Act 1, Chapter 11.5: Fuel My Fire

Friday evening at 8 PM, Hiroki holed up in his bedroom, lost in the synesthesia of frequency with his black-gold Les Paul. He tweaked the mixing of Death Homesick in BandLab to balance each track. Each pluck and each Floyd Rose's shook made him feel like a frontman commanding the stadium.

Suddenly, a tap on his window snapped him out of his trance. He set the Les Paul aside to open the curtain. "!!!" Hiroki jumped back.

A petite girl in gothic lolita attire stood outside the balcony. Her striking turquoise eye and familiar black eyepatch add to her unnerving allure. "Dark Lord of Tartarus!" Aoi proclaimed.

Feeling annoyed, Hiroki quickly opened the balcony door and karate-chopped her forehead. "Aoi! You scared me shitless! What the hell are you doing here?!"

Aoi rubbed her head, her lips wincing in pain. Before he could process, he noticed a rope dangling from the balcony above his apartment. "Wait... how'd you even?!" he asked, stunned.

Aoi clasped her hands dramatically and suddenly unleashed her chuunibyou priestess. "I'm now undertaking a pilgrimage to the—"

Hiroki cut her off, with frustration. "You moved into this apartment? Since when?"

She halted and nodded. "Three weeks ago."

Hiroki sighed once. "Get back to your—"

But Aoi grabbed his hand, her tone pleading. "Hiroki... Can I stay for a bit?"

Guilt tugged at him. "Fine..." He sighed, "but don't do anything stupid!" At last, he let her enter through the balcony.

His small bedroom was a shrine to his passion, with several anime posters on the walls, manga neatly placed on his desk, and CDs by Muse, Deftones, Radiohead, and others stacked about.

Aoi slumped on the floor, her eyes carefully eyeing her surroundings. "What forbidden sorcery art thou forging upon?"

Hiroki set aside his Les Paul, smirking. "Still working on Death Homesick." He handed her his IEMs and hit play on BandLab.

Aoi took Hiroki's IEM to listen to the result. And all of a sudden, the surroundings fade to black. Like the abyss that devours its prey.

The track, which Hiroki previously crafted at the inaugural club meeting, has drastically improved. The guitar distortion sounded crisper, the fuzzy bassline growled but was pleasant to hear, and the pounding drum soared with clarity. Each EQ setting, track volume, and panning seemed balanced. Or better yet, sounded almost professional.

However, after the clean solo section, a brief silence gave way to a banshee-like scream, resuming the verse's wrath and ending with a chaotic chorus.

Aoi’s jaw dropped. Is this... the power of the abyss?! Her eyes were wide open as if witnessing the true might of the "Dark Lord of Tartarus." Hiroki scratched his neck, dissatisfied. "Sorry, there are no vocals yet. Don’t have money for the condenser mic."

Aoi grabbed his shoulders, her enthusiasm bursting. "It’s fine! Sing this anthem of despair right now!"

Hiroki sighed, a mix of reluctance and empathy evident in his demeanor. He conceded and played the track through his phone’s speaker, singing the lyrics he’d written:

Verse:
I refuse, but you drag me down.
Months in hell, I fight evils.
I squander, with your barks.
Their bullets, splatter my skull.

Chorus:
My war, they have done!
My home, they have dried!
My life, they have died!
My death, they have home!

The verse's vocals were filled with anguish, evoking the raw edge of Deftones' Chino Moreno. And his falsetto on "I squander, with your barks" blended with Muse's Matthew Bellamy's theatricality. He then unleashed a raw banshee scream in the chorus, reminiscent of his chuunibyou days in middle school.

Aoi's jaw dropped even lower, her chuunibyou spirit blazing with zeal; the strength of Hiroki's music stirred her. "The Dark Lord's wickedness never fades away!" She struck a dramatic pose. "I need holy water, Godspeed!"

Hiroki shrugged, somewhat embarrassed. "Yeah, but it’s still rough."

Aoi grabbed his hand with fierce determination, her eyes blazing with unwavering passion. "It doth not matter! I desire to enlighten such abyss with this too!"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Hiroki muttered. But then, he glanced at the clock, which almost reached 9 PM. "Anyway, go back to your room. It’s late."

"Fine, Dark Lord..." Aoi smirked, climbing up the rope to her apartment. "See you in purgatory." She finished as Hiroki closed the balcony door.

The encounter had drained him mentally; Hiroki continued to work on his Death Homesick. But Takane's blunt confession about Kazuki lingered in Hiroki's memory, fueling his frequency with desperation. What the hell is going on?! His thoughts turned black.

But he shrugged anyhow. He meticulously tweaked the mixing and mastering, hoping to craft a monument for Kaito, Kazuki, and all others plagued by their pasts, until exhaustion devoured him.