Star Storm 1/1
Title: Star Storm
Characters/Groups: Arashi, News, Toma, Tackey & Tsubasa
Genre: Comedy drama, AU.
Rating: PG
Warnings: Nothing to be scared of, no violence, horror, swearing or anything of that ilk. However, a possible warning for fluffy crack should be issued.
Summary: Arashiyama is a small town outside of Kyoto, and home to one of the biggest boybands in Japan: Arashi. Although the five Arashi members are seen as the beloved sons of the town, it is also home to a number of other young men who are also well loved and well thought of, and all successful in their own careers. When a benefit concert called Star Storm is organised, and Arashi can no longer attend, can organisers Tackey and Tsubasa find another way to close the show?
Author's Notes: In this verse, Arashi and News members (plus a few others) are friends and contemporaries, who all grew up in the same town of Arashiyama. Arashi became the Arashi we know and love, while others took different paths, but the bonds of friendship remain regardless of different paths. This was written for je_justfriends 2011 exchange.
June 2011
There were times when you could really resent being born in the city that gave the world Arashi, Shige thought. Most of the time it was fine, most of the time it was quite cool as visitors assumed that you really were best friends with the members, and that they were exactly the same as they were on TV, and they truly were nice guys. Which to be fair, they actually were. Sometimes the extra crowds on certain dates like birthdays and group debuts made you want to tear your hair out as the trains were crowded and you couldn't get near the Masaki restaurant or the Koyama ramen shop which was next door for hours...but most of the time it was fine.
This, however, this was not fine. At all.
Shige glared at Tackey. Tackey held his gaze, then pointed at Tsubasa. “Blame him, it was his idea.”
Shige glared at Tsubasa.
Tsubasa smiled at him, and shrugged his shoulders. “It's a great idea.”
Massu nodded. “Actually, I think he's right. It could work.”
Ryo shook his head. “I agree with our boy genius over here. We can't pull that off, not tonight.”
Tegoshi grabbed Ryo's arm. “We can do it, I know we can! It's just a matter of sorting out the harmonies.”
“And the dances.” Koyama clapped Ryo on the shoulder, then swung an arm around Shige. “Think of the children.”
“I am thinking of the children,” Ryo snapped. “I am thinking of their disappointed crestfallen little faces and their tears.”
Shige looked at his watch. “How long would we have?”
Tsubasa and Tackey shared a look, then Tackey looked at his clipboard. “With a bit of juggling, I can give you eight hours. We can push back the starting time, and that's about all we can do.”
“Ok.” Shige nodded. “Ok. I'm in, so long as the change is announced now. And refunds are available...”
“No,” Massu interrupted. “No refunds. They knew when they bought the tickets that it was a fundraising event. No one gets their money back.”
“It's false advertising though! They bought their tickets expecting Arashi, and when they don't get them, they could actually have a case....”
“Except for the fine print on the back of the ticket that says that artists, events and times may change at the discretion of the promoter and in unavoidable circumstances.” Tsubasa smiled at Shige. “Which I think we can all agree counts in this situation.”
Tackey looked around and asked, “Are you all in?”
Five pairs of eyes looked around the room checking their answer, then five heads nodded.
“Excellent, let's get this thing moving.” Tackey sprinted away, clipboard clutched in one hand as he barked orders into his headset.
Tsubasa simply grinned as he opened a door to a rehearsal room. “I'll get you what you need material wise, get going!”
***
The formation of a five member boy band was not a new practice for either Japan, or Johnny's Entertainment. In fact, one could say it was fairly regular. What was unprecedented in the case of Arashi was that all five members came from the same town, and knew each other by sight before they were put together in a group. They also auditioned on the same day. Years later, magazines would call it “the fated audition day”, and many times Johnny Kitagawa was asked to release any video footage they had from that day, or the audition evaluation reports, absolutely anything to show that they recognised the greatness of the Arashi to come in the five small boys who attended.
Johnny had a very strict rule; no audition footage of individual applicants. He always had a film crew brought in to each audition to capture the bright shining faces, the terrified eyes, the shaking hands of many and the steely determination in a few. He always taped the first session, where the day was outlined and a few senpai came in to talk about the company and how you started as a junior and made your way up to debuted artist. They sat in rows, listening attentively, and the camera swept across the room. At the end, there was a 30 second dance routine to learn, which was the first culling point. Those 30 seconds would mean the end of the dream for 35% of the boys. It only got harder to survive from there.
So technically, there was footage of Arashi's audition day, and almost daily Johnny cursed the camera man who had been hired for it. He had blatantly ignored his order to give equal time to everyone, to make sure that each applicant was captured and had instead focussed on two inseparable bright eyed boys called improbably Toma and Tomo. The five boys sitting in a row behind them, they had made the cut. Johnny did have footage of Arashi on their audition day, except it showed them taking a backseat to two unknown faces who didn't make it past the first cut. Johnny made sure that camera man never worked in the industry again.
So Johnny couldn't use the footage of their audition, but he could use the footage of their first action as a group. Having five people from the same town audition together was odd enough, for all of them to be successful was even more against the odds. Johnny sent the five boys home with the news that they had been accepted, and a camera crew accompanied them to capture the reaction of their families. That footage had more than repaid the expense it incurred, and most of Japan would now recognise by sight the Masaki, Ninomiya, Satoshi, Sakurai and Matsumoto families. The chance that led Matsumoto's older sister to wear a Kinki Kids concert T-shirt on that day as she opened the door, led to many more doors opening for her both as a Kinki kids fan and later, as the popularity of Arashi rose and the footage was replayed again and again, as a talento who was often invited onto shows to “open the door” for today's mystery guest.
So the legend of Arashi was born in their medium sized town called Arashiyama, thirty minutes by train from Kyoto, which was just close enough to ensure Arashi fans could make an easy day trip even if it required a shinkansen ride to Kyoto, and yet still far enough away to feel a little bit rural and peaceful. The town itself was proud of them, supportive of them, and took every opportunity it could to link it's name to that of the band, a process made infinitely easier by the fact that both their names started with Arashi. Johnny Kitagawa was never one to look a gift horse in the mouth, and when able to claim that five sons of this town would create a storm, he gave them the name which would become core to their identity.
Arashi was a group built on the strength of their differences and the commonality of their experience. Or as Nino snarkily put it one day, “I can only cover your mistakes because I know you too well, you idiot.” They may have grown up together, but they stayed together and succeeded in such a demanding industry because they could trust each other and could be certain that each member valued the group as highly as they did themselves. They didn't live in each other's back pockets anymore; moving to Tokyo and the endless whirlwind of idol life had put paid to that, but their manager was constantly balancing the demands of solo activities with group work. They had spent years building Arashi and their own careers into something to be proud of, something that they could look back on with fondness and pride.
They knew that luck had played a part in it, but their hard work had made sure it happened. Well, that and their willingness to reach out to old friends who were experts in other fields when they needed advice... For Arashi, help was always at hand.
**
May 2004
Ryo stumbled towards the door, cursing the person on the other side who kept knocking, as he tripped over the rubbish left over from the party. Game nights were all well and good, and he enjoyed them as much now as he did when the five of them had all been in school and determined to be the all time Mario Kart champion but next time he should really take a leaf out of Massu's book and insist that everyone clean up before they left. Or maybe he should just insist that Tegoshi clean up, because he seemed to get out of it when they had get togethers at Massu's as well.
Just as he got to the genkan, the knocking stopped and the door bell started.
Biting back a probably deserved, but slightly dramatic tirade, Ryo heaved the door open.
Nino looked at him for a moment, assessed the situation and then raised his hand and a six pack of beer. “Hair of the dog?”
“It's definitely too early for more beer,” Ryo replied.
“Don't be ridiculous.” Nino handed him the beer as he pushed past him. “It's never too early for beer.” He took of his shoes and headed towards the couch. “Besides I need a favour.”
Ryo shut the door, and headed into the kitchen to put the beer in the fridge for later. “What kind of favour?”
Nino waited for him to sit down before he responded. “I need help.”
Ryo looked at him warily, but he couldn't see any traces of mischief. “Such as?”
“I've written a song.” Nino glanced away. “A solo song. Music and lyrics.”
Ryo nodded. “Ok.”
“I need to know it's ok. I thought you might check it for me.”
“You know, you do work with record label professionals who could help with that. I'm not a professional.”
Nino glared at him. “If you don't want to see it, I can...”
“Calm down,” Ryo interrupted. “I am just saying that I am not a professional musician or songwriter,I'm a pastry chef. That's all I am saying. If you'll show it to me, I want to see it.”
Without meeting Ryo's gaze, Nino pulled a stack of folded paper out of his jacket pocket. “It's rough.”
Ryo carefully unfolded the sheets, smoothing out the creases as he scanned the staves, hearing the notes in his mind. He hummed a few bars. “This is your solo?”
Nino nodded.
Ryo gestured at his guitar. “Can I?”
Taking a deep breath, Nino nodded again, and then slowly let the breath out as Ryo began to play.
Four hours later, Nino was satisfied that the song sounded exactly the way he wanted. His original sheets were marked and altered, but each refinement was for the better. Being able to hear someone else sing it, and have them listen to him, was what he had needed. He had wanted it to be performance ready; now he was ready to share it with everyone.
**
April 2006
He was ready.
Sho stared at the camera, and tried to look like he didn't have a line of cold sweat dripping down his spine. His suit was perfectly pressed, his hair was neatly brushed back, the auto-cue was easy to read, the chair was the right height, he just needed to read the words.
The only problem was that the words on the auto-cue seemed to be in a language he couldn't speak, because after the greeting and his name, he had no idea what it said.
He pressed his hands into the desk, and told himself not to panic. Koyama had said it would just be nerves, that because it was a live broadcast, everything might feel magnified, and to not panic. If anyone knew about it, Koyama would because he was a roving newscaster and sent all over to Japan to create stories for newsevery. So Koyama would know. Plus, he himself had been on television before lots of time. He kept telling himself it would be fine. The only problem was that the telling himself that it would be fine didn't seem to be working.
“I hear that I'm no longer the only newscaster from our town! Aren't you Arashi boys satisfied with being idols?” Sho looked up to see Koyama grinning at him.
“Kei-chan!” Sho grinned back as Koyama sat down. “I didn't know you were in today; I thought you were only in on Wednesdays.”
Koyama smoothed a non-existent crease from his sleeve. “Wednesday and any other day they need me. I have a special that goes to air tonight.” He glanced at Sho. “Besides, when I heard that today was your big day, I thought I could drop by and see if you had listened to anything I told you.”
