperimpression
Replied On Aug 7th 2021:
Fortune Lover-girl! Glad to hear from you and that you're alright! When I found your doujins just lying on the floor, I got really worried, you know!

Also, would you stop bringing those things to concerts?-! Franchouchou has an all ages fandom, you were like ten feet away from little kids with their parents and that huge guy who looks like he's yakuza!

►Buzzkill
Replied On Aug 7th 2021:
What would yakuza be be doing at an idol concert?

►LocalFriendlySocialForce
Replied On Aug 7th 2021:
All of Saga loves Franchouchou.

►TotallyNotAPaleDrake
Replied On Aug 7th 2021:
I can't wait for their next concert! I hope they get a bigger venue this time. More people should hear Number Zero's voice live!

End of Page. 1

In the dressing room, everyone stood around Tae, who was placidly chewing on a piece of dried squid.

"So…" Kotaro said, "she can't talk at all anymore?"

"Yup," Saki sighed. "Someone must have kicked punched her head of something when it came off and bounced into the crowd. Stupid murder-ghost must have pulled off the glue."

"Of the other hand, she can dance again," Ai said.

"Ran rou rou!" Tae growled cheerfully.

Kotaro eyed the souvenir bokken Tae had brought to the dressing room. "Maybe if we try hard, we can have both her singing and her dancing?"

"Guys!" Sakrua gasped. "Head injuries are serious business! Stop being mean to Tae-chan!" She hugged Tae protectively.

Tae blinked, feeling the cold but firm mounds pressing against her head. It stirred a memory inside her. She opened her mouth wide…

Katarina Claes woke. The room was dark, but already there was movement as knights woke up to do drills, come in to rest after evening shift, or go out and take their turn at kitchen duty. She sat up, yawning and remembering to cover her mouth as she stretched.

She'd just had the strangest dream… she'd dreamed she'd been part of a zombie idol group, and had fought a murder-ghost who'd shown up to haunt one of their fans in the middle of their concert. She'd even seen Acchan in the crowd, holding up a copy of her favorite Fortune Lover Ascest doujin (REALLY dirty one that had a lot of pages), and the dream had ended when her head had rolled off and someone had volleyball-spiked it…

All in all, a perfectly ordinary dream, like the one where she was farming giant vegetables (one of her favorites!), or the one with the cute slug that liked to be petted, or where she was growing an orchard of spirit trees and they kept offering to turn into shields for her…

She was about to stand and get dressed when she heard a clink and found manacles around her feet.

"Hey, can someone let me out?" she called, and the entire room stared at her. "Um, please?" Actually, why was she chained up?

"Newbie?" Dame Alicetaria said slowly. "Are you feeling all right?"

Katarina blinked. "Um, yes? A little hungry, but I can wait for breakfast."

Eh? Why was everyone getting excited like that?

Sophia Ascart woke up, feeling strangely at peace. Last night, she'd been full of worry about Lady Katarina's strange inarticulation and refusal to farm, but now, as she greeted the new day, she felt… hopeful. As if the new day signified a new beginning, and everything would be all right.

She could hear her maid Laura readying her bath. Yawning, she looked for the book she'd fallen asleep reading. It was one of her secret guilty pleasures, a really dirty book about a forbidden relationship, with lots and lots of love scenes…

As she put it aside, the words of a song bubbled in her mind, and she unconsciously began to sing. "Awaken returner, let your heart dance… "

Everyone was glad to hear that Katarina had gone back to normal. They'd all be worried when she'd passed out after missing a parry with her shield and getting hit on the head, but that had seemingly fixed her ability to speak. Unfortunately, she seemed to have forgotten all her memories of the past few day. Maria had fretted about that, using Light Magic after Light Magic, and even getting permission to use Dark Magic to try and dredge out the memories, but to no avail. The last few days had been completely forgotten by her squire, as if they had happened to someone else.

The fact Katarina no longer wanted to bite at her breasts left Mary extremely depressed and the Third Prince extremely relieved.

"Oh no! Lady Katarina, I spilled tomato sauce on my chest! Now I look like I have two sauce-covered meatballs!"

But she kept trying for a long time after that, because she was Mary.