Chapter Text
"窓の外は星屑の町 (Outside the window there's a city made of stardust.)
もうTOWERの明かりも消える頃さ (The lights of the towers have gone out already.)
DANCE忘れられない過去をめぐるSCENE (To look back to our unforgetable past...)
Ride on, ride on, ride on, ride on time!"
"Forget it!" Yasusada gives his short but definite answer while taking off the headphones after listening to the song only for a few seconds.
"Oh come oooon!!!" his classmate shouts out disappointedly and tilts even more with his chair, hands clinging to the backrest in front of him. As always, Urashima's voice is way too loud to be appropriate for a classroom. Despite his intense reaction, he's not really surprised about his friend's refusal. He might not be the smartest in school but his knowledge of human nature is impressive and he knows his monotonous friend long enough to predict his answers quite easily. He wouldn't be Urashima Kousetsu if he'd give up so easily. How do you say? It's not over until the fat lady sings!
"It's only one day. You could do me a favor for only ONE day!" He tries again and rubs his index finger into Yasusada's face so that the other moves backwards a little and narrows his brows, looking slightly annoyed. It's too early for this amount of enthusiasm.
"I won't go to a BOY BAND concert." Yasusada says, and the emphasis on the word 'boy band' makes it sound as if he's worried about getting fleas or something like that. He turns away, and his bluish dark hair, tied up into a messy ponytail, falls across his shoulder. "Apart from that, I'm doing you favour basically every day by letting you copy my homework. What do you ever do for me?"
"I spend my precious time with you mugwump!" Urashima explains totally seriously. "You should be thankful! What would you do without me? Who would you eat lunch with?"
"Probably Namazuo and Honebami," Yasusada replies unimpressed, earning a frustrated groan from the blonde boy sitting in front of his desk.
"Come on, it's not thaaat bad."
"It's a boy band. One of a million not even talented, casted mix of stereotype guys fulfilling a certain pattern that has proven to fob the most money out of naive school girls."
"Wow!" Urashima says, slapping his own hand to his chest. "What a withering assessment! You should really consider joining the school magazine club. They could need a good critic!"
"I'm fine with kendo," Yasusada mumbles while rummaging in his school bag to find the books he'll need for their first lesson today.
"You're not fine with kendo, you're obsessed. That's a difference," Urashima sighs. "Look, I promise I'll do my homework for the whole next week, if you join me. I can't go there alone. I need an alibi!"
"I don't care if you do your homework or not. And I'm not going to be your alibi so everyone who finds out will think I'm gay."
"Well, you don't seem to be interested much in girls either so..." Urashima shrugs his shoulders, earning a death glare in return.
"Okay, okay, I'll do YOUR homework for a week then?" The blonde tries once more.
"That' wouldn't exactly improve my marks," Yasusada answers while flicking through the pages of his book.
Right...
"Aaaah, you don't know how horrible it feels to be in unreturned love!"
Judging from the dramatic sound of his words, Urashima is playing his trump card now. If he'd be the boss in some video game, then this is his last attack wave. Trying to gain some pity.
"True," Yasusada counters without looking up from his book. "And I don't care."
Bamm! Critical hit!
"Cruel..." Urashima whimpers and lets out a deep sigh while stretching his arms and leaning back against his own desk which is in front of Yasusada's. "I wonder how you manage to be so resistant with cuties like Midare-chan being so close."
Said Midare is in the same year but in another class (much to Urashima's regret). With her long blonde hair and bright blue eyes she is indeed cute. But Yasusada really couldn't care less. There are many cute girls in their school but he doesn't have any interest in them. He's too busy with studying and kendo is a lot more fun than going on dates with girls, acting as if he'd be interested in stuff they enjoy talking about. Like make-up and fashion and... boy bands! He doesn't understand why Urashima would go as far as visiting a boy band concert just to accidentally run into his crush there and impress her by pretending to have the same music interests.
"Why would you even go out with a girl who constantly talks about other guys? Isn't that frustrating?"
Urashima shrugs once more.
"It's not like any of us could ever be equal to an idol! Those are kinda like... superhumans! For ordinary human beings like us it's the biggest achievement to even get a cute girlfriend!"
"Is that so..." Yasusada sighs and looks out of the window. Isn't their teacher a bit late?
"Who knows if she's even a girl?"
"PFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFHHHHTTTT!!!!!!!" Urashima snorts very, very loudly in response and Yasusada hopes he just imagined his cheek getting wet from spit just now. He wipes over it with his sleeve anyway just to be save.
"Of COURSE she IS!!! Did you ever take a close LOOK?"
"I didn't because you'd probably kill m-"
"Her beautiful big eyes and her cute smile and the way she walks-"
Ah right, here we go again...
Yasusada internally curses himself for forgetting to bring his own ipod this morning to block out his friend's regular swooning attacks. For a second he even considers grabbing Urashima's which is still lying on the desk in front of him. Boy band music or Urashima's fanboying. Which is the less annoying?