“Don't panic. Don't roll your eyes if you stumble over the words. Take a deep breath before you start speaking. However slowly you think you are speaking, you are really talking quicker than you need to so slow down a bit. Don't watch the tape of the first show for at least three days. Make sure you bow. Smile at the other presenters. Buy Koyama-senpai a very expensive dinner for sharing his advice so generously.”
“I don't remember that last one, and it feels very weird for you to call me senpai, but it does seem like a good idea.” Koyama kept his face serious, as he pretended to brush lint from his lapel. “Are you sure that you are ok?”
“I think so. I just have to sit there and read.”
Koyama shook his head. “We both now it's a lot more than that. Don't underestimate yourself or what you are doing here.”
“At this point, I am just glad I get to sit behind the desk. I'm not sure I could go out there and film segments like you do.”
“Sure you could. It just takes practice.”
Sho grimaced. “Practice and the ability to make people feel comfortable almost instantaneously, and then open up and talk to you. I've seen you do it! How do you get people to talk to you so easily?”
“I'm not sure. I guess...I just do.”
“You genuinely care, and people respond. It's a talent, Kei-chan. Not everyone has it!”
“Just as well this is my job!” Koyama stood, and laid his hand on Sho's shoulder. “I've got to go, but I am sure you will be great. Let me know when you have a spot in your busy idol schedule for dinner.”
“How about in two hours? We'll be done by then.”
Koyama pulled out his phone and thoroughly checked the calendar. “Unfortunately, as it is a Monday, I have a date already. Tonight I am catching up with the other guys for karaoke. You would be more than welcome to join us. Tegoshi believes he has finally nailed down your rap from Sakura Sake.”
“When is Tegoshi going to realise that the only rapper amongst you is Shige?”
“About the same time that Massu stops indulging him in singing Kinki Kids songs, and starts using his chest voice, I would say. Or, technically so Ryo says, whenever that topic comes up!” Koyama laughed.
“I'd love to come. Text me the place.”
“Will do. As always, it's an open invitation for anyone else who is free.” Koyama grinned at him, and walked out of the room. “Knock them dead. Not literally, of course.”
Sho looked to the left, and caught a glimpse of a bright copper haired head. The person moved and he caught their eye. Koyama smiled at him, and gave him a big thumbs up. Sho took another deep breath, held it, and watched the lights on the camera change. He was ready.
**
April 2008
The boat rocked gently under their feet, and the sun was warm on their skin. Their fishing lines rode the waves below, and the silence was deep and peaceful. Shige stretched his arms towards the sky, and grimaced as the tension in his shoulders resisted the movement before finally softening. He had been a bit sceptical about fishing being a relaxing hobby, but here and now he could understand the appeal.
Ohno watched him stretch, then said, “Fishing won't actually fix your shoulders from being frozen like that.”
“It's just too many hours at a desk.” Shige stretched again, and this time felt a more satisfying shift in the muscles. “Guess I need to get out more. Or find a good massage place.”
Ohno nodded. “Or both. I would never say no to a good massage place. Or a fishing buddy.”
Shige gave him a sideways glance. “I am kind of wondering why you have a fishing buddy now.”
Ohno looked at his watch. “Three hours. Tegoshi wins.” Taking pity on Shige's blank look, he explained, “Nino and Ryo were certain you wouldn't last an hour before asking why I invited you. Massu said you would last two and a half hours, Tegoshi said three. He wins.” Ohno help up a hand to forestall the argument from Shige. “They were just teasing. Besides, I know you have been wondering why I asked you specifically.”
“I just...wondered,” Shige said rather inelegantly.
“Kei-chan mentioned to Sho that you were feeling tired and stressed and really feeling the weight of your last semester of law studies, and he was worried that you were not taking good enough care of yourself. He was trying to think of something he could persuade you to do that you would agree to, and would be relaxing, and would work, seeing you rejected his suggestion of a Guam break. Sho's been out fishing a few times with me, and he suggested that this might be a good thing for you to try. So they asked me if you could come out one day. I said I would.”
“Umm, Ohno, I graduated from University a year ago.”
“I never said it would be soon.”
“Oh.”
“Besides, the same principle holds. I figured you would be even more stressed once you had a job, so I thought I would save the treatment for when you really needed it.”
Shige gave him a very level look.
“I lost your number.”
“Right.” Shige slumped next to his rod, mesmerised by the bobbing of the line in the water. “Well, thank you for inviting me today. I am really enjoying fishing with you. You are right, it is relaxing, and I am enjoying not thinking about work at all.”
“Um, well about that,” Shige looked up to find Ohno's expression to be a mixture of guilt and apology. “I kind of need advice.”
“Legal advice?” Shige straightened. “Is there anything wrong?”
“Oh no, no worries there. Johnny buried those really incriminating photos of me and the girls in the hotel room and only let the party hard ones be published, so that's fine.” He smiled at Shige's faintly appalled look. “I actually need a bit of background. I have been cast in a drama next season and I really want to get a feel for the character.”
“What's the drama?” Shige asked, hoping to distract Ohno from the blush which meant he was happy that someone from Arashi, the Leader no less, had asked him for advice.
“It's called Mao, it's a remake of a Korean drama. I am playing a guy called Naruse, who becomes a lawyer after his brother is killed. I am known as The Angelic Lawyer as I represent the poor and those falsely accused, while I am also plotting revenge against those responsible for my brother's death. From what I have seen of the script so far, it's really quite dark and involved, and the other cast members are great as well. I want to get a feel for how lawyers present themselves in court, and to clients. I'll have the script but I want to make it a little more authentic.” He pulled sharply on his fishing line, and Shige sat quietly beside him.
“I can help you with that. Would you like to come to a few sessions in court?”
Ohno shook his head. “I can't. There's not enough time, and if I turn up then...”
“Ah.” Shige nodded. “You might be a bit noticeable. That's ok. I can talk you through how it works.”
“Thanks. I appreciate it.” Ohno paused, then admitted, “I haven't been the lead in a drama before.”
“That shouldn't worry you, surely?” Shige asked.
“The guy they cast as the protagonist, he's really really good. Like he could be the break out rising star of his generation good.” Shige waited for him to continue, but he just pulled at his line again.
Finally, Shige said. “And you are a Johnny? Is that what is worrying you?”
Ohno grimaced and looked at him. “Mainly. Look I know that not all Johnny's talents are great actors, and I know that Arashi and my profile was one of the reasons that they cast me. It's just..I don't want it to become a media circus of Mao starring Toma Ikuta rising actor star, and that guy from Arashi who thought he could act but can't.”
Silence settled between them as Shige considered his words carefully. “You will always be a Johnny to some people. For some, that will always mean you just got the job because you are one. They cast you in the lead though, which would suggest that they have the confidence in your ability to pull this off. If the drama really relies on both you and this Toma guy to make it work, then I would say make the character your own, and bring that to the table. I've seen you act, you can do it, but you will need to work for it. No coasting by on the fact that you are an idol, no winks to the audience about look at me I'm acting! If everything else is there already and it's strong, like the script and the director, it is an amazing opportunity for you.” He grinned at Ohno. “Besides, the other guy might be sitting there thinking that he doesn't want to be put up against the leader of Arashi. I guarantee that you have more screaming fangirls than he does.”
“That's why I invited you, Shige. You are honest enough to tell me how it is. Thank you.” Ohno cast an amused glance at the darkened blush on Shige's cheekbones. Sometimes Shige was just too uncertain of his own skills.
“That name is familiar though,” said Shige, as he cast around for a change of topic as his blush deepened. “Toma Ikuta. I am sure I know it.”
“You should do, he's from home as well.” Shige stared, and Ohno chuckled. “Yes they must have put something in the water. He would have been in your year at elementary school, I think. He and another boy transferred out to the Kyoto Performing Arts Junior High school, determined to become stars, and Toma's been working fairly steadily at building a profile up ever since. My manager said that he has done some really good stage work as well, and he's had a few shows transfer to Tokyo as well.”
“Right.” Shige thought back, and conjured up a distant memory of two boys who transferred at the end of sixth year. Similar heights, one with a small face, the other with a large nose....but the details were misty. “Bizarre that he is from home as well.”
“Yeah.” Ohno pulled his line in. “Now, I have questions. How should I open doors? Do I wait for clients to talk to me or am I charge? Can I really just walk into an interview room and tell them to stop questioning someone? Can I bring in evidence when I need to? Do people really trust you know what you are doing when you build a defence or prosecution? Do people lie to you?”
Shige shook his head. “I'm not quite sure how to start. Or where.”
“Ok.” Ohno hid a rather evil grin. “How about we start with how do you look so hot in a suit? I mean, Shige-chan you look incredibly do-able in a suit.”
Ohno laughed as Shige's face turned a burning shade of red, and he fumbled with his rod and dropped it over the side.
**
August 2009
Massu stifled a laugh and managed to keep a straight face as the two idols staggered onto the pool deck. Neither of them would appreciate being laughed at openly in front of the students, but he knew they would take criticism. They needed to be ready in less than a week, and at this rate, both his school and the two Arashi members were in danger of public ridicule.
“I am never doing that again,” Matsumoto spat angrily, managing to stagger only a few steps before collapsing.
“I don't know that we have a choice. Johnny seemed fairly emphatic that we were doing it,” Aiba said falling down beside his group mate, and gamely attempting to ignore the steady hum of giggles in the background.
“You were both terrible.”
Aiba and Matsumoto looked in the direction of the voice, and squinted at the figure blocking the sunlight. Matsumoto hurriedly stopped squinting when he realised that it was creasing the skin around eyes and his new Fasio mascara ad was due to be shot tomorrow.
“Seriously, you were terrible. If I didn't know better, I would say neither of you had been in a pool before!”
Aiba frowned. “We tried! That's harder than it looks.”
“Well, you need to try harder. I am not letting you go out there on national television and embarrass yourselves and my school,” Massu said.
“If its so easy, then you show us!” Aiba said.
“Fine!” Massu threw his towel onto the bench and walked towards the pool. “Watch and learn please.”
“You had to say it, didn't you,” whined Matsumoto.
Massu paused for a moment on the edge of the pool, before diving in smoothly. Once the swimming team had realised what was going on, they crowded around the edge, eager to see Massu-sensei go through the synchronised swimming cheer routine.
