Yuuchan: You people should comment more D< That's all o_o;
Fimmy-chan:
Hm… Not much of a response to this…
Is everyone dead? O___O
That’s kind of scary.
Anyways.
Once again I don’t have access to JPH!P (it was fun while it lasted) so I have to rely on my good buddies to post stuff for me. :3 (AKA: This time, it’s Yuuchan’s turn.
)
JFC:
I’ve kind of been dreading to have to answer that question. But I’ve pretty much made my decision now and I’m sticking to it. As for the original version… I’m not going to rewrite it. I’m not really sure that it’s a matter of if I can or not (because I guess if I really pushed myself I could) but more of a matter of that I really don’t want to. Even if I tried, it wouldn’t turn out so well, because to me, the story wasn’t going anywhere. It might have had a few chapters left in it and then it would have fallen into a giant plothole. This new version is fresher and easier for me to work with, and I’ve managed to salvage a bunch of ideas and concepts and twisted them together with a new storyline that makes it a little more… interesting. Or at least, I think so.
I hope so.
So basically, I guess that’s my answer and your closure on what’s going to happen to the old VoA. Perhaps someone much smarter than I could have done something with it, but for the last half or so it was becoming more or less just an outlet for my angst at the time rather than an actual story.
But, in any case, I do hope you’ll give this one a chance. I’m kind of excited about it, but I suppose we’ll see how it does, ne? :3
Enjoy.
------------
I was awake before I was aware of her presence, but that didn’t make it any less obnoxious. She was straddling my waist (which might have been much more awkward if I hadn’t fallen asleep on my stomach, mind you) and she had her hands on my shoulders, shaking me hard in an obvious attempt to wake me up.
“Aika-chaaaaaaaan~!”
Her shrill voice beat against my eardrums like a hammer, and while I really didn’t want a headache to deal with, I was going to try and hang on to every little bit of rest I could get.
…I was going to need it.
“Aika-chan, wake up! You aren’t going to sleep in all day, are you?”
Yes, actually. That was exactly what I had planned on doing. My limbs were sore from last night’s show, and since we had about six more to go before the end of the tour, I was just trying to make it through.
“Come on, everyone else is eating breakfast downstairs!”
That was probably because they were hungry. I was not hungry. Just tired. And somewhat troubled because of my stupid dream. But I hadn’t told anyone about it yet, and I sure as hell wasn’t gonna tell HER.
“Alright, get up. I know you’re just pretending.”
So bossy… and was that actually a hint of annoyance I was detecting? Surprising for a girl who barely ever expressed anything other than happiness or naivete. Harsh… maybe. But she was getting on my nerves.
“If you know I’m pretending, then why are you still sitting on me?”
…
That was probably the wrong thing to point out. My roommate giggled and bounced a little from where she was, causing my spine to pop beneath the weight and pressure. I considered telling her she was getting fat; that would have gotten her to leave me alone.
…I’m just not mean enough.
“I’m not getting off until you come downstairs with me.”
“…Koharu…”
“Say you’ll come and I’ll stop bothering you~”
Hmph. Very unlikely. I couldn’t understand what the big deal was. My friend, rival, and sometimes-mentor (though that sounded hilarious in my mind) had been dragging me out of our hotel room every chance she got, her reason being that I needed to become more… ‘social’.
I didn’t really see why I should waste my time talking to the others. Just because we all worked together didn’t automatically make us friends… Koharu and the other Musume were the only exceptions, but I supposed that was mostly because I had to see them more often, and so I figured that being more amiable towards them was the best decision.
Outside of work, however, Koharu was the only one I really came into contact with. We would do things together on occasion, partially because I didn’t have many other friends, and partially because I didn’t see the harm in humoring her.
Other than that, there was no one.
Well… except maybe Aichan. And it wasn’t very often, either, because she was insanely busy.
…Oh, and she was going to graduate soon.Koharu seemed to sense the sudden change in my mood and she crawled off of me, settling to just sit beside me instead.
“Hey, I know what you’re thinking about… I’m gonna miss her too, y’know? I mean, sure, she wasn’t anything like Yoshizawa-san… But we both know that if she had left like Fujimoto-san, which I’m sure she was wanting to do—maybe not in the same way, but you get it—a long time ago… Momusu might have been ruined. She’s a great leader…But she’s been ready to leave for a while now. Everybody leaves at some point. Now is just her time. And I’m sure she wouldn’t be happy to know that we were moping about it.”
