Chapter 1: The Greatest Rockstar on Earth

“LET’S GET READY TO ROCK, BITCHES!!!”

YEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!”

The crowd roared to life as the rockstar on stage hyped up his fans. He enjoyed watching their rabid faces clamor for him as he began his song. Each strum made women swoon, and each line he sang made the men cry for more. A wide smile spread across his face, plastered with stage make-up. This cotton-candied haired wildman on stage was none other than the Greatest Rockstar on Earth, Ashura!

Ashura kept hammering on his guitar as his bandmates followed his rhythm, making a beautiful cacophony ring throughout the concert hall. Ashura looked back at his cohorts onstage, who grinned back at him just as madly. This concert was their biggest one yet, maybe ever, and they all knew it. Nodding along with his drummer’s beat, Ashura continued to shred on his guitar, causing the crowd to grow crazier at the noise.

As the night went on, Ashura and his band grew bolder and bolder, with more intricate songs filling their schedule. The crowd wouldn’t stop begging for more, and the rockstar was happy to oblige. His drummer gave him a cue to begin their next song, ‘Howl at the Sun.’ Ashura looked at his friend in shock before immediately smiling, happy to take on the challenge. The song’s experimental guitar solo was going to be long and complex, but the outcome would be extremely worth it.

‘Here goes nothing!’ Ashura thought as he slung his fingers across the strings, the electrifying tune screeched across the venue. It was time for his solo, and the blood began rushing all throughout his body. Without stopping, Ashura kept strumming and stringing, blasting his guitar solo harshly with every flick. As the cheers of the fans grew louder, so did the booming heartbeat in his ears. But he wasn’t done yet, he couldn’t be done yet.

Ashura’s vision started going red, but he kept slamming his hands into his guitar. However, his mind rushed with a small fear tugging at him: the fear of stopping his show early. He knew the cause, of course. He took some coke before the show to get himself hyped up, and then some various other drugs his bandmates recommended to him. It wasn’t like he hadn’t done something like this before, but not all at once. And especially not before this large of a venue.

‘Dammit… not now… I’m too close!’ Ashura grit his teeth as he fought through the oncoming chest pains, continuously banging out his melody. The crowd’s chants rocked in tandem with his own burning heartbeat, the sounds screaming in his ears. The solo was almost done, yet it was visible the strain it was taking on the rockstar. Even his bandmates slowed their rhythm as they saw Ashura’s condition.

They eventually stopped playing their instruments altogether, only to watch in amazement and horror as Ashura continued mashing onto his guitar despite his appearance. The rockstar’s visage was marred with blood streaking from his nose and mouth, mascara running horribly from his sapphire eyes, and bloodied fingers flicked blood and sweat across his lifeline. But the man refused to put down his guitar.

“GRRRAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!” The maddening roar of the guitarist reverberated throughout the venue, shaking the bones of every fan in the hall. Everyone stared in utter silence as the guitarist finally finished his guitar solo with a flourish that sent his arm sky high. His arms then went limp to his sides, with the only sound coming from the rockstar being a harsh wheeze. Before the bassist could walk over to check on him, Ashura’s pick arm shot straight up, giving the world a Peace Sign.

“THANK YOU ALL, I LOVE YOU!!!” With Ashura’s proclamation, the crowd erupted in cheers, excited for their idol to continue the show. As the people chanted his name, Ashura’s friends clapped along, hyping up their lead man. But he refused to respond.

“Ash? You there man?” The backup guitarist came up to him, confused to their leader’s silence. As she walked up to him, she gasped. “Holy shit, Ashura!”

“What’s going on?!” The bassist snapped over, not expecting her to act this way.

“He’s… he’s…” She choked out, feeling his chest as her face went pale. “He’s dead.”

x-x-x-x-x

“GAH?!” Ashura shot up from the bed with a jolt, his head still killing him from the concert of last night. ‘Jesus, what the hell happened last night…? First was the coke, then the concert, then the solo… why can’t I remember the rest?!’ Flopping himself down onto the bed, Ashura kept an annoyed look on his face as he contemplated his current dilemma. “Well, at least the hotel bed’s comfy.”

He immediately shot a hand to his mouth. ‘Was that my voice?!’ For some reason, Ashura’s voice was no longer the heavy-handed mannish voice he’s had for his 27 years of life, but a girlish voice now, albeit a bit of a tomboyish flavor due to his personality.

“What the hell’s wrong with my voice?! Why do I sound like a chick?”

“AAAAHHHH!!!” Another voice pierced his ears, earning his ire. But Ashura noticed that it sounded like a girly version of his current voice. He craned his head over to where the scream came from, only to come face-to-face with a blue-haired girl with ruby eyes and a terrified look on her face. “W-W-Why am I looking at my body?! Why is it moving on its own?!?!”