Massu surfaced, and pulled his wet hair back from his face. The swim team captain was standing by the stereo, and at Massu's nod, he hit play.
Massu cut through the water cleanly, marking each change in position smoothly, diving, turning, tumbling. As the music swelled, he moved through the explosive jumping section of the routine, then marked their positions through the group patterns and sequence. The last 30 seconds was the synchronised cheer, with the Gan Gan Ganbatte Nippon chorus which looked so effective when done properly.
“I could really come to hate him,” said Aiba.
“Don't be ridiculous, no one could ever hate Massu,” said Matsumoto. “Even when he is showing the rest of us up and making us feel like failures.”
“Well I suppose he did choreograph it, so it stands to reason that he would be good at it,” Aiba said dolefully.
Massu finished the last pose, and the swim team cheered.
Aiba and Matsumoto sighed.
“Your turn!” Massu called.
They tried. They really really tried. It was just not to be, it was not possible for them to do it. Finally, Massu admitted defeat and when Aiba and Matsumoto called Johnny from the pool side to explain that it was not possible, Massu spoke to him as well, and explained that they both sucked so badly at synchronised swimming that it was possible that the popularity of Arashi would suffer if the failure of two of his top idols was publicly exposed on 24 Hour Television.
Massu hung up the phone, and looked at his two hangdog friends. “He says it's up to you two to find a replacement activity.”
Aiba and Matsumoto exchanged a look.
“Any ideas?”
"None."
“Well we have to think of something. There is no way that we can just leave it as otherwise there will be a hole in the scheduling for the program. What's the theme again?”
“Team spirit.”
An uncomfortable silence stretched between them, as they tried to think of a topic.
Massu cast them a sly look, that was then carefully veiled in innocence. " I have an idea for a topic. It needs to be entertaining, right? And it needs to involve the school, right? Well, one thing in common that all the local schools have here is rabbits.”
Matsumoto bent his head slightly to the left and shot Massu a narrow look. “Where are you going with this?”
“Well, the idea is for you to have a project that involves the local community and responds to the theme. Seeing you are not going to be able to do the synchronised routine that we have all spent a lot of time practising ...” Matsumoto narrowed his eyes further as Massu blinked innocently. “I just thought that we should concentrate on something where you don't have to be the ones actually participating. Given your schedules I know its hard for you to practice something and seeing it's coming up so soon … we should do something where you guys get to lead the cheering and let someone else worry about the content.”
“That sounds sensible,” said Matsumoto warily. “Where do the rabbits come in?”
“Well, all the local schools have pet rabbits, so I thought we could organise a rabbit racing challenge tournament. The students could make up some school based cheers, we line up the rabbits, Aiba says go, you both lead the cheering for all the racing rabbits and then at the end Matsumoto can give the winner a trophy.”
“Where do you come up with this stuff?” Aiba asked.
Massu snorted. “I am a teacher, you try keeping 40 students interested without thinking outside the box.”
“So all we would have to do is cheer on rabbits?” Matsumoto asked.
Even Aiba looked a bit sceptical.
“Well we should probably get you costumes or something as well. Hey Tegoshi could help with that! The important thing would be getting the cheers rehearsed by the students and then the race itself is just a bit of fun. What do you say?”
“It sounds like it could work. If that is all we had to do, we could handle that. We would need to clear it with Johnny of course,” said Aiba.
“Leave it with me I am sure I can convince him,” said Massu cheerfully. “Can I borrow your phone?”
Twenty minutes later, Massu had secured an agreement with Johnny that the local school rabbit challenge race would be a great idea and that he would organise all the details. Matsumoto and Aiba were so relieved that the synchronised swimming cheer was no longer on their their to do list that they left the pool with very wide smiles and sighs of relief.
Later, when Massu was recounting the story to Shige over a beer, Shige asked a very pertinent question. “Why did you say Tegoshi could help with costumes? I know he sells men's fashion now, but how will that help?”
Massu savoured a mouthful of beer before he replied. “Well Tegoshi is the only one of us who has experience in creating costumes. Just think of his Halloween costumes.”
Shige frowned. “But Tegoshi only wears girls costumes for Halloween.”
Massu smiled. “Yes.”
“For twenty four hour television? Massu!”
Massu shrugged. “Johnny approved it.”
Shige laughed. “Matsumoto is going to kill you. Aiba may forgive you, but Matsumoto will kill you.”
A sly grin crossed Massu's face. “You haven't even asked what costumes Tegoshi is doing for them yet!”
Shige asked the question with raised eyebrows alone, Massu was obviously dying to tell now.
“Johnny agreed that they could play boy rabbits. I told Tegoshi that playboy bunnies was fine.”
Shige dropped his glass of beer as Massu crowed with laughter.
That portion of twenty four hour television went on to be one of the most highly watched segments. It was also incredibly popular on youtube, until NTV started vigorously pursuing up-loaders and demanding its removal...following a personal visit to the NTV team by one particular member of Arashi whose name begins with M.
***
One of the best things about the popularity of Arashi was the way in which they could bring public attention to worthy causes. One of the worst things was that they could not help each worthy cause themselves. The amount of requests that they received could be accurately termed as a small mountain, and there was just no way that everyone could be helped. So if one had an advantage that might allow them to side step the queue, well sometimes a phone call from the mayor of Arashiyama to the manager of Arashi was made, with the suggestion that a benefit concert for rebuilding communities damaged during the last typhoon season would be immeasurably improved by the appearance of a certain storm associated group.
When Johnny was approached and his arm was twisted slightly, he agreed that it would be a nice way to welcome Arashi back from their Asia Pacific tour. He agreed that they could participate on condition that Arashi was not the only group to appear, as such a favour would mean that every other worthy cause would feel slighted. He approved Arashi being included as the final act, and suggested that a benefit concert that featured other local celebrities, musicians and students.
And so Star Storm was born.
The mayor of Arashiyama went out of her way to ensure that the line up was as star studded as possible. Helped by the high level of community spirit the benefit preparations developed quickly and easily, as more people than usual wanted to be a part of it. She approached the Kyoto Performing Arts High School, and secured the services of two of the teachers there, one Takizawa Hideaki a vocal teacher, and one Imai Tsubasa a dance teacher. They were a great team, and popular in their own right; the joke in the staff room was always that Johnny Kitagawa should have snapped them up, a proposition problematic only in that they had never auditioned!
With Tackey and Tsubasa effectively producing the concert, it quickly turned into a fully staged concert production, as they were able to call in favours from the local industry staff, as well as pulling in their own students along with enthusiastic students from the local schools in Arashiyama. They found the local stores were also happy to help with costumes, props and other costs. It truly had a magical feel to it, as the community pulled together to raise money.
The magical journey of Star Storm had ended that morning when Tackey had been woken by a phone call from Ohno.
At the other end, Ohno had sounded tense and unhappy and very very stressed. “We are not going to make it, I am sorry but there is just no way we can get there.”
“What do you mean?” The final dress rehearsal had ended quite late, and Tackey was not at his best on three hours sleep. “What do you mean you can't make it?”
“We are still in Australia.”
“Well, get on the plane, it only takes ten hours to get home!”
“Tackey, there are no planes to get on. A volcano erupted in Chile and the ash cloud has drifted across the Pacific and grounded everything. Even Johnny couldn't get a plane to fly us out. Believe me, he tried. We've been here at the airport since yesterday morning but there is just no way we can physically leave the country at the moment, no plane is authorised to fly and there is no word on when that will change.”
Tackey calmly put the phone down, buried his head in his pillow and screamed.
“Yes that about covers it,” said Ohno.
Tsubasa leant over Tackey and picked up his phone, putting it on speaker mode as he did so. “What's going on?”
Ohno repeated the story, and Tsubasa momentarily felt like joining Tackey in his pillow reaction. Still what couldn't be helped needed to be solved. “Ok so there is no way you can get here. Is there anyway we could do some kind of live hook-up?”
Ohno looked at his bandmates. “I can't say for sure. We have been up all night but they have found us a hotel room now. We might be able to set something up on Skype? I doubt we could get anything broadcast quality at this point...”
Tsubasa nodded. “Better than nothing, and it would be good if people could at least see you. At least a volcano is a good reason for you to miss this.” He could hear the exhaustion in Ohno's voice. “Head to the hotel and get some sleep. We can work something out at this end.”
He ended the call, and turned to Tackey.
“So....”
“Yeah.”
“We need a closing act that can replace Arashi.”
“Yeah.”
Tsubasa buried his head in his hands, wracking his brain for a solution.
“The only thing that I can think of is to move the act one closer to the finale spot,” said Tackey. “It's a big number, it involves everyone, it could close the show.”
Tsubasa nodded. “At any other time I would agree with you. That number could definitely close the show, but in these circumstances.... Well they are expecting Arashi and if we give them a talent school led number instead I don't think it will work. Plus that unbalances the first half of the show, who would we get to close the first act?”
“We could move Toma and Shadow to the act one finale and that would work... What?” Tackey asked, struck by the sudden look on Tsubasa's face.
“I just had a crazy idea. A really really really crazy good idea.”
“What?”
“Give me a minute, let me think it through.”
Tackey waited impatiently as Tsubasa grabbed a pen and paper and started scribbling notes to himself.
“Ok. Here's the plan. We shift Toma and Shadow to the end of act one and then we set up the big chorus number as the finale but that is our Plan B. I have another idea for Plan A.”
“Such as?”
“We get five people to replace Arashi and do their set in their place.”
“Right, and who do you propose for this, and where will you find them and how soon can they get here? I can't think of five locals in the industry who we could trust to ...”
“Oh they aren't in the entertainment industry. They aren't professionals, but they could do it,” interrupted Tsubasa.
“Do you really want to trust this to amateurs?” asked Tackey. “If this goes wrong it's going to make headlines.”
“It will anyway, but it will be for the right reasons. They can do it, they have been singing their songs for years and they know them well enough to make this work. You've even seen them doing it, remember Massu invited us, and they sang Troublemaker?”
Tackey started. “Oh my god, that could work.”
“Precisely. Plus, they are local boys and loved by the community. What could go wrong with getting Koyama Keiichiro, Kato Shigeaki, Nishikido Ryo, Masuda Takahisa and Tegoshi Yuya up on stage to do the Arashi medley?”