+1 to Koharu. But I still wasn’t convinced. Under the reign of Gaki-san and Kamei-san… I was pretty sure we were doomed.
“Besides,” she continued, leaning forward to tuck a messy strand of my hair behind my ear, “There are still a few days left. We should enjoy them while we can.”
How… mature of her. Usually she was more-
“Now get off your butt and come eat!”
…More like that.
I sighed and tossed a pillow at her before getting out of bed to slink off into the safety of the bathroom.
While I wasn’t entirely looking forward to this… I needed some distraction to keep me from thinking too hard about everything else…
------------
Usually when all of us had to be on tour like this, UFA would be like, ‘to hell with it’, and would just go ahead and rent out an entire hotel for us.
There were several reasons
why, really.
For one thing, it’s hard being a celebrity and having to walk around in public. Momusu may not be THAT big anymore, but wota still recognize me when they see me, and whether they’re
my fans or not, they’ll follow me around in hopes that I’ll lead them to the other members. So such a decision is made… mostly out of concern for our safety.
However, it’s also true that when you have so many people all on tour at once… an entire hotel is sort of…
necessary. I mean, you’ve got Momusu, the Berryz, C-ute… Biyuuden… Melon Kinenbi… a crapload of Eggs (and still to this day I only know the name of one of them, and that’s only because we auditioned together… And I guess Linlin kind of counts… but she’s gone now, anyway), and then… oh, well, you get the idea.
It’s a lot of people.
And then you add to
that all the stylists and backstage crew, and other important people that have to be there…
Personally, I think that UFA’s just being courteous by renting out the whole place.
I know I wouldn’t want to room next door to any of us if I were someone else…
Anyway, I said all that to say this: When you walk into a lobby filled with about 50+ performers, all talking and eating and being, well, obnoxious… your first thought is to run for the hills.
Or, at least mine was. Unfortunately, I had Koharu with me, and she held me firmly to the spot.
“Stop being so silly, Aika-chan. You’re acting like you think they could pounce at any moment…”
And how was she so sure that they wouldn’t? Okay, maybe I was just being paranoid, but idols can be brutal. I know, I AM one. You can’t believe everything you see on camera, anyway…
In my musing, I paid no attention to where Koharu was dragging me, and so I snapped out of it only when she shoved me down rudely into a seat.
We were ate the table where all of the younger members of Hello! Project were eating together. They didn’t really pay much attention to us at first. But it wasn’t unusual for the two of us to sit with them from time to time. After all, Koharu and I were the same age as as most of the Berryz and C-ute, and so it was natural that we’d gravitate more towards them than any of the other performers.
Koharu left me there to run off and fetch us some food, and that’s when some of the other girls began to notice I was there.
Fortunately, I was sitting inbetween Shimizu Saki, the Berryz’ Captain, and Arihara Kanna, a former Egg who had been shoved into C-ute some time before my audition. Both equally likeable, non-threatening people. But I was not completely safe.
“Have a little too much to drink last night, Mitsui?”
I blinked and looked up across the table into the smirking face of one Natsuyaki Miyabi. It wasn’t that she was mean-spirited… or had a particular problem with
me… but to her, anyone was fair game, and I was sure that after my dream, I probably looked pretty rough.
Before I could respond, however, the Captain jumped in to save me, hero that she was.
“The show last night was intense. I’m sure Mitsui-san is just tired. Besides… you look like you went and got smashed more than
she does, Miya.”
The Ebiru shrugged dismissively, attention returning to her plate.
“Not my fault I work twice as hard as the rest of you losers… and that I’m in more songs… And that…”
She continued to trail off into a long list, but instead of getting angry, Saki merely grinned and shook her head, turning back to look at me.
“If she were any different, I don’t think we’d love her as much… Anyway, DID you sleep well last night? I understand if you’re still exhausted… but you look like you stayed up all night.”
I pressed my lips together in a thin smile and told her that I had slept just fine, and that I planned on taking a nap later so I would be fully charged for tonight’s show.
