Chapter 2: The Mouse and the Musician

“I SAID SHUT THE FUCK UP, BITCH!!!”

The classroom fell silent as everyone turned their heads to see the once-quiet Adora screaming into Sirene’s ear. A harsh screech burrowed into the bully’s skull and rattled her brain. There was a moment of calm as all students in the room were in shock by what they had witnessed.

The silence was broken by Sirene’s eyes rolling to the back of her head and she began to foam at the mouth, gurgling something before fainting. ‘Adora’ dropped her unceremoniously, letting the girl flop to the floor. She then shot a glare over to Sirene’s cronies, who recoiled in fear. Deep, sapphire eyes bore into their souls before her mouth widened into a jagged grin.

“You bitches want a go at me too?” The three henchwomen shook their heads violently, backing away from the demon in front of them. ‘Adora’ let out an abrasive laugh before retrieving her notebook from Sirene’s unconscious grip. “Good; you girls know your place, then. Let this be a reminder to you: Don’t fuck with me.”

‘Adora’ grabbed her things and left the classroom nonchalantly, giving a flippant wave of her hand as she exited. The moment the door closed behind her, the room erupted in chatter and gossip.

“Who the heck was that?!”

“There’s no way that was that Rockett girl, was it?”

“With that demeanor? No way! Had to have been a new student!”

“That was completely insane!”

“I know Sirene had it coming but still, wow!”

Outside in the halls, ‘Adora’ unbuttoned her blazer and popped the collar of her dress shirt, letting her tie hang loose and her jacket to flow freely on her. Her hair, once neatly brushed straight, had now flared out wildly. And her whole attitude had shifted from a timid wallflower to a loud-and-proud rockstar.

“Woooo!! That felt SO good! Don’t you agree Addy?” Ashura gloated, turning her head to her invisible partner. Adora was pale-faced as she floated beside the tomboy, panicking at what she just did.

“A-Ah-I-you…! T-T-This i-i–i-is a n-nightm-mare! Y-Yes! I-I-I h-have to be d-dreaming!”

“Oh don’t be such a killjoy, Adora. That was badass and you know it.”

“SHE IS GOING TO KILL ME WHEN SHE WAKES UP!!!”

“That chihuahua? I doubt it, she seemed like she was all bark and no bite to me.”

“A chihua-what? Argh!! That’s besides the point! Sirene comes from a rather wealthy noble house, and I have been doing my best to stay on her good side the whole time! The last thing I need is for you to ruin all of that!”

“God, who the fuck cares? She’s just some big fish in a small pond anyways. Maybe before you could do nothing but cry like a lil’ baby whenever she came around. But not anymore! You wanna know why, Addy?”

“H-Huh?” Ashura twirled around and put a finger up to Adora’s face. “W-What are you doing?”

“I’m going to take you to the very top of the world! We’re gonna make you a rockstar.”

“What?!”

“Listen, from what I’ve seen of you today, you’re just a spineless coward. So wanna know what’s the best way to cure that spinelessness? By becoming famous around the world!”

“I-I-I can’t do that, are you crazy?! I-I don’t even know if I can play that instrument I drew up!”

“Only one way to find out! Let’s find the music room!” Ashura cheerfully ran through the halls of the school, humming to herself as she looked for any symbol for a band class. Finally her eyes were set upon an ornate door with a gilded musical note on it. “Bingo! Let’s go!”

“W-Wait, Ashura. That’s the-” Ashura ignored the timid girl’s warning as she flung the door to the room wide open, only to find it empty. The desks were few, and the instruments laying around the classroom looked to be decorative at best. Music sheets were piled in corners of the room, and any that weren’t in stacks were strewn about haphazardly. And in the middle of it all, sat one scruffy-looking man in glasses and a white coat, sitting on a swivel chair backwards as he noticed the blue-haired girl walk in.

“Who is making all that noise…?” The man yawned, not concerned with the brash tomboy who just barged in. “Sorry, I’m not taking any visitors right now. Go bother someone else.”

“Nah, don’t feel like it.” Ashura grabbed a chair from one of the desks and mirrored the way the man was sitting, facing him. “You’re the teacher here, right?” The man sighed, rolling his neck lazily as his tired eyes regarded the girl.