***
Eight hours went by very quickly, as costumes were altered, choreography was rehearsed, harmonies were practised, and slowly they realised that they may be able to pull this off. The songs were a short medley of Arashi hits, and they could probably sing them in their sleep. Starting with Sakura Sake, followed by Love so Sweet, Troublemaker, Wish and then finishing with Arashi, they were a mixture of bright up-tempo hits and sweeter love songs. If Arashi had been there to close the show, it would have brought the house down; as it was they were gambling that the attendees would be understanding enough that even Arashi couldn't fly home through a volcanic cloud, and that their replacements were roped in at the last minute and did a wonderful job. At least that was the plan; Tsubasa really hoped that no one tried to storm the stage.
Tsubasa had taken them through the set, and between Tsubasa and Massu they had all drilled the dance moves until they felt like second nature. Shige was still slightly nervous, but he would quietly admit to being glad that Massu normally cajoled them into the dances when they got together for karaoke, so at least they were not completely unfamiliar. No doubt they would not be as smooth as the real thing, but at this rate their best would be more than acceptable.
It also helped that the production side of things had been taken care of; the numbers were blocked and the lighting had been checked, the sound was fine, and they would look and sound as good as they could, and the crew knew to keep their eyes open and smooth over anything they could.
The vocals were also coming along nicely, save for one hiccup, where Tackey firmly told Tegoshi that he would be singing the melody in Sakura Sake and Shige would be singing the rap. Tegoshi had pouted and protested and would probably have moved onto whining if Koyama hadn't thrown an arm around his shoulder and said, “But I need Tego-nyan on the melody with me.” Tegoshi's bright smile had allowed Tackey to quickly move onto the next bit of news, which was that Shige was doing all the rapping. Massu grabbed Tegoshi's other shoulder and squeezed hard. Tegoshi swallowed his protest and smiled at Shige. Shige meanwhile was enduring Ryo poking him in the side and saying, “Bet you are glad that I made you learn them now, I told you that you should do the rap parts.”
The audience arrived, the lights dimmed, and Tsubasa walked on stage to make the announcement that Arashi couldn't attend, and even backstage the disappointed reaction from the fans was audible. Luckily, they had managed a Skype video link, and even with the poor quality of the connection, it was obvious that the Arashi members were just as disappointed to be missing Star Storm. There was really only time for them to apologise, promise to appear at some point in the future for the same cause, and to also to give them the news that they had asked a few friends for a favour and to please support them. With a final wave and cheer, they said goodbye and the show started and somehow, the tension managed to increase even more for the five friends backstage.
Tackey and Tsubasa drilled them in the medley one last time, checking words, checking choreography, checking that each of them knew where they were meant to be during each moment of the performance, and where the other members would be as well. Plan A was a go. As the first act drew to a close, Tackey and Tsubasa grinned at each other, and high fived each other.
“Guys, this is going to work!” said Tackey.
“You hope,” said Shige darkly.
“With that attitude you may as well stay here,” said Massu, in possibly the snippiest tone he had ever produced. “We do this right, or we don't do it.”
“Massu's right.” Tsubasa stopped in front of Shige. “If you were going to suck, we would pull you and switch the order of the numbers we knew were ready. We trust you to do this.” He slung an arm around Shige, and said quietly, “Be nervous, but don't show doubt or fear. You can do this.” Shige looked down nodded, as Tsubasa gave his shoulders a quick squeeze of encouragement.
“You are good to go,” said Tackey. “Hit the showers, get into costume, and be ready.”
Ryo had a violent disagreement with the costume assistant who attempted to get him into a jacket with a longline ruffle skirt on one side that ended at his ankles. He looked at the other four who were wearing theirs without complaint. “Are you seriously going to wear that thing in public?”
Koyama shot him a level look. “We are going to perform a medley of hit Arashi songs in front of a crowd of Arashi fangirls. I think the ruffles are the least of our problems. At least they ditched the idea of putting us in the see through plastic ones.” Ryo ended up wearing the costume.
With five minutes to go, they were standing in the wings, watching the number before them. It was a clever routine, one man miming everyday activities with another man behind him playing his shadow. The movements became incredibly complex and intricate until they realised the men were dancing to music only they could hear. Shige suddenly realised that one of the two men on stage dancing was Toma Ikuta.
“Yes, Toma was more than happy to come back for this. He went to our school, you know,” said Tsubasa.
Shige nodded. “I remember, Ohno told me about him when he was cast in Mao.”
“That was his big break, it pushed him into the limelight. He's got talent, he will definitely have a career as an actor. He's also a good dancer and a capable singer. I hope he gets a chance to use those skills as well.” He gestured at the performance. “This is actually something that the two of them put together for their graduation performance. Toma and Yamashita started at our school together, they were already best friends when they arrived. Toma was popular and well liked and could speak to anyone, and Yamashita always stuck with Toma. By the end of the first term, they had nicknamed him Toma's Shadow, because he never spoke and was always there just behind him. It got shortened to Shadow of course, and everyone referred to him that way.” He grimaced. “Tackey hates the nickname, and I must admit that I don't really like it either. At one point, Tackey tried to give him a new nickname, Yamapi I think it was or maybe just Pi, because he liked wearing pink at that stage, but it never caught on.” He sighed. “The kid has talent of his own, but he never really seemed to find his place. Being best friends with Toma....he was just overwhelmed by Toma's star I think. He never worked out how to be himself, how to shine when it was just himself alone. He wanted to be a dancer at one point, another time an actor...” Tsubasa shrugged. “He's capable enough, as you can see, but....next to Toma, he's still a shadow.” He sighed. “One of the hardest things about teaching is knowing that not all of my students will have a chance to live their dream. Sometimes its luck, sometimes talent, and sometimes...they are just on the wrong path.”
He looked at the five men silently standing beside him. “And sometimes others have greatness thrust upon them. There's an old saying about going out there a rookie, and coming back a star.” Applause resounded through the theatre, as the Toma and Shadow number ended. “It's time.”
The stage darkened as Toma and Yamashita walked into the wings, and the backstage staff flew in the curtain to let them get into position. Tackey nodded at the five of them, and Ryo, Shige, Massu, Koyama and Tegoshi walked onto the stage and took their places, hidden in the shadows.
Tackey walked out to the front of the stage. “Ladies and Gentleman, thank you for coming to Star Storm tonight. As you know, tonight has been about raising money to help communities affected by the typhoon season.” He paused as a round of applause broke out. “Thank you. We hope that you have enjoyed the show... so far. It's not over yet! Earlier, the Arashi members mentioned that they had asked some friends for a favour. I have news for you all, they are here, they are ready. Please support them!”
The lights came up, the curtain rose, and with a crash of drums, a swell of guitars and some well placed Woah-Ohs!, the five of them tackled the mountain that was the audience's expectations. The years of singing Arashi at karaoke paid off, they took it seriously, but they didn't copy Arashi. They didn't need to; each of them had a strong enough singing voice that they could hold their own. The choreography was not as clean as Arashi, it couldn't be with less than a day of proper rehearsal, but they did it well. The audience got behind them, and by the time they moved onto Love So Sweet, Tackey and Tsubasa were hugging each other in the wings knowing that they had made the right choice.
The audience support only got louder as they kept going, and by the time they were on the last chorus of Arashi, they were on their feet, singing along and doing the movements as well.
The last notes died away, almost unnoticed in the thunder of applause and the demand for an encore.
The five men on stage smiled at each other, savouring the moment. Shige looked at each of them, and his fingers itched for a camera. They were shining...they looked like they belonged up here on the stage, and from the way his jaw was aching he imagined he had a similar grin on his face. They looked at each other and realised that none of them had any idea what came next.
Tackey and Tsubasa rushed onto the stage as they came to the same realisation, and the demand for an encore got louder and louder.
Tackey lifted his microphone, and tried to get a word in edgewise between the shouts, but was pretty much unsuccessful.
Tsubasa gathered them around him, and said, “How do you feel?”
Koyama grinned. “Like I could fly.”
The other four nodded.
“It's amazing,” said Tegoshi. “I feel like the only thing keeping me together is my skin.”
“We actually did it,” Ryo sounded slightly stunned.
In front of them, Tackey had yielded to the audience, and was yelling “Encore” into the microphone along with them.
“What shall we do as an encore?” asked Shige.
“Only one answer to that,” said Massu. “We have to do Truth.”
Ryo threw an arm around him, and the screams increased. He smirked a bit, and tugged Massu closer. “Trust you to pick one of the harder ones! Why the hell not!”
Tsubasa asked, “Are you sure?”
Shige nodded. “I kind of feel like I could do anything at the moment. Let's do it.”
Koyama laughed and threw an arm around Shige, and caught Tegoshi with the other. The screaming increased to such an extent, Tsubasa did question the roof integrity.
“Truth?” Tsubasa asked.
“Truth,” five voices replied.
Tsubasa nodded, and headed towards Tackey. The audience quietened, as they realised the other five men were not leaving the stage. Tsubasa said something quietly to Tackey, and then headed towards the orchestra pit to consult with the band.
Tackey grinned, “Would you like an encore?”
“Yes!” The screams were so loud the word itself was almost incomprehensible.
“Are you sure?”
“Yes!”
“Even though they aren't Arashi?”
Laughter echoed, and then the screams of “Yes! Yes! Yes!” continued.
“OK! First though, let me introduce them! Although I am sure some of you already know who they are.”
Then one by one, and to huge rounds of applause, Tackey introduced the five of them.
“Koyama Keiichiro!”
“Kato Shigeaki!”
“Nishikido Ryo!”
“Masuda Takahisa!”
“Tegoshi Yuya!”
Tsubasa waved at Tackey, and nodded. He walked over to join him, as Tackey waited for the last round of applause to fade. Well he waited for it to fade a bit, but as it didn't seem to want to end, he yelled, “Who wants an encore? Ladies and Gentleman, Truth!” into the microphone. Tackey and Tsubasa dashed off stage as the five of them got into position. The music started, and their star rose once more, taking the theatre by storm.
“I would never have.....oh my god. This is wonderful. It's really working. They need a name. We have to get them to keep doing this. Surely Johnny would sign them. Perfect, it's amazing.” Tackey was almost incoherent. “It's never ending. It's like a story, a fairytale. It's a never ending wonderful story. When news of this gets out, they will be stars.”
“Yes,” replied Tsubasa, then grabbed Tackey's arm. “Say that again.”
“What? When news gets out.....” Tackey paused. “News. Never ending wonderful story.”
“Yes!” Tsubasa nodded. “That name, I think that name would stick.”
On stage, the News boys, even though they didn't yet know that was their name, shone like the stars they were, the stars they could be, the stars they would be, and the applause thundered through the audience like a storm.