Ashura could only blink in surprise at the girl, who looked somewhat transparent. A million thoughts began running through his head, but only one managed to make itself heard.

“Who the hell are you?”

“That’s my question! Who are you and why are you in my body?!” Ashura looked down at his hands, which looked a lot daintier compared to his calloused guitar-wielding hands he was accustomed to. Getting a bit more curious, he pulled on his pajamas before yelling in surprise.

“WHERE’S MY DICK?!”

“STOP EXPLORING MY BODY!!”

Ashura tuned out the girl’s protest as his head spun around the room. It was far fancier than his hotel room in Vegas, and a lot fluffier than he remembered. Spotting a mirror, he jumped out of bed and ran up to it. To his horror, the figure staring back at him was no longer the Rockstar of the Century, Ashura. But now, it was a blue-haired girl with somewhat wild hair and his own deep, sapphire eyes.

“What the fuck’s going on…?”

x-x-x-x-x

Ashura was still touching his-no, her face in astonishment. He was torn from his musings as he heard the other girl in the room attempt to get his attention.

“Umm… Excuse me!”

“What, whaddya want kid?”

“Eep!” The girl squeaked out, making Ashura roll his eyes. “I-I-I should be asking y-you that! Again, who are you and why are you in my body?”

“Jeez, chill out stutterbox. I’m tryna make heads and tails of this too. The last thing I was doin’ was finishing my concert, then darkness. Suddenly I’m in some teenager’s body and have zero idea what to do next.”

“T-That explains the second question then… But still, who even are you? You said you finished a concert, so are you a musician of some sort?” Ashura gave her a sharp, toothy grin as he made a similar pose to the one he did onstage.

“Who am I? I’m the greatest damn rockstar to have ever lived. Name’s Ashura, baby~”

“Ashura…” The other blue-haired girl mouthed the name a few times, as if to see if she heard of the name before. She shook her head as she returned to the rocker. “Sorry, I don’t think I’ve heard of a musician by that name. And besides, where is your instrument?”

“What? How the hell have ya not heard of me? You livin’ under a rock, girl?”

“N-No! I’m actually very up to date on music trends. I’ve just never heard of a person by your name before is all…”

Ashura could only sigh, before looking around the room. His search became frantic as he began opening closets and drawers for something.

“Um, Ashura? What exactly are you trying to find in my belongings?”

“My guitar! It’s a big ass electric guitar that I always play with! I had it on me before things went dark, so it couldn’t have gone far…”

“I don’t want to seem like the bearer of bad news but…” The ruby-eyed girl twiddled her fingers as she thought of the words to say to Ashura. “Maybe it was a case of only you being transported here and not everything else with you?”

“That sounds dumb.” Ashura bluntly remarked, causing the other girl to slump in defeat. Ashura sighed and crossed his arms at this. “You give up too easily, kid. I just said it sounded dumb, not that it wasn’t true.”

“O-Oh… Oh, right, I haven’t told you my name yet. It’s-”

“Miss Adora! Are you awake?” a woman’s voice called out from beyond the door. Ashura jolted up at the sudden interruption, unsure of how to respond.

“U-Uh, yeah! I’m wide awake! I’ll take care of myself, thanks uhh…”

“Her name is Felicia.”

“Felicia!”

“Understood milady, but remember that you can’t dally for too long. You still have classes to attend!” With that, the person’s footsteps retreated down the hall, leaving the girls to their own devices. Ashura turned to Adora with a confused look on his face.

“You got school? Where’s the uniform?”

“Oh, it’s right here- whoa!” Adora, who was trying to reach towards the closet, accidentally merged back into her body once more, causing Ashura to be ejected from the body.

“Wait, you could’ve done that this whole time?!”

“I-I didn’t know I could either!” Adora gasped as she looked at the clock on the wall before hurriedly putting on her uniform. “We’ll talk more later, miss Ashura, I have school now!” Ashura watched as Adora finished putting on her clothes and ran out the room, causing her ghastly form to follow the main body.

“Wait, why am I being dragged away too?!”

x-x-x-x-x

The duo was now in a carriage on the way to the academy. Adora managed to explain to Ashura the gist of their current situation. She was attending the Starlight Academy as a daughter of a duke. Her father seemed to be not too high in their social standings, but that didn’t stop him and Adora from having a nice, quiet life together. Adora mentioned her studies of the musical arts, although she didn’t neglect her other studies as well. Ashura huffed at this prospect, clearly not being the one for school life. It’s why he dropped out in high school and began a rock career.

Upon reaching the school grounds, the first thing that Ashura noticed was the grand structure before them. The imposing school building nearly took his breath away, for it reminded him of various fancy venues he had seen back in Europe and America.