The reason why Yasusada brought up Midare's gender is a widespread rumour saying that she - or he - got into trouble with the school administrations because she insisted on wearing a skirt - while boys are obviously not allowed to come to school in a female school uniform. But as already said, it's only a rumour, so Midare's gender remains a mystery up to this point and Yasusada only likes to tease his friend who has had a crush on said girl since the first time he saw her. When being asked directly, Midare once answered the question with indeed quite a girlish wink and provoking "I bet you'd love to know what's under my skirt!" If she really is a girl, then she's quite a blunt one.
Yasusada reaches the point of defeat when Urashima slobbers over how Midare Toushirou walks down the hallway like an angel that fell out of heaven.
"Okay, okay," he says loud enough to interrupt his love struck classmate. "I'll go to this concert with you, so you can impress Midare but in return you won't bother me with the whole topic ever again."
"SERIOUSLY?" Urashima's shout can probably be heard through the whole school and Yasusada has never been so relieved to finally see their teacher entering the classroom to make his friend shut up.
What the hell did he just sign up for...
~
Much to his surprise, Yasusada's conditions are indeed met because for the rest of the day Urashima didn't bother him. Neither about boy bands nor about Midare. It's an almost relaxing day and when Yasusada leaves the school's gym after kendo practice, he'd almost forgotten where he agreed to go to next Sunday.
That is until he's making his way over the school grounds and there are two girls in front of him, walking incredibly slowly because they're obviously busy staring on their phone and giggling like crazy. He rolls his eyes and when he's about to overtake them, he catches parts of their discussion.
"Aaah, did you see that? Kogi's move just now!!"
"Eeeeh, which one? Rewind, rewind! I didn't see it!! Can you zoom in?"
Yasusada usually doesn't pay attention to other people's chatting, but suddenly he hears a familiar melody. Ah right, it's the song Urashima showed him this morning.
Well, if he already agreed to go to this concert, maybe he should have at least asked for the name of the band. But to be honest, he simply didn't care enough to think about it until now. He stretches his neck a little, trying to catch a glimpse of the mobile screen.
Obviously it's not really successful with two girls almost burying their noses into said small screen and it doesn't take a second until he's noticed.
Both girls startle and turn around quickly, one of them even letting out a shriek.
"What are you doing?!" she yells at him. "Creeping up on us like that! Are you a perv-"
"Ah-! I-It's not like that!" Yasusada quickly steps back, raising both hands in front of him. "S-sorry, I didn't mean to-!"
"Eh? Yasusada-san?" the other girl suddenly says and it's only then when Yasusada notices she's one of his classmates.
"Harada-san, I didn't mean to startle you, sorry!" he repeats. "I just wanted to-"
"-see your boy band video." He absolutely can't say that but his desperate look towards the phone while trying to find a good excuse, is obviously suspicious enough.
The girl called Harada chuckles as she raises her phone to show him the video playing. "Are you interested in this kind of music, Yasusada-san?"
"I'm not!" he answers quickly, shaking his head. "It's just, uhm- I- I heard that song often lately, so I was wondering if it's popular among girls right now."
What a lame excuse. He's putting himself on the same level as Urashima. How humiliating.
"Oooh, it is!!" the girl Yasusada doesn't know, answers. It seems like she accepted his story and doesn't take him for a pervert anymore. Phew!
"It's TouDan! They're suuuuper popular right now! To be honest I don't know any girl who doesn't love them."
"Relatable!" Harada adds in her friend's direction and they both start chuckling again.
Meanwhile, Yasusada looks at the video of a live performance playing on the phone which is still held out to him. Hmm- it doesn't look any special to him. Six guys wearing extravagant, flashy jackets in different colors and fulfilling all the clichés. It takes less than half a minute to sum it up: There's a small and cute boy next to one who is exactly the opposite and probably almost two metres tall. Then there is one with rather broad shoulders, another one who looks a bit more mature, one who's probably supposed to portrait the image of a perfect son-in-law and last but not least a very pretty guy, Yasusada has to admit, who could play the main character in any romance drama TV show.
... Yeah, they do look like one of those casting bands.
While he looks at the video, he doesn't pay that much attention to the girls who started chatting with each other again.
"Did you read their interview in the latest Oricon Style!?" Harada asks.
"They've been asked what they do with all the fan mail, and Kiyomitsu said he reads them ALL! Can you imagine?"
"Eeeh? Seriously? Never! I mean, it would be so, so, sooo cute but he'd have to stay up the whole night with those tons of letters they get every day."
"Maybe we should write one, too?" Harada giggles.
"Oh my god, no, I'd be so embarrassed knowing that he really reads it!"
"So you think he does?"
And there they start laughing again, hands covering their blushing cheeks.
Uuugh okay...
Yasusada will probably never understand girls.
"Uhm," he tries to get their attention. "Thanks for letting me see." He nods with a polite smile and then starts walking off.
Why the hell did he even agree to go there? It's not like he could do a lot more useful things on his free weekend. Like extra kendo training for example. With his hands buried in his pockets he lets out a deep sigh and doesn't notice the girls still staring after him.
"You know?" Harada's friend whispers behind her hand.
"He looks like an idol, too!"
Harada instantly starts laughing.
"Right, right?! He's really handsome but- ah... sadly he's such a loner."
~
With only the light of a small lamp on the desk, red tired eyes fly over lines written on pink paper which smells like roses.
"Dear Kiyomitsu-san, I've been following your career from the very first minute. There's something special about you that makes me feel like drowning in your eyes..."
"Oh, that's cute," the young male with dark brown hair, fringe held back with some hairpins, comments to himself, his voice sounding as tired as his whole pose makes him look like.
His head is resting on his palm and his elbow on the table. It looks as if he's close to falling asleep on the desk in midst a huge stack of still closed letters.
He finishes reading the one in his hands, then lets it fall to the floor to his left where it joins another pile of letters which he already went through.
"My beloved Kiyomitsu," is how the next one starts.
"Wow, how straightforward..."
"I'd like to send you a pair of my panti-"
"URGH-!"
He throws the letter to the floor as if there was a spider on it. Well, maybe a spider would be less disgusting. Who knows what else might have touched this paper. He doesn't even want to think about it.
With a loud and far from well-mannered yawn he takes the next paper out of the envelope, hoping that the message will be less disturbing.
"I've had a dream in which we were so close. I think I dreamt about our past lives."
"Yeah right, happens to me all the time," he sighs.
About a year ago, he would have been wide awake when reading lines like that. Promising ones. But by now he's way more down to earth. The person he's looking for definitely wouldn't use flowery letter paper, write in pink glitter pen and draw a heart frame around the text.
The paper sails through the air and lands on the stack of finished fan mail, when someone knocks on the door.
He just turned his head when the door is already opened and a taller male with dark blue hair, wearing a bath robe, pyjama pants and slippers enters the spacious hotel room.
"I knew it," the young man says with his trademark big smile.
"I didn't say "Come in" or anything," the one sitting on the chair greets him with a rather grumpy expression, obviously not happy about the interruption.
"Well, it was not my intention to spend the next few hundred years waiting outside the door, so I've taken the liberty of entering anyway," the man says unimpressed by the harsh tone in the other's voice. He's used to it.
He walks closer and looks down on the stack of paper carelessly thrown to the floor - and the second pile on the desk that still needs to be read.
"Seriously... you're doing it again?" he says with a accusing but also worried voice.
"Yes." The younger one replies monotonously without looking up. He pretends reading another letter even if that's impossible when someone is standing behind him, trying to talk to him.
The man who entered the room sighs and walks over to the bed, sitting down on the edge of it, legs crossed. He massages his temples, taking a deep breath as if he's confronted with a difficult task - which he is.
"Listen, Kashuu, we've had this discussion before and I'm not planning to repeat-"
"Then don't," Kashuu interrupts him without turning around. "I'm busy. Leave me alone."
"You didn't show up for dinner. And that's not the first time. Yesterday I saw that your light was still on long after midnight."
That's it, he's losing his composure.
"Mikazuki!"
He slams his flat hand onto the table before turning around on his chair, facing the other man.
"It wasn't THAT late!" he hisses. "I'm not a baby, okay? I can stay up as long as I want to!"
"Not when there's a live concert the next day. And not when you almost collapsed on stage last time."
While the younger one raised his voice, the older one of them remains calm like a father trying to get some reason into his son.
"I didn't collapse!" Kashuu corrects him though.
Mikazuki lets out another sigh before he gets up.
"This conversation is utterly pointless," he has to admit.
"Oh wow, finally you got it."
Mikazuki looks at the papers on the floor as if they had the answer he's so desperately searching for. How to convince his group member that sleeping is more important than reading all of these?
"Do you really think, he'd contact you in this way?" he tries once more.
"In which other way would he manage to?" Kashuu mumbles to himself.
"I really don't want to destroy your hope, Kashuu, but-"
"Then STOP IT!"
He jumps up from his chair, ignoring that it falls over when he does so. His eyes are sparkling with anger now and it's all directed at the taller male standing in front of him.
"Stop treating me like a child just because you're a few hundred years older! I know perfectly well what I'm doing and I won't stop it!"
"Your body is not immortal anymore, Kashuu."
Mikazuki doesn't seem to be impressed in any way by Kashuu yelling at him in the middle of the night.
"We've NEVER been immortal! Maybe you've forgotten this over all those years but if we had ever been immortal, we wouldn't be HERE now! We wouldn't have been reborn! If we were immortal, Yasusada would still be here!"
His voice seems to break at his last words and his lower lip is trembling with anger and grief. Red eyes which had been so tired only some minutes ago, are now burning as he glares at Mikazuki.
"Kashuu..."
But when he talks again, Kashuu's voice lost its energy.
"You don't understand," he pants and lets his head sink down. "You have Kogitsune. Even if he doesn't remember anything, at least you're not alone. And Imano and Iwatoshi, they have each other, too. And Ishiki doesn't remember either so he doesn't understand- NO-ONE of you understands!"
Mikazuki doesn't try again. He knows better than Kashuu when to give up. And it was never his intention to make Kashuu angry and exhaust him even more.
"He's out there, Mikazuki," Kashuu ends. "I know it. I can feel it. And I need to find him!"
Mikazuki nods once, twice. Eyes still lowered in retreat.
"Fine," he mumbles through thin lips. "Fine..."