Characters/Groups: Arashi, News, Toma, Tackey & Tsubasa
Genre: Comedy drama, AU.
Rating: PG
Warnings: Nothing to be scared of, no violence, horror, swearing or anything of that ilk. However, a possible warning for fluffy crack should be issued.
Summary: Arashiyama is a small town outside of Kyoto, and home to one of the biggest boybands in Japan: Arashi. Although the five Arashi members are seen as the beloved sons of the town, it is also home to a number of other young men who are also well loved and well thought of, and all successful in their own careers. When a benefit concert called Star Storm is organised, and Arashi can no longer attend, can organisers Tackey and Tsubasa find another way to close the show?
Author's Notes: In this verse, Arashi and News members (plus a few others) are friends and contemporaries, who all grew up in the same town of Arashiyama. Arashi became the Arashi we know and love, while others took different paths, but the bonds of friendship remain regardless of different paths. This was written for je_justfriends 2011 exchange.
June 2011
There were times when you could really resent being born in the city that gave the world Arashi, Shige thought. Most of the time it was fine, most of the time it was quite cool as visitors assumed that you really were best friends with the members, and that they were exactly the same as they were on TV, and they truly were nice guys. Which to be fair, they actually were. Sometimes the extra crowds on certain dates like birthdays and group debuts made you want to tear your hair out as the trains were crowded and you couldn't get near the Masaki restaurant or the Koyama ramen shop which was next door for hours...but most of the time it was fine.
This, however, this was not fine. At all.
Shige glared at Tackey. Tackey held his gaze, then pointed at Tsubasa. “Blame him, it was his idea.”
Shige glared at Tsubasa.
Tsubasa smiled at him, and shrugged his shoulders. “It's a great idea.”
Massu nodded. “Actually, I think he's right. It could work.”
Ryo shook his head. “I agree with our boy genius over here. We can't pull that off, not tonight.”
Tegoshi grabbed Ryo's arm. “We can do it, I know we can! It's just a matter of sorting out the harmonies.”
“And the dances.” Koyama clapped Ryo on the shoulder, then swung an arm around Shige. “Think of the children.”
“I am thinking of the children,” Ryo snapped. “I am thinking of their disappointed crestfallen little faces and their tears.”
Shige looked at his watch. “How long would we have?”
Tsubasa and Tackey shared a look, then Tackey looked at his clipboard. “With a bit of juggling, I can give you eight hours. We can push back the starting time, and that's about all we can do.”
“Ok.” Shige nodded. “Ok. I'm in, so long as the change is announced now. And refunds are available...”
“No,” Massu interrupted. “No refunds. They knew when they bought the tickets that it was a fundraising event. No one gets their money back.”
“It's false advertising though! They bought their tickets expecting Arashi, and when they don't get them, they could actually have a case....”
“Except for the fine print on the back of the ticket that says that artists, events and times may change at the discretion of the promoter and in unavoidable circumstances.” Tsubasa smiled at Shige. “Which I think we can all agree counts in this situation.”
Tackey looked around and asked, “Are you all in?”
Five pairs of eyes looked around the room checking their answer, then five heads nodded.
“Excellent, let's get this thing moving.” Tackey sprinted away, clipboard clutched in one hand as he barked orders into his headset.
Tsubasa simply grinned as he opened a door to a rehearsal room. “I'll get you what you need material wise, get going!”
***
The formation of a five member boy band was not a new practice for either Japan, or Johnny's Entertainment. In fact, one could say it was fairly regular. What was unprecedented in the case of Arashi was that all five members came from the same town, and knew each other by sight before they were put together in a group. They also auditioned on the same day. Years later, magazines would call it “the fated audition day”, and many times Johnny Kitagawa was asked to release any video footage they had from that day, or the audition evaluation reports, absolutely anything to show that they recognised the greatness of the Arashi to come in the five small boys who attended.
Johnny had a very strict rule; no audition footage of individual applicants. He always had a film crew brought in to each audition to capture the bright shining faces, the terrified eyes, the shaking hands of many and the steely determination in a few. He always taped the first session, where the day was outlined and a few senpai came in to talk about the company and how you started as a junior and made your way up to debuted artist. They sat in rows, listening attentively, and the camera swept across the room. At the end, there was a 30 second dance routine to learn, which was the first culling point. Those 30 seconds would mean the end of the dream for 35% of the boys. It only got harder to survive from there.
So technically, there was footage of Arashi's audition day, and almost daily Johnny cursed the camera man who had been hired for it. He had blatantly ignored his order to give equal time to everyone, to make sure that each applicant was captured and had instead focussed on two inseparable bright eyed boys called improbably Toma and Tomo. The five boys sitting in a row behind them, they had made the cut. Johnny did have footage of Arashi on their audition day, except it showed them taking a backseat to two unknown faces who didn't make it past the first cut. Johnny made sure that camera man never worked in the industry again.
So Johnny couldn't use the footage of their audition, but he could use the footage of their first action as a group. Having five people from the same town audition together was odd enough, for all of them to be successful was even more against the odds. Johnny sent the five boys home with the news that they had been accepted, and a camera crew accompanied them to capture the reaction of their families. That footage had more than repaid the expense it incurred, and most of Japan would now recognise by sight the Masaki, Ninomiya, Satoshi, Sakurai and Matsumoto families. The chance that led Matsumoto's older sister to wear a Kinki Kids concert T-shirt on that day as she opened the door, led to many more doors opening for her both as a Kinki kids fan and later, as the popularity of Arashi rose and the footage was replayed again and again, as a talento who was often invited onto shows to “open the door” for today's mystery guest.
So the legend of Arashi was born in their medium sized town called Arashiyama, thirty minutes by train from Kyoto, which was just close enough to ensure Arashi fans could make an easy day trip even if it required a shinkansen ride to Kyoto, and yet still far enough away to feel a little bit rural and peaceful. The town itself was proud of them, supportive of them, and took every opportunity it could to link it's name to that of the band, a process made infinitely easier by the fact that both their names started with Arashi. Johnny Kitagawa was never one to look a gift horse in the mouth, and when able to claim that five sons of this town would create a storm, he gave them the name which would become core to their identity.
Arashi was a group built on the strength of their differences and the commonality of their experience. Or as Nino snarkily put it one day, “I can only cover your mistakes because I know you too well, you idiot.” They may have grown up together, but they stayed together and succeeded in such a demanding industry because they could trust each other and could be certain that each member valued the group as highly as they did themselves. They didn't live in each other's back pockets anymore; moving to Tokyo and the endless whirlwind of idol life had put paid to that, but their manager was constantly balancing the demands of solo activities with group work. They had spent years building Arashi and their own careers into something to be proud of, something that they could look back on with fondness and pride.
They knew that luck had played a part in it, but their hard work had made sure it happened. Well, that and their willingness to reach out to old friends who were experts in other fields when they needed advice... For Arashi, help was always at hand.
**
May 2004
Ryo stumbled towards the door, cursing the person on the other side who kept knocking, as he tripped over the rubbish left over from the party. Game nights were all well and good, and he enjoyed them as much now as he did when the five of them had all been in school and determined to be the all time Mario Kart champion but next time he should really take a leaf out of Massu's book and insist that everyone clean up before they left. Or maybe he should just insist that Tegoshi clean up, because he seemed to get out of it when they had get togethers at Massu's as well.
Just as he got to the genkan, the knocking stopped and the door bell started.
Biting back a probably deserved, but slightly dramatic tirade, Ryo heaved the door open.
Nino looked at him for a moment, assessed the situation and then raised his hand and a six pack of beer. “Hair of the dog?”
“It's definitely too early for more beer,” Ryo replied.
“Don't be ridiculous.” Nino handed him the beer as he pushed past him. “It's never too early for beer.” He took of his shoes and headed towards the couch. “Besides I need a favour.”
Ryo shut the door, and headed into the kitchen to put the beer in the fridge for later. “What kind of favour?”
Nino waited for him to sit down before he responded. “I need help.”
Ryo looked at him warily, but he couldn't see any traces of mischief. “Such as?”
“I've written a song.” Nino glanced away. “A solo song. Music and lyrics.”
Ryo nodded. “Ok.”
“I need to know it's ok. I thought you might check it for me.”
“You know, you do work with record label professionals who could help with that. I'm not a professional.”
Nino glared at him. “If you don't want to see it, I can...”
“Calm down,” Ryo interrupted. “I am just saying that I am not a professional musician or songwriter,I'm a pastry chef. That's all I am saying. If you'll show it to me, I want to see it.”
Without meeting Ryo's gaze, Nino pulled a stack of folded paper out of his jacket pocket. “It's rough.”
Ryo carefully unfolded the sheets, smoothing out the creases as he scanned the staves, hearing the notes in his mind. He hummed a few bars. “This is your solo?”
Nino nodded.
Ryo gestured at his guitar. “Can I?”
Taking a deep breath, Nino nodded again, and then slowly let the breath out as Ryo began to play.
Four hours later, Nino was satisfied that the song sounded exactly the way he wanted. His original sheets were marked and altered, but each refinement was for the better. Being able to hear someone else sing it, and have them listen to him, was what he had needed. He had wanted it to be performance ready; now he was ready to share it with everyone.
**
April 2006
He was ready.
Sho stared at the camera, and tried to look like he didn't have a line of cold sweat dripping down his spine. His suit was perfectly pressed, his hair was neatly brushed back, the auto-cue was easy to read, the chair was the right height, he just needed to read the words.
The only problem was that the words on the auto-cue seemed to be in a language he couldn't speak, because after the greeting and his name, he had no idea what it said.
He pressed his hands into the desk, and told himself not to panic. Koyama had said it would just be nerves, that because it was a live broadcast, everything might feel magnified, and to not panic. If anyone knew about it, Koyama would because he was a roving newscaster and sent all over to Japan to create stories for newsevery. So Koyama would know. Plus, he himself had been on television before lots of time. He kept telling himself it would be fine. The only problem was that the telling himself that it would be fine didn't seem to be working.
“I hear that I'm no longer the only newscaster from our town! Aren't you Arashi boys satisfied with being idols?” Sho looked up to see Koyama grinning at him.
“Kei-chan!” Sho grinned back as Koyama sat down. “I didn't know you were in today; I thought you were only in on Wednesdays.”
Koyama smoothed a non-existent crease from his sleeve. “Wednesday and any other day they need me. I have a special that goes to air tonight.” He glanced at Sho. “Besides, when I heard that today was your big day, I thought I could drop by and see if you had listened to anything I told you.”
