“Quit it Shou!” Nao cried, getting red in the face after running around in crazed panic, “Don’t make jokes about your voice! It’s not funny! We have a gig!”
Shou stared at Nao with tears welling up in his eyes. He wasn’t making it up! How could Nao think he’d lie about this when he was just as nervous about tonight as he was? But of course, he couldn’t argue back, all he could do was stand clenching his fists, digging hard into his skin to let his anger out.
It had been a few hours after he’d turned up to work in horror. He’d ran up the stairs and into the dressing room where he expected to see the rest of the band, but instead found Tora under one of the sofas searching for his fags. He’d grabbed the poor man and started shaking him violently to get his attention. Well, maybe the shaking was a little unnecessary, but it did make him feel a bit better.
At that moment they were all stood in a circle on the stage where they were performing. There were a few clatters and bangs from where some of the staff where setting up, but other than that there was awkward silence between them all. Saga seemed silently ticked off, Tora looked unimpressed, Nao looked like a tomato, but Hiroto had a concerned expression smothered over his face.
“I don’t know.” He mumbled, “I don’t think Shou would joke about this kind of thing.”
“No one just wakes up and can’t say a single word after being fine the day before!” Nao argued, “That just doesn’t happen!”
“Well look Nao! It’s happening! Whether we like it or not!” Hiroto snapped, “I don’t believe Shou would lie!”
“Yeah…” Saga replied, stroking his chin, “I wish he was joking though…”
There was yet another silence where the band thought about what Saga had just said. Shou could imagine tumbleweed blowing through the concert hall any minute now.
He looked over at Tora, who seemed to be glaring at him, as if he were trying to get the truth out of Shou’s mind like a psychic. This suspicion was about to kill him. It was like all their glares were burning into his skin, and there was no way he could possibly stop them. He’d be suspicious too. This situation was bizarre.
Shou turned away from them all and started to walk backstage towards the changing rooms. He started off slow, until he heard the shouting from behind him.
“Shou! Where are you going?” Hiroto cried, “Come back!”
“Yeah don’t just walk away! We need to get this sorted out Shou!” Nao shouted.
“Shou!” Saga grunted, walking towards him, followed by the others. Shou looked over his shoulder and started to run. He just wanted to be alone. The idea of space wasn’t very well known amongst Alice Nine it seemed.
“Just let him go.” Tora mumbled, “It’s not like anything’s going to get better when he’s upset.”
Shou stumbled down the steps backstage and ran down the old corridors towards the changing rooms. He’d tried to hold back his tears, but now that he was away from the others, he could feel them running down his hot cheeks like rainfall. What was he going to do? He’d tried everything to get his voice back.
He slammed the door once he was inside and jumped onto the sofa at the side of the room. He buried his head in the cushions and wept. Normally when he was really upset and started to cry, he couldn’t help but make little whimpers, but this time there was none.
Good, he thought, now no one will hear me.
He wasn’t in the state of mind to think about why his voice had gone, or what he was going to do about it. In stead he just wanted to wallow in self-pity. He’d probably have to go to hospital.
But there wasn’t time. It would take hours for him to get looked at, and even then, would they be able to do anything about it so quickly? Manager-san had phoned his voice trainer, but she didn’t know what was wrong. He’d phoned a doctor, who said he wouldn’t be able to make it in time, but thought it might be a bout of tonsillitis or glandular fever. But Shou, being a regular sufferer of tonsillitis, knew it wasn’t either of them.
God… he thought to himself, what am I going to do?
After a while, he heard the door click open. He clenched his eyes shut, hoping desperately that it wasn’t an irate Nao coming to shout at him. But thankfully, he felt a hand rest on his shoulder.
“Shou?” Came Hiroto’s voice from above. “We’ve got an idea.”
Shou turned around so he was lying on his side instead of on his belly. He looked up at Hiroto with blurry eyes, and watched the little man crouch next to him so he was at his level. He looked a little worn out and stressed, and Shou wondered what had happened to make him look ten times worse than he had before.
“We’re going to cancel the gig.” He explained.
Immediately, Shou’s eyes widened, and he mouthed the words ‘why’ to Hiroto desperately. Hiroto bit his lip and rolled his eyes. “Well you can’t sing, so there’s not much point is there?”
Shou darted his vision around the room as if something in sight would give him an idea. But suddenly, something did pop into his head. He darted forward, making Hiroto jump backwards, and grabbed a pen from the desk in front of the sofa.