“I don’t think anything I’ll say will get through to you… Fine, yes I am the music teacher here; you can address me as Mr. Truesdale, or just call me whatever, I honestly do not care.” The man slouched a bit onto his chair. “So, what do you want? Not many students come wandering into this classroom, if any.”

“I want to make this!” Ashura pulled out the drawing from Adora’s notebook, showing Truesdale. He accepted the paper and began pouring over its contents. His head nodded and he stroked his beard a little. Finally, the man closed the notebook and handed it back. “So, what do you-”

“Can you even use Musica?”

“Huh?”

The professor sighed as he pinched the bridge of his nose. Pulling out a binder of notes, he adjusted his glasses before continuing.

“In order for me to even attempt to create a Muse’s Focus for you, I need to know if you even have the ability to harness Musica.”

“Musica?” Ashura crossed her arms, confusion etched onto her face. “Is it not just some magic ‘whip-up-the-guitar’ and we’re done? What does this ‘Musica’ stuff have to do with anything?”

“...I’m going to assume you didn’t pay attention or were not present during this explanation. Fine, sit down and let me explain.” Ashura rolled up a seat as Mr. Truesdale began his lecture. “Magic is organized into three separate categories: Arcana, Combatica, and finally, Musica. As you know, just about everyone can use Arcana, and those training as soldiers or adventurers learn Combatica. Musica is different; the form of magic that Musica belongs to cannot be obtained through study or practice. It is a rare magic that manifests only in those who have the innate talent for it.

“You can’t just teach a guardsman how to sing and he’ll be a Muse; the magic chooses you. And as far as I can tell, you only know Arcana. I don’t feel a note of Musica in your soul. So, suffice to say, I can’t help you.”

“Wh- Hey! That’s some bullshit!” Ashura shot up. “You’re tellin’ me you can’t make a damn guitar because I don’t have this special magic thingy?! Can’t I just go get it made normally?”

“Nope, sorry.” Before Ashura could open her mouth again, the scruffy man cut her off. “It’s not as simple as having a smithy make one for you, like a weapon. Crafting an instrument you have zero affinity for could cause untamed Musica to flow through, leading to disastrous consequences. It’s not that they can’t craft it due to a lack of ability, but rather, it poses a safety hazard to the user and any unfortunate listeners.”

Ashura clicked her tongue before sitting back down, irritation clear on her face. Beside her, Adora looked on sadly, staring down at her feet in disappointment. It seemed like this was not the first time she was told these words. The shaggy-haired teacher then tapped a pen to his chin, contemplating something.

“There is one way you can try to unlock your Musica’s potential.” The sapphire-eyed girl perked up at this. “It’s not for the faint of heart; do you think you can do it, Miss Rockett?”

“H-Huh? Wait, w-what does he mean, ‘not for the faint of-” “Hell yeah!”

“Alright then, here’s your assignment: Get a crowd of people and perform for them. Musica will flow through you, as long as you keep your momentum going and you keep the crowd attentive. If you succeed, you will have taken your first step into being a Muse. Just remember the most important thing: You have to put your entire heart and soul into this; you can’t just treat this like some game.”

“No half-assing it, huh?” Ashura gave a sharp-tooth grin towards her teacher before ripping out the page of the guitar from her notebook. “Fine, I’ll take your challenge! In return, I want you to hold onto this! Don’t give it back to me until I’ve come back as a Muse!” A wry smirk stretched across the man’s face, intrigued by the girl’s self-imposed challenge.

“Alright then, deal. Prove to me that you are Muse material, Adora van Rockett.”

x-x-x-x-x

Ashura left the classroom with excitement in her chest. All she had to do was just do a concert in front of a bunch of people and harness this Musica stuff? Hell yeah, sounds easy enough! Before she could run her mouth more on what to do, Ashura felt her soul be shoved out of her body and sent tumbling away.

“WAH! Why did I- you little shit! What the hell was that for!?”

The eyes of the teenager slowly opened once more, revealing their former ruby color. Her hair relaxed and her expression reverted to how it usually appeared. When Ashura got a look at her host once more, he noticed that her lip was quivering, and her eyes had misted over.