“Don't panic. Don't roll your eyes if you stumble over the words. Take a deep breath before you start speaking. However slowly you think you are speaking, you are really talking quicker than you need to so slow down a bit. Don't watch the tape of the first show for at least three days. Make sure you bow. Smile at the other presenters. Buy Koyama-senpai a very expensive dinner for sharing his advice so generously.”
“I don't remember that last one, and it feels very weird for you to call me senpai, but it does seem like a good idea.” Koyama kept his face serious, as he pretended to brush lint from his lapel. “Are you sure that you are ok?”
“I think so. I just have to sit there and read.”
Koyama shook his head. “We both now it's a lot more than that. Don't underestimate yourself or what you are doing here.”
“At this point, I am just glad I get to sit behind the desk. I'm not sure I could go out there and film segments like you do.”
“Sure you could. It just takes practice.”
Sho grimaced. “Practice and the ability to make people feel comfortable almost instantaneously, and then open up and talk to you. I've seen you do it! How do you get people to talk to you so easily?”
“I'm not sure. I guess...I just do.”
“You genuinely care, and people respond. It's a talent, Kei-chan. Not everyone has it!”
“Just as well this is my job!” Koyama stood, and laid his hand on Sho's shoulder. “I've got to go, but I am sure you will be great. Let me know when you have a spot in your busy idol schedule for dinner.”
“How about in two hours? We'll be done by then.”
Koyama pulled out his phone and thoroughly checked the calendar. “Unfortunately, as it is a Monday, I have a date already. Tonight I am catching up with the other guys for karaoke. You would be more than welcome to join us. Tegoshi believes he has finally nailed down your rap from Sakura Sake.”
“When is Tegoshi going to realise that the only rapper amongst you is Shige?”
“About the same time that Massu stops indulging him in singing Kinki Kids songs, and starts using his chest voice, I would say. Or, technically so Ryo says, whenever that topic comes up!” Koyama laughed.
“I'd love to come. Text me the place.”
“Will do. As always, it's an open invitation for anyone else who is free.” Koyama grinned at him, and walked out of the room. “Knock them dead. Not literally, of course.”
Sho looked to the left, and caught a glimpse of a bright copper haired head. The person moved and he caught their eye. Koyama smiled at him, and gave him a big thumbs up. Sho took another deep breath, held it, and watched the lights on the camera change. He was ready.
**
April 2008
The boat rocked gently under their feet, and the sun was warm on their skin. Their fishing lines rode the waves below, and the silence was deep and peaceful. Shige stretched his arms towards the sky, and grimaced as the tension in his shoulders resisted the movement before finally softening. He had been a bit sceptical about fishing being a relaxing hobby, but here and now he could understand the appeal.
Ohno watched him stretch, then said, “Fishing won't actually fix your shoulders from being frozen like that.”
“It's just too many hours at a desk.” Shige stretched again, and this time felt a more satisfying shift in the muscles. “Guess I need to get out more. Or find a good massage place.”
Ohno nodded. “Or both. I would never say no to a good massage place. Or a fishing buddy.”
Shige gave him a sideways glance. “I am kind of wondering why you have a fishing buddy now.”
Ohno looked at his watch. “Three hours. Tegoshi wins.” Taking pity on Shige's blank look, he explained, “Nino and Ryo were certain you wouldn't last an hour before asking why I invited you. Massu said you would last two and a half hours, Tegoshi said three. He wins.” Ohno help up a hand to forestall the argument from Shige. “They were just teasing. Besides, I know you have been wondering why I asked you specifically.”
“I just...wondered,” Shige said rather inelegantly.
“Kei-chan mentioned to Sho that you were feeling tired and stressed and really feeling the weight of your last semester of law studies, and he was worried that you were not taking good enough care of yourself. He was trying to think of something he could persuade you to do that you would agree to, and would be relaxing, and would work, seeing you rejected his suggestion of a Guam break. Sho's been out fishing a few times with me, and he suggested that this might be a good thing for you to try. So they asked me if you could come out one day. I said I would.”
“Umm, Ohno, I graduated from University a year ago.”
“I never said it would be soon.”
“Oh.”
“Besides, the same principle holds. I figured you would be even more stressed once you had a job, so I thought I would save the treatment for when you really needed it.”
Shige gave him a very level look.
“I lost your number.”
“Right.” Shige slumped next to his rod, mesmerised by the bobbing of the line in the water. “Well, thank you for inviting me today. I am really enjoying fishing with you. You are right, it is relaxing, and I am enjoying not thinking about work at all.”
“Um, well about that,” Shige looked up to find Ohno's expression to be a mixture of guilt and apology. “I kind of need advice.”
“Legal advice?” Shige straightened. “Is there anything wrong?”
“Oh no, no worries there. Johnny buried those really incriminating photos of me and the girls in the hotel room and only let the party hard ones be published, so that's fine.” He smiled at Shige's faintly appalled look. “I actually need a bit of background. I have been cast in a drama next season and I really want to get a feel for the character.”
“What's the drama?” Shige asked, hoping to distract Ohno from the blush which meant he was happy that someone from Arashi, the Leader no less, had asked him for advice.
“It's called Mao, it's a remake of a Korean drama. I am playing a guy called Naruse, who becomes a lawyer after his brother is killed. I am known as The Angelic Lawyer as I represent the poor and those falsely accused, while I am also plotting revenge against those responsible for my brother's death. From what I have seen of the script so far, it's really quite dark and involved, and the other cast members are great as well. I want to get a feel for how lawyers present themselves in court, and to clients. I'll have the script but I want to make it a little more authentic.” He pulled sharply on his fishing line, and Shige sat quietly beside him.
“I can help you with that. Would you like to come to a few sessions in court?”
Ohno shook his head. “I can't. There's not enough time, and if I turn up then...”
“Ah.” Shige nodded. “You might be a bit noticeable. That's ok. I can talk you through how it works.”
“Thanks. I appreciate it.” Ohno paused, then admitted, “I haven't been the lead in a drama before.”
“That shouldn't worry you, surely?” Shige asked.
“The guy they cast as the protagonist, he's really really good. Like he could be the break out rising star of his generation good.” Shige waited for him to continue, but he just pulled at his line again.
Finally, Shige said. “And you are a Johnny? Is that what is worrying you?”
Ohno grimaced and looked at him. “Mainly. Look I know that not all Johnny's talents are great actors, and I know that Arashi and my profile was one of the reasons that they cast me. It's just..I don't want it to become a media circus of Mao starring Toma Ikuta rising actor star, and that guy from Arashi who thought he could act but can't.”
Silence settled between them as Shige considered his words carefully. “You will always be a Johnny to some people. For some, that will always mean you just got the job because you are one. They cast you in the lead though, which would suggest that they have the confidence in your ability to pull this off. If the drama really relies on both you and this Toma guy to make it work, then I would say make the character your own, and bring that to the table. I've seen you act, you can do it, but you will need to work for it. No coasting by on the fact that you are an idol, no winks to the audience about look at me I'm acting! If everything else is there already and it's strong, like the script and the director, it is an amazing opportunity for you.” He grinned at Ohno. “Besides, the other guy might be sitting there thinking that he doesn't want to be put up against the leader of Arashi. I guarantee that you have more screaming fangirls than he does.”
“That's why I invited you, Shige. You are honest enough to tell me how it is. Thank you.” Ohno cast an amused glance at the darkened blush on Shige's cheekbones. Sometimes Shige was just too uncertain of his own skills.
“That name is familiar though,” said Shige, as he cast around for a change of topic as his blush deepened. “Toma Ikuta. I am sure I know it.”
“You should do, he's from home as well.” Shige stared, and Ohno chuckled. “Yes they must have put something in the water. He would have been in your year at elementary school, I think. He and another boy transferred out to the Kyoto Performing Arts Junior High school, determined to become stars, and Toma's been working fairly steadily at building a profile up ever since. My manager said that he has done some really good stage work as well, and he's had a few shows transfer to Tokyo as well.”
“Right.” Shige thought back, and conjured up a distant memory of two boys who transferred at the end of sixth year. Similar heights, one with a small face, the other with a large nose....but the details were misty. “Bizarre that he is from home as well.”
“Yeah.” Ohno pulled his line in. “Now, I have questions. How should I open doors? Do I wait for clients to talk to me or am I charge? Can I really just walk into an interview room and tell them to stop questioning someone? Can I bring in evidence when I need to? Do people really trust you know what you are doing when you build a defence or prosecution? Do people lie to you?”
Shige shook his head. “I'm not quite sure how to start. Or where.”
“Ok.” Ohno hid a rather evil grin. “How about we start with how do you look so hot in a suit? I mean, Shige-chan you look incredibly do-able in a suit.”
Ohno laughed as Shige's face turned a burning shade of red, and he fumbled with his rod and dropped it over the side.
**
August 2009
Massu stifled a laugh and managed to keep a straight face as the two idols staggered onto the pool deck. Neither of them would appreciate being laughed at openly in front of the students, but he knew they would take criticism. They needed to be ready in less than a week, and at this rate, both his school and the two Arashi members were in danger of public ridicule.
“I am never doing that again,” Matsumoto spat angrily, managing to stagger only a few steps before collapsing.
“I don't know that we have a choice. Johnny seemed fairly emphatic that we were doing it,” Aiba said falling down beside his group mate, and gamely attempting to ignore the steady hum of giggles in the background.
“You were both terrible.”
Aiba and Matsumoto looked in the direction of the voice, and squinted at the figure blocking the sunlight. Matsumoto hurriedly stopped squinting when he realised that it was creasing the skin around eyes and his new Fasio mascara ad was due to be shot tomorrow.
“Seriously, you were terrible. If I didn't know better, I would say neither of you had been in a pool before!”
Aiba frowned. “We tried! That's harder than it looks.”
“Well, you need to try harder. I am not letting you go out there on national television and embarrass yourselves and my school,” Massu said.
“If its so easy, then you show us!” Aiba said.
“Fine!” Massu threw his towel onto the bench and walked towards the pool. “Watch and learn please.”
“You had to say it, didn't you,” whined Matsumoto.
Massu paused for a moment on the edge of the pool, before diving in smoothly. Once the swimming team had realised what was going on, they crowded around the edge, eager to see Massu-sensei go through the synchronised swimming cheer routine.
Massu surfaced, and pulled his wet hair back from his face. The swim team captain was standing by the stereo, and at Massu's nod, he hit play.