He looked at Hiroto and held the pen to signal that he wanted to write. Hiroto nodded and grabbed a notebook from his pocked, flipping it onto a blank page.
The notebook was manuscript paper, and Shou couldn’t help but give Hiroto an impressed glance. Hiroto chuckled, and waited for Shou to scribble down what he wanted to say.
He gave it back to Hiroto, and Pon read it, with a confused look in his face.
I can mime!
“A, are you sure?” Hiroto asked. “I mean, people might notice…”
Shou grabbed the book off him and started writing again.
It’s the only way we can do this gig!
Hiroto looked at Shou with a nervous expression, and pulled a face. “People expect a live show, maybe we should just cancel it if we can’t give them what they want…”
Yet again, the notebook was snatched away. Hiroto frowned. “I know you can’t ask for it back but that doesn’t mean you have to be rude!”
But at least they get a gig! Pleeeaase!
Hiroto pulled a face, and eventually stood up and put the notebook in his pocket. “I’ll ask the others. I think Nao will be ok with it. He had a fit when we outvoted him about cancelling the gig. He still thinks you’re joking.”
Shou pulled a solemn face and laid back down on the sofa thoughtfully. “But don’t take it to heart Shou-kun.” Hiroto advised, “The Nao yesterday wouldn’t think the same thing as he does today. He’s just stressed.”
Shou nodded and let Hiroto leave the room. After that he closed his eyes, wishing that the others agreed to his idea. Otherwise, there’d be no gig at all.
---
The gig was going to go ahead. They had agreed on the miming idea, as long as Shou was a damn good mimer. After passing a ‘miming’ test that Saga had invented in a matter of seconds, Shou was ready to go out on the stage and give the best show he could.
Just before they were going to go on, he felt a deep feeling of dread swell in his stomach. They were lined up just before the steps that led onto the stage. Normally Shou would be worried, but this was a lot different to normal shows.
He felt another hand on his shoulder, but this time, his right shoulder. He looked round and saw Tora smiling at him.
“Try not to worry about it, ok?” He reassured, “You can still give an unbelievable show.”
Shou smiled and nodded to him. At least there were people who would be supportive of him no matter what. He scowled thinking about how nasty Nao had been today, and how Saga had conveniently been too busy to help in any way possible.
But it wasn’t the time to dwell on such things. He looked up at the crew who were at the top of the stage. They signalled for them to come on.
Shou hopped up the steps and onto the stage. There was a huge roar from the crowd, and immediately, the adrenaline kicked in. This was normally the time Shou would get into the act, and everything he’d done in preparation would pay off. All his worries would fly away.
But right now, all his troubles were just about to begin. He ran up to the front and got the crowd going like he would always do, and a nervous smile grew on his lips.
God he hoped this would go well. He didn’t want to upset all these people. They were all his fans! They were all cheering for him! What kind of person would he be to annoy each and every one of them?
But as Tora said, he could still give them a good show. Along with the rest of Alice Nine, he would do his very best.
So, they started off with Zero. Shou waited for the track to start playing of his voice, closing his eyes trying to cal himself down. It was pretty difficult with all this energy pumping through his veins.
The load roar made it hard for him to hear too, even if he loved how the crowd were getting into it. Then again he could hear it in his earphone, so once it died down, it was pretty obvious.
It started off well! He was miming the best he could, and no one seemed to notice. The band was getting into the gig, the crowd were having a great time, and Shou was just happy that things were going his way.
So far through Tsubasa, Shou was starting to get quite a knack for it. He’d started moving around a lot more and getting engaged with the other band members. It was just like another normal gig.
But once he’d gone over to Hiroto and stood next to him, the worst possible thing happened.
The neck of Hiroto’s guitar hit the microphone stand that Shou was using at the time. The stand went flying, along with the microphone, and of course, the singing track kept going.
All Shou could do was watch in horror as the stand went tumbling across the stage. The sound of his own voice going when he wasn’t miming was painful to listen to, especially when it started to get drowned out by booing.
He could look at the crowd. He stood in horror. He knew he had to go and pick up the microphone but he couldn’t move! He looked at Hiroto for help. He’d kept going, but realising Shou was completely frozen, he stopped, and after him the rest of the band came to a halt too realising what had happened. Hiroto gave Shou a guilty look.
“I…” Hiroto started, unable to finish. The track went off, or at least they thought. All that could be heard were shouts and boos from below.
Shou felt like he was going to be sick. What had he done?
Yay! After a very long time, this story has actually managed to work!! Quizilla is really starting to annoy me >.<