I’m not really sure she believed me, either; her eyes remained on me for a moment, as if she were trying to probe my thoughts. But thankfully, she accepted my explanation with a nod and let me go, turning back to talk to Momoko, another Berryz girl that was sitting on the other side of her.
Now, normally, I don’t really care much for the affairs of others… I’m just very observant of my surroundings. And when I began to examine the performers around me a little more carefully, I noticed that the Captain’s and Momoko’s hands were entwined beneath the table, hidden from view from everyone but… well, me, I suppose.
At least, if you weren’t sitting where I was, you wouldn’t have been able to see it. And perhaps they weren’t really expecting anyone to glance under the table, either.
In any case, they appeared to be hiding it; I could see Momoko jump and pull away momentarily everytime someone happened to walk behind them. The Captain would flinch a bit each time, but their hands would always rejoin moments later.
It was a curious thing, really. There were other members of Hello! Project that were pretty blatant about their relationships… (Fujimoto-san and Matsuura-san for on. Fujimoto-san’s ‘scandal’ didn’t really seem to do much to come between them… In fact, I was willing to bet that they were in a closet somewhere, sucking face at this very moment.)
Something deeper must have compelled these two to keep it a secret… but intrigued or not, it wasn’t my place to ask.
With the way things spread around THIS place, I was sure to find out sooner or later.
Koharu plopped down inbetween Arihara-san and me in a rather ungraceful manner, setting a plate of whatever-the-hell it was down in front of me.
Mm… breakfast.Again, I wasn’t really hungry. And the smell of food was starting to make me sick. I wanted to leave before I tossed whatever I ate last night.
I got up quickly before Koharu could stop me, and left her in the lobby, feeling her bewildered gaze on my back as I walked out. She’d be just fine, though, and would forget about me soon enough.
I just needed to rest, and so I took the elevator back up to the floor where our room was, digging for the key card in my pocket along the way.
The elevator stopped about halfway up, and opened to reveal another H!P member, once who seemed somewhat surprised to see me.
“Ah, Aika-chan.”
She was the only one—who wasn’t older than me—that called me by my first name rather than my surname. Which was nice, since I got tired of hearing “Mitsui-san” all the time.
I actually forgot about feeling ill for the moment and smiled at her.
“Risako-chan.”
She smiled back, but she appeared to be distracted. Her face was slightly red, too, as if she had just finished crying. I moved aside to let her in.
“Up or down?”
“Um… I’m not sure. I don’t really want to go to breakfast… I just wanted to get out of my room. Mind if I tag along with you?”
Of course not. I didn’t bother to tell her that I was only going back to my own room and that I wasn’t feeling well. (Besides, I was actually starting to feel a little bit
better, for some strange reason…)
She didn’t look like she really wanted to talk, anyway. In fact, for being such a chatty person, she was unusually quiet as we rode the elevator up to the next floor.
And she was even more silent still as we stepped off onto the floor, leading me towards the public balcony. It wasn’t where I had been planning to go, but I wasn’t about to just leave her by herself. Not when she seemed so upset.
The cold air hit me pretty hard when I slipped outside behind her, but as soon as I adjusted to the coolness, I found that it was helping my stomach to settle down. Risako, of course, wasn’t really paying attention.
She was looking out over the city, back to me so that I could not see the expression on her face.
“…Risako?”
“I had a dream last night…”
…A dream? I didn’t really say anything at first. I couldn’t, because my first thought was that perhaps I wasn’t the only one having strange nightmares where weird people talked about weird stuff and then killed me afterwards. But then I thought that it was probably just a coincidence. She couldn’t have had the same dream. Or anything like it.
Most likely, whatever it was, it probably wasn’t
that frightening… after all, it didn’t take much to scare her.
…But I asked anyway.
“About what?”
I wondered if she even heard me because it was silent for a while, but just as I was about to repeat the question, she spoke up in a small voice that I had never heard her use before.
“…It might sound silly… but I don’t really want to describe it… It was so real that I feel that if I talk about it, then it might come true.”
…Strange girl.
“Come on… it can’t be that bad, can it?”
At that point she turned around, and I could see tears running down her face.
“…Everyone
died. I had to
watch everyone die.”
Topic: ::Voices of Angels (v.2.0):: [Prologue - The Meeting] (Read 3439 times)