Massu cut through the water cleanly, marking each change in position smoothly, diving, turning, tumbling. As the music swelled, he moved through the explosive jumping section of the routine, then marked their positions through the group patterns and sequence. The last 30 seconds was the synchronised cheer, with the Gan Gan Ganbatte Nippon chorus which looked so effective when done properly.
“I could really come to hate him,” said Aiba.
“Don't be ridiculous, no one could ever hate Massu,” said Matsumoto. “Even when he is showing the rest of us up and making us feel like failures.”
“Well I suppose he did choreograph it, so it stands to reason that he would be good at it,” Aiba said dolefully.
Massu finished the last pose, and the swim team cheered.
Aiba and Matsumoto sighed.
“Your turn!” Massu called.
They tried. They really really tried. It was just not to be, it was not possible for them to do it. Finally, Massu admitted defeat and when Aiba and Matsumoto called Johnny from the pool side to explain that it was not possible, Massu spoke to him as well, and explained that they both sucked so badly at synchronised swimming that it was possible that the popularity of Arashi would suffer if the failure of two of his top idols was publicly exposed on 24 Hour Television.
Massu hung up the phone, and looked at his two hangdog friends. “He says it's up to you two to find a replacement activity.”
Aiba and Matsumoto exchanged a look.
“Any ideas?”
"None."
“Well we have to think of something. There is no way that we can just leave it as otherwise there will be a hole in the scheduling for the program. What's the theme again?”
“Team spirit.”
An uncomfortable silence stretched between them, as they tried to think of a topic.
Massu cast them a sly look, that was then carefully veiled in innocence. " I have an idea for a topic. It needs to be entertaining, right? And it needs to involve the school, right? Well, one thing in common that all the local schools have here is rabbits.”
Matsumoto bent his head slightly to the left and shot Massu a narrow look. “Where are you going with this?”
“Well, the idea is for you to have a project that involves the local community and responds to the theme. Seeing you are not going to be able to do the synchronised routine that we have all spent a lot of time practising ...” Matsumoto narrowed his eyes further as Massu blinked innocently. “I just thought that we should concentrate on something where you don't have to be the ones actually participating. Given your schedules I know its hard for you to practice something and seeing it's coming up so soon … we should do something where you guys get to lead the cheering and let someone else worry about the content.”
“That sounds sensible,” said Matsumoto warily. “Where do the rabbits come in?”
“Well, all the local schools have pet rabbits, so I thought we could organise a rabbit racing challenge tournament. The students could make up some school based cheers, we line up the rabbits, Aiba says go, you both lead the cheering for all the racing rabbits and then at the end Matsumoto can give the winner a trophy.”
“Where do you come up with this stuff?” Aiba asked.
Massu snorted. “I am a teacher, you try keeping 40 students interested without thinking outside the box.”
“So all we would have to do is cheer on rabbits?” Matsumoto asked.
Even Aiba looked a bit sceptical.
“Well we should probably get you costumes or something as well. Hey Tegoshi could help with that! The important thing would be getting the cheers rehearsed by the students and then the race itself is just a bit of fun. What do you say?”
“It sounds like it could work. If that is all we had to do, we could handle that. We would need to clear it with Johnny of course,” said Aiba.
“Leave it with me I am sure I can convince him,” said Massu cheerfully. “Can I borrow your phone?”
Twenty minutes later, Massu had secured an agreement with Johnny that the local school rabbit challenge race would be a great idea and that he would organise all the details. Matsumoto and Aiba were so relieved that the synchronised swimming cheer was no longer on their their to do list that they left the pool with very wide smiles and sighs of relief.
Later, when Massu was recounting the story to Shige over a beer, Shige asked a very pertinent question. “Why did you say Tegoshi could help with costumes? I know he sells men's fashion now, but how will that help?”
Massu savoured a mouthful of beer before he replied. “Well Tegoshi is the only one of us who has experience in creating costumes. Just think of his Halloween costumes.”
Shige frowned. “But Tegoshi only wears girls costumes for Halloween.”
Massu smiled. “Yes.”
“For twenty four hour television? Massu!”
Massu shrugged. “Johnny approved it.”
Shige laughed. “Matsumoto is going to kill you. Aiba may forgive you, but Matsumoto will kill you.”
A sly grin crossed Massu's face. “You haven't even asked what costumes Tegoshi is doing for them yet!”
Shige asked the question with raised eyebrows alone, Massu was obviously dying to tell now.
“Johnny agreed that they could play boy rabbits. I told Tegoshi that playboy bunnies was fine.”
Shige dropped his glass of beer as Massu crowed with laughter.
That portion of twenty four hour television went on to be one of the most highly watched segments. It was also incredibly popular on youtube, until NTV started vigorously pursuing up-loaders and demanding its removal...following a personal visit to the NTV team by one particular member of Arashi whose name begins with M.
***
One of the best things about the popularity of Arashi was the way in which they could bring public attention to worthy causes. One of the worst things was that they could not help each worthy cause themselves. The amount of requests that they received could be accurately termed as a small mountain, and there was just no way that everyone could be helped. So if one had an advantage that might allow them to side step the queue, well sometimes a phone call from the mayor of Arashiyama to the manager of Arashi was made, with the suggestion that a benefit concert for rebuilding communities damaged during the last typhoon season would be immeasurably improved by the appearance of a certain storm associated group.
When Johnny was approached and his arm was twisted slightly, he agreed that it would be a nice way to welcome Arashi back from their Asia Pacific tour. He agreed that they could participate on condition that Arashi was not the only group to appear, as such a favour would mean that every other worthy cause would feel slighted. He approved Arashi being included as the final act, and suggested that a benefit concert that featured other local celebrities, musicians and students.
And so Star Storm was born.
The mayor of Arashiyama went out of her way to ensure that the line up was as star studded as possible. Helped by the high level of community spirit the benefit preparations developed quickly and easily, as more people than usual wanted to be a part of it. She approached the Kyoto Performing Arts High School, and secured the services of two of the teachers there, one Takizawa Hideaki a vocal teacher, and one Imai Tsubasa a dance teacher. They were a great team, and popular in their own right; the joke in the staff room was always that Johnny Kitagawa should have snapped them up, a proposition problematic only in that they had never auditioned!
With Tackey and Tsubasa effectively producing the concert, it quickly turned into a fully staged concert production, as they were able to call in favours from the local industry staff, as well as pulling in their own students along with enthusiastic students from the local schools in Arashiyama. They found the local stores were also happy to help with costumes, props and other costs. It truly had a magical feel to it, as the community pulled together to raise money.
The magical journey of Star Storm had ended that morning when Tackey had been woken by a phone call from Ohno.
At the other end, Ohno had sounded tense and unhappy and very very stressed. “We are not going to make it, I am sorry but there is just no way we can get there.”
“What do you mean?” The final dress rehearsal had ended quite late, and Tackey was not at his best on three hours sleep. “What do you mean you can't make it?”
“We are still in Australia.”
“Well, get on the plane, it only takes ten hours to get home!”
“Tackey, there are no planes to get on. A volcano erupted in Chile and the ash cloud has drifted across the Pacific and grounded everything. Even Johnny couldn't get a plane to fly us out. Believe me, he tried. We've been here at the airport since yesterday morning but there is just no way we can physically leave the country at the moment, no plane is authorised to fly and there is no word on when that will change.”
Tackey calmly put the phone down, buried his head in his pillow and screamed.
“Yes that about covers it,” said Ohno.
Tsubasa leant over Tackey and picked up his phone, putting it on speaker mode as he did so. “What's going on?”
Ohno repeated the story, and Tsubasa momentarily felt like joining Tackey in his pillow reaction. Still what couldn't be helped needed to be solved. “Ok so there is no way you can get here. Is there anyway we could do some kind of live hook-up?”
Ohno looked at his bandmates. “I can't say for sure. We have been up all night but they have found us a hotel room now. We might be able to set something up on Skype? I doubt we could get anything broadcast quality at this point...”
Tsubasa nodded. “Better than nothing, and it would be good if people could at least see you. At least a volcano is a good reason for you to miss this.” He could hear the exhaustion in Ohno's voice. “Head to the hotel and get some sleep. We can work something out at this end.”
He ended the call, and turned to Tackey.
“So....”
“Yeah.”
“We need a closing act that can replace Arashi.”
“Yeah.”
Tsubasa buried his head in his hands, wracking his brain for a solution.
“The only thing that I can think of is to move the act one closer to the finale spot,” said Tackey. “It's a big number, it involves everyone, it could close the show.”
Tsubasa nodded. “At any other time I would agree with you. That number could definitely close the show, but in these circumstances.... Well they are expecting Arashi and if we give them a talent school led number instead I don't think it will work. Plus that unbalances the first half of the show, who would we get to close the first act?”
“We could move Toma and Shadow to the act one finale and that would work... What?” Tackey asked, struck by the sudden look on Tsubasa's face.
“I just had a crazy idea. A really really really crazy good idea.”
“What?”
“Give me a minute, let me think it through.”
Tackey waited impatiently as Tsubasa grabbed a pen and paper and started scribbling notes to himself.
“Ok. Here's the plan. We shift Toma and Shadow to the end of act one and then we set up the big chorus number as the finale but that is our Plan B. I have another idea for Plan A.”
“Such as?”
“We get five people to replace Arashi and do their set in their place.”
“Right, and who do you propose for this, and where will you find them and how soon can they get here? I can't think of five locals in the industry who we could trust to ...”
“Oh they aren't in the entertainment industry. They aren't professionals, but they could do it,” interrupted Tsubasa.
“Do you really want to trust this to amateurs?” asked Tackey. “If this goes wrong it's going to make headlines.”
“It will anyway, but it will be for the right reasons. They can do it, they have been singing their songs for years and they know them well enough to make this work. You've even seen them doing it, remember Massu invited us, and they sang Troublemaker?”
Tackey started. “Oh my god, that could work.”
“Precisely. Plus, they are local boys and loved by the community. What could go wrong with getting Koyama Keiichiro, Kato Shigeaki, Nishikido Ryo, Masuda Takahisa and Tegoshi Yuya up on stage to do the Arashi medley?”