“Why did you do that…?”

“What?”

“I asked why did you do that?!” The shy girl cried out, shocking Ashura and a few other passerbys. Immediately flushing in embarrassment, Adora sprinted away, heading towards the courtyard where she could be left alone. Ashura couldn’t let things be, however, and decided to press into the matter during their run.

“You’re seriously getting mad at ME?! What’d I even do?! All I did was set us up to learn this Musica thing so we can get that guitar! It can’t be that hard!” Adora finally stopped running, catching her breath on a bench, thankful that no one else was around to see her. She glanced up at her spirit partner with anger in her eyes.

“I DIDN’T ASK FOR YOU TO DO THAT!!!” She snapped, once again catching Ashura off-guard. “I-I designed that instrument because I hoped one day, I could play it. But I know I wasn’t ready for it yet, so that’s why I didn’t want to try to be a Muse yet. I-I have a lot of trouble even s-speaking to others, let alone performing for a whole crowd of people. I can’t, I can’t, I can’t-!”

“OH, SHUT THE FUCK UP ALREADY!!”

“...!” Adora froze, the sudden outburst silencing her. Craning her head up, she was met with Ashura looking down upon her with absolute disgust on his face.

“You’re so fucking pathetic, you know that? If I hear you say ‘I can’t’ one more time, I swear to God I'll slap the hell out of you.” Adora’s eyes prickled with tears, but she remained silent. “Now you listen to me, kid; Life’s not gonna wait for you to be ready for it. We’re not just gonna sit around with thumbs up our asses hoping that one day, the pieces will fall in place for us. What you need to do right now is gather your shit, get a song, and sing your goddamn heart out!”

“You make it sound so easy! I-I’m not like you! I’m not as brave, or as confident as you, Ashura!” Adora had tears streaking down her face as she angrily turned to face her spirit partner. “I have done a good job of not bringing unwanted attention to myself, and the last thing I need is some weird guy in my head telling me to do otherwise!”

“Well this ‘weird guy’ is trying to help you not be such a little bitch who can’t speak her mind for shit! From what I can see, you’re too much of a pussy to deal with your own problems yourself! Which is why you’re running from the one thing you’re passionate about!!”

“I…I…” The bluenette stood silent, head hanging low as her bangs shadowed her eyes as Ashura’s words hit her. “...I have no passion…”

“Bullshit! Then explain the drawing of the guitar! The various notes and scribbles you do during class! Don’t act like those don’t exist, I watched you the entire day! This is something you love! This is who you are, dammit!”

“I know that! I do love music! But what is even the purpose of loving it if I can’t even express it to others?!”

“Then I’ll do it for you.” Adora’s head shot up, eyes wide open at her double’s proclamation. He flashed a sharp-toothed grin at her as he pointed a finger at her chest. “You already did the hard part of writing it all down, all I need to do is sing it out, right?”

“W-W-Wait a second, you’re not seriously thinking about-” Realization struck Adora before she shoved the spirit away from her. “NO! We are NOT doing that! I am not subjecting myself to whatever scheme you have planned for me!”

“You can’t keep putting this off forever, kid! Whether you like it or not, this is the only way to achieve your dream!” Ashura jabbed a thumb at himself and grinned. “And lucky you! You got the biggest golden ticket right at your side! Say the word, and I’ll do all the heavy lifting for you!”

“I-you-we… argghhh!!! I am not doing this right now! So drop it!” Adora stormed off back into the school building, dragging Ashura’s spirit with her. The rockstar rolled his eyes as he followed along.

“What a stubborn little girl. When is she gonna be honest with herself?”

x-x-x-x-x

“You know, as much as I want us to go and show off to a crowd,” Ashura hummed, floating idly by Adora as she got her tray for lunch. “We can’t perform on an empty stomach! So go on; eat, eat!”

“P-Please stop…” Adora sat down at an unoccupied table, far away from most other students. “A-and don’t get any f-funny ideas, okay? I-I just want to eat my lunch in peace right now.”

“Yeah, yeah, whatever.” Ashura waved her off, turning his attention towards the rest of the cafeteria. The hall was filled with students eager to sit down and take a break for the day. Towards the