Gravitation Fan Fiction ❯ Splinters of a Song ❯ = track ten = ( Chapter 11 )

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]


A.N.: Nothing has change from the last chapter to this one. Warnings and disclaimers are still the same. I must apologize to everyone that has been reading this story for the long delay between this chapter and the last one. Spoilers from ep eight of the anime are still in effect. *sigh* I swear I will get away from that ep soon, I promise. Maybe in the chapter after the next one, I hope.

= track ten =

I was wrong of course. It took two more weeks of long nights, boxes of pocky by ton and several good-natured fighting to finish the album. It was raw – far rawer than what we had ever produced ever since we hit big times – but it was still us. It was still Nittle Grasper and it had some serious bite. Touma took the tracks into a professional studio and with his mad producer skills cleared up the noise. Then a snap of his fingers later, everything was ready and he was making the announcement.

Well, I say snap even though there were a few things that got in between the recording and the finished product. Like ASK and Shindou and Eiri. Touma was being his nosey self and poking and prodding into Eiri’s life which ended up with one man nearly ran over by a mysterious car – of which I cannot say more if I wanted to stay on Touma’s fluffy side – and a couple restored to their rather unique balance.

Or something of that nature.

So, there we were, sitting in the junk food area of NG waiting to hear more from Touma concerning our announcement and listening to Bad Luck in the other room. Noriko was frowning, her chin in her hands and her elbows on the table, and I was across from her drawing in my sketchbook. Bad Luck’s voices were so loud that they were drowning out the quiet commentaries on the TV screen.

“Who is that?” Noriko asked, her eyes narrowing at the loud booming voice that was drowning out even Shuichi.

I raised my head from a rather fetching drawing of a dinosaur eating a Glock and nibbled reflectively on Kumagorou’s ear. “Oh that’s Evil Blonde Number Two.”

She gave me a look. “Ryuuichi. . . .“

I smiled and went back drawing scales on my dinosaur. “I mean K. He’s an evil blonde and waves these guns about and does all sorts of neat and crazy things.”

“Really? Hm, I’ve been wanting to talking to him.”

I looked up at the tone of her voice and blinked a couple of times. She looked pretty innocent sitting in her chair and fluffing up her pigtails. I blinked, put away my sketchbook and crayons and picked up Kumagorou, threatening her with a Kuma-beam. She laughed, got up from her chair and went towards the other room. After a moment of hard thought – K and his favourite gun Betty Lou might be waiting on the other side of the wall – then went after Noriko.

I caught her and K right in the middle of a discussion about why Touma got involved. K of course called Touma a coward but I felt the need to correct him. It seems I was doing a lot of correcting lately; maybe I could have gone into business as the answers man or something. It may be better than being a lead singer underneath Touma’s evil fluffy thumb.

“It’s not Touma’s fault. I asked him to do me a favour as President,” I said, stepping into the brawl with Kumagorou in my arms.

K leaned forward and placed his hands on my shoulders and I braced myself for a shaking – not that K would do that at all to me. “In other words, you’d be the villain that pulled Touma into this treachery.”

I nodded with a grin then blinked in confuzzlement as Noriko pushed K away.

“Hey! Don’t touch Ryuuichi in such a friendly fashion!”

“What? But I’m Ryuuichi’s former manager!”

“Right, former. Don’t make me remind you,” Noriko continued, clenching her hands into fists. “Three years ago you deceived Ryuu-chan and snatched him away to America.” Her voice started getting wobbly and I expected tears any second. “And now you want to carry over the deal with this young boy, rejecting him. It’s so sad, Ryuu-chan!”

She threw her arms around me, weeping and carrying on. I blinked, looked at K and asked, “Is it really sad?”

K looked like he was growing fangs and horns with his come back of, “Don’t say such disrespectful things!”

Noriko stopped crying at once, looked up and probably even smiled as she replied, “Just kidding! Anyways, let’s be nice from now on.”

I then decided that Noriko was going to become Evil Nearly Blonde Number Three. She was not as bad as Touma, or K, but she was up there on my list of ‘People that Seriously Will Give My Day Gray Skies If I Let Them.’ Hm, one of these days, I was going to have to get a new name for that list.

“Now matter what, I wanted to sing with Shuichi again. I’m glad,” I said, ignoring the dramatics carrying on next to my eardrum. I even gave Shuichi a one handed handshake – you know, holding the hand out and squeezing it like there’s another hand there. That of course, brought a lot of confused looks from everyone but K and Noriko. Oh well, at least Shuichi copied my handshake even though he looked completely lost.

“Enough with the friendly chit-chat!” Noriko said, smiling brightly and getting a firm grip on my arm. I eyed her and erked as she tugged me back towards our seats on the other side of the partition. “We’ve got a lot of work to do. Have a nice day!”

I yelped as I was pulled off my feet at that and whisked around the corner. Flailing wildly with Kumagorou, I managed to break free even as Noriko’s smile turned to a scowl. She put her hands on her hips, blowing some hair from her face then spun to face me, her finger jabbing into my chest. I squeaked and batted at her hand.

“How could you have gone off with him of all people? I thought you had better sense than that, Ryuu-chan!”

“But. . . .”

“No buts! Oh I am so mad at you, abandoning us like that!”

“Touma. . . .”

”Don’t you even start talking about him either!” Her finger was back poking at my chest. “You left us and went off with that American. Didn’t you think? He could have been a kidnapper or something! And what is with that gun? Isn’t it illegal to be carrying one around?”

I shoved Kumagorou into her face and ran off, heading for Touma’s office. He might be still fielding off questions but at least I can sulk properly on his leather couch while raiding his private fridge for snacks. And Noriko would calm down by the time she would find the office and we can discuss my reasons for going off with K three years ago. I thought Noriko knew just a little and it hurt that she didn’t understand. I had to go away. I just had to. I couldn’t have stayed in Japan watching the stranger replace my friend.

Sometimes I wish I could go to NeverLand where I never had to grow up and the past would fade away. Then maybe, the splinters wouldn’t cut me so deeply as they do each day.

Touma found me later that day curled up on his couch sleeping away and with Noriko systematically sorting all his papers into three piles – or so he told me after he woke me up. By that time Noriko was gone but she had left Kumagorou sitting on top of one of the filing cabinets wearing one of Touma’s hats. He also said that she had apologized – to him to pass it on to me – and that he also told her that K could never be anyone suspicious because he would probably shoot himself if he got that crazy.

I was in no mood to listen to anything so after he stopped talking and just sat there staring at me, I asked to be taken home. He sighed and dialed a number and a moment later, he was hauling me to my feet and shoving Kumagorou into my arms. I blinked confusedly as K appeared like magic and caught my arm, tugging me along. Touma must have been able to read my mind because he thawed a little and smiled.

“I have a lot of paperwork to fill out, Ryuu-chan,” he said, nodding at K. “So I asked K to make sure you got home safely since he was heading in that direction anyways. Get some sleep and we’ll talk, just the three of us tomorrow.”

I could have protested – K was no longer my manager and that Touma and Noriko and I should talk about things now – but I just did not feel up to any confrontation. So giving a nod, I let K drag me out of the building.