***
Eight hours went by very quickly, as costumes were altered, choreography was rehearsed, harmonies were practised, and slowly they realised that they may be able to pull this off. The songs were a short medley of Arashi hits, and they could probably sing them in their sleep. Starting with Sakura Sake, followed by Love so Sweet, Troublemaker, Wish and then finishing with Arashi, they were a mixture of bright up-tempo hits and sweeter love songs. If Arashi had been there to close the show, it would have brought the house down; as it was they were gambling that the attendees would be understanding enough that even Arashi couldn't fly home through a volcanic cloud, and that their replacements were roped in at the last minute and did a wonderful job. At least that was the plan; Tsubasa really hoped that no one tried to storm the stage.
Tsubasa had taken them through the set, and between Tsubasa and Massu they had all drilled the dance moves until they felt like second nature. Shige was still slightly nervous, but he would quietly admit to being glad that Massu normally cajoled them into the dances when they got together for karaoke, so at least they were not completely unfamiliar. No doubt they would not be as smooth as the real thing, but at this rate their best would be more than acceptable.
It also helped that the production side of things had been taken care of; the numbers were blocked and the lighting had been checked, the sound was fine, and they would look and sound as good as they could, and the crew knew to keep their eyes open and smooth over anything they could.
The vocals were also coming along nicely, save for one hiccup, where Tackey firmly told Tegoshi that he would be singing the melody in Sakura Sake and Shige would be singing the rap. Tegoshi had pouted and protested and would probably have moved onto whining if Koyama hadn't thrown an arm around his shoulder and said, “But I need Tego-nyan on the melody with me.” Tegoshi's bright smile had allowed Tackey to quickly move onto the next bit of news, which was that Shige was doing all the rapping. Massu grabbed Tegoshi's other shoulder and squeezed hard. Tegoshi swallowed his protest and smiled at Shige. Shige meanwhile was enduring Ryo poking him in the side and saying, “Bet you are glad that I made you learn them now, I told you that you should do the rap parts.”
The audience arrived, the lights dimmed, and Tsubasa walked on stage to make the announcement that Arashi couldn't attend, and even backstage the disappointed reaction from the fans was audible. Luckily, they had managed a Skype video link, and even with the poor quality of the connection, it was obvious that the Arashi members were just as disappointed to be missing Star Storm. There was really only time for them to apologise, promise to appear at some point in the future for the same cause, and to also to give them the news that they had asked a few friends for a favour and to please support them. With a final wave and cheer, they said goodbye and the show started and somehow, the tension managed to increase even more for the five friends backstage.
Tackey and Tsubasa drilled them in the medley one last time, checking words, checking choreography, checking that each of them knew where they were meant to be during each moment of the performance, and where the other members would be as well. Plan A was a go. As the first act drew to a close, Tackey and Tsubasa grinned at each other, and high fived each other.
“Guys, this is going to work!” said Tackey.
“You hope,” said Shige darkly.
“With that attitude you may as well stay here,” said Massu, in possibly the snippiest tone he had ever produced. “We do this right, or we don't do it.”
“Massu's right.” Tsubasa stopped in front of Shige. “If you were going to suck, we would pull you and switch the order of the numbers we knew were ready. We trust you to do this.” He slung an arm around Shige, and said quietly, “Be nervous, but don't show doubt or fear. You can do this.” Shige looked down nodded, as Tsubasa gave his shoulders a quick squeeze of encouragement.
“You are good to go,” said Tackey. “Hit the showers, get into costume, and be ready.”
Ryo had a violent disagreement with the costume assistant who attempted to get him into a jacket with a longline ruffle skirt on one side that ended at his ankles. He looked at the other four who were wearing theirs without complaint. “Are you seriously going to wear that thing in public?”
Koyama shot him a level look. “We are going to perform a medley of hit Arashi songs in front of a crowd of Arashi fangirls. I think the ruffles are the least of our problems. At least they ditched the idea of putting us in the see through plastic ones.” Ryo ended up wearing the costume.
With five minutes to go, they were standing in the wings, watching the number before them. It was a clever routine, one man miming everyday activities with another man behind him playing his shadow. The movements became incredibly complex and intricate until they realised the men were dancing to music only they could hear. Shige suddenly realised that one of the two men on stage dancing was Toma Ikuta.
“Yes, Toma was more than happy to come back for this. He went to our school, you know,” said Tsubasa.
Shige nodded. “I remember, Ohno told me about him when he was cast in Mao.”
“That was his big break, it pushed him into the limelight. He's got talent, he will definitely have a career as an actor. He's also a good dancer and a capable singer. I hope he gets a chance to use those skills as well.” He gestured at the performance. “This is actually something that the two of them put together for their graduation performance. Toma and Yamashita started at our school together, they were already best friends when they arrived. Toma was popular and well liked and could speak to anyone, and Yamashita always stuck with Toma. By the end of the first term, they had nicknamed him Toma's Shadow, because he never spoke and was always there just behind him. It got shortened to Shadow of course, and everyone referred to him that way.” He grimaced. “Tackey hates the nickname, and I must admit that I don't really like it either. At one point, Tackey tried to give him a new nickname, Yamapi I think it was or maybe just Pi, because he liked wearing pink at that stage, but it never caught on.” He sighed. “The kid has talent of his own, but he never really seemed to find his place. Being best friends with Toma....he was just overwhelmed by Toma's star I think. He never worked out how to be himself, how to shine when it was just himself alone. He wanted to be a dancer at one point, another time an actor...” Tsubasa shrugged. “He's capable enough, as you can see, but....next to Toma, he's still a shadow.” He sighed. “One of the hardest things about teaching is knowing that not all of my students will have a chance to live their dream. Sometimes its luck, sometimes talent, and sometimes...they are just on the wrong path.”
He looked at the five men silently standing beside him. “And sometimes others have greatness thrust upon them. There's an old saying about going out there a rookie, and coming back a star.” Applause resounded through the theatre, as the Toma and Shadow number ended. “It's time.”
The stage darkened as Toma and Yamashita walked into the wings, and the backstage staff flew in the curtain to let them get into position. Tackey nodded at the five of them, and Ryo, Shige, Massu, Koyama and Tegoshi walked onto the stage and took their places, hidden in the shadows.
Tackey walked out to the front of the stage. “Ladies and Gentleman, thank you for coming to Star Storm tonight. As you know, tonight has been about raising money to help communities affected by the typhoon season.” He paused as a round of applause broke out. “Thank you. We hope that you have enjoyed the show... so far. It's not over yet! Earlier, the Arashi members mentioned that they had asked some friends for a favour. I have news for you all, they are here, they are ready. Please support them!”
The lights came up, the curtain rose, and with a crash of drums, a swell of guitars and some well placed Woah-Ohs!, the five of them tackled the mountain that was the audience's expectations. The years of singing Arashi at karaoke paid off, they took it seriously, but they didn't copy Arashi. They didn't need to; each of them had a strong enough singing voice that they could hold their own. The choreography was not as clean as Arashi, it couldn't be with less than a day of proper rehearsal, but they did it well. The audience got behind them, and by the time they moved onto Love So Sweet, Tackey and Tsubasa were hugging each other in the wings knowing that they had made the right choice.
The audience support only got louder as they kept going, and by the time they were on the last chorus of Arashi, they were on their feet, singing along and doing the movements as well.
The last notes died away, almost unnoticed in the thunder of applause and the demand for an encore.
The five men on stage smiled at each other, savouring the moment. Shige looked at each of them, and his fingers itched for a camera. They were shining...they looked like they belonged up here on the stage, and from the way his jaw was aching he imagined he had a similar grin on his face. They looked at each other and realised that none of them had any idea what came next.
Tackey and Tsubasa rushed onto the stage as they came to the same realisation, and the demand for an encore got louder and louder.
Tackey lifted his microphone, and tried to get a word in edgewise between the shouts, but was pretty much unsuccessful.
Tsubasa gathered them around him, and said, “How do you feel?”
Koyama grinned. “Like I could fly.”
The other four nodded.
“It's amazing,” said Tegoshi. “I feel like the only thing keeping me together is my skin.”
“We actually did it,” Ryo sounded slightly stunned.
In front of them, Tackey had yielded to the audience, and was yelling “Encore” into the microphone along with them.
“What shall we do as an encore?” asked Shige.
“Only one answer to that,” said Massu. “We have to do Truth.”
Ryo threw an arm around him, and the screams increased. He smirked a bit, and tugged Massu closer. “Trust you to pick one of the harder ones! Why the hell not!”
Tsubasa asked, “Are you sure?”
Shige nodded. “I kind of feel like I could do anything at the moment. Let's do it.”
Koyama laughed and threw an arm around Shige, and caught Tegoshi with the other. The screaming increased to such an extent, Tsubasa did question the roof integrity.
“Truth?” Tsubasa asked.
“Truth,” five voices replied.
Tsubasa nodded, and headed towards Tackey. The audience quietened, as they realised the other five men were not leaving the stage. Tsubasa said something quietly to Tackey, and then headed towards the orchestra pit to consult with the band.
Tackey grinned, “Would you like an encore?”
“Yes!” The screams were so loud the word itself was almost incomprehensible.
“Are you sure?”
“Yes!”
“Even though they aren't Arashi?”
Laughter echoed, and then the screams of “Yes! Yes! Yes!” continued.
“OK! First though, let me introduce them! Although I am sure some of you already know who they are.”
Then one by one, and to huge rounds of applause, Tackey introduced the five of them.
“Koyama Keiichiro!”
“Kato Shigeaki!”
“Nishikido Ryo!”
“Masuda Takahisa!”
“Tegoshi Yuya!”
Tsubasa waved at Tackey, and nodded. He walked over to join him, as Tackey waited for the last round of applause to fade. Well he waited for it to fade a bit, but as it didn't seem to want to end, he yelled, “Who wants an encore? Ladies and Gentleman, Truth!” into the microphone. Tackey and Tsubasa dashed off stage as the five of them got into position. The music started, and their star rose once more, taking the theatre by storm.
“I would never have.....oh my god. This is wonderful. It's really working. They need a name. We have to get them to keep doing this. Surely Johnny would sign them. Perfect, it's amazing.” Tackey was almost incoherent. “It's never ending. It's like a story, a fairytale. It's a never ending wonderful story. When news of this gets out, they will be stars.”
“Yes,” replied Tsubasa, then grabbed Tackey's arm. “Say that again.”
“What? When news gets out.....” Tackey paused. “News. Never ending wonderful story.”
“Yes!” Tsubasa nodded. “That name, I think that name would stick.”
On stage, the News boys, even though they didn't yet know that was their name, shone like the stars they were, the stars they could be, the stars they would be, and the applause thundered through the audience like a storm.