“Holy crap, that thing’s huge…”

“Yes, well, it has to be to accommodate the multitudes of people coming to study across the country.” As Adora kept walking, Ashura looked around and noticed many oddities. Students walking with swords, axes, and other medieval weapons. Some were holding wands and staves as well. There were even kids with animal ears walking about. All it did was make the rockstar’s head spin even more.

‘Don’t think I’m on Earth anymore, that’s for sure…’ But as he floated by Adora, he began to take notice of something with his ward. Adora seemed to quiet down as she made her way into class. In fact, it seemed like she was doing her utmost to not stand out amongst the crowd, only to blend in and be invisible. Sitting down at her desk, Adora quietly took out her notebook as Ashura looked on with some scorn. ‘She’s acting all weird, what’s her deal?’

Before Ashura could ask what was wrong, the bell rang, starting classes for the day. For the most part, Ashura simply slept through the day as Adora kept her head down. But for the times he was awake, he noticed more and more than Adora was actively trying to keep to herself and refuse any confrontation. Which would be fine, if it weren’t for the fact that she had the world’s biggest attention-hog now sharing her body.

“Hey, Addy.” Ashura poked a ghastly finger into his ward’s cheek. “What’s with the invisible act?”

“What act?” Ashura responded in a hushed whisper, not wanting people to overhear her conversation with her ‘guest.’

“I mean all the avoiding everyone deal. You didn’t make any attempts to speak up in class, refused to talk with anyone nearby. Hell, someone bumped into you and you just gave a quick ‘sorry’ before slinking off! What kinda pansy shit is that?”

“L-Listen, I just don’t want any trouble while I’m here, okay? My family’s not that high of a house, so if I just keep to myself, no one will bother me!”

“Oh? We’re bothering you now, Adora?” An irritatingly snide voice cut out. “Those are some rich words coming from the Ghost Girl!”

“O-Oh, I-I-I didn’t see you there, Sirene…” Adora looked down at her shaking hands instead of at the freckled brunette with a mean face before her. “I-I was just muttering to myself was all…”

“Tch, that’s all you ever do. Look, just copy your notes into my book already, I have to go meet Sir Brennan soon and I don’t need to be late because you can’t do it fast enough.”

“I-I understand, sorry miss Sirene.” Adora put on a shaky smile as she began copying her notes into the girl’s notebook. All the while, the girl and her posse began to sit on her desk and gossip about the dumbest things. Ashura grew disgusted by this behavior and made it apparent to Adora.

“Why the hell are you letting her walk all over you like that?!”

“Because keeping my head down leads to no fights. A-And I don’t want to get caught up in needless drama.” Adora spoke in a low whisper, making sure that Sirene and her friends didn’t hear her. “Besides, if I do what she wants, I don’t get hurt. It’s the best thing I can hope for…”

“Don’t get hurt? What do you mean by-” Ashura was cut off by Sirene snatching the notebook from Adora’s hands, who yelped in surprise. She flipped through the pages a bit before clicking her tongue.

“Slow again today! You know what, I don’t got time for this. I’ll just take your notebook.”

“W-Wait, no don’t do that!” Adora begged, but it was too late. The girl snagged her notebook from her desk and began flipping through the pages. Upon reaching a certain page however, her eyes went wide before she started laughing.

“Bwahahaha!! What kind of kiddy drawings are these? You seriously need to grow up, Ghost Girl!” She waved the notebook’s contents around for her posse to see, causing Adora to stammer in embarrassment as Ashura got a look at it. His eyes widened as he saw what Adora had drawn: A near-perfect recreation of his lost guitar.

Without warning, the brunette ripped the drawings out of the notebook and crumpled them before tossing the paper at Adora’s head. Her friends laughed cruelly as Adora’s eyes began to tear up at the bastardization of her journal. Ashura, however, felt nothing but fury. How dare they mock the greatest piece of rock to have ever been used by man!?

“Take your trashy instrument drawings somewhere else. No way anyone in this school would want to make that for you, much less listen to whatever garbage you’d play.”

“…take that back.” Adora’s face became shadowed as her voice went dangerously low. The members of Sirene’s gang felt a chill go up their spine, but Sirene herself remained oblivious.

“Huuuh? What’d you say? Speak up, mousey, I can’t hear yoooouu~!” As she sang this out, she put her ear up to Adora’s face, goading her into anything. It would be the same as any other day, bully the girl and then laugh as she tried and failed to do anything in response. But then, the bluenette lashed out her hands, which then held Sirene’s collar in a death grip. Sirene could only look in horror as the quiet girl’s hair suddenly flared up and her eyes began to glow into a deep, sapphire hue.

“I SAID TAKE THAT BACK YOU FUCKING SKANK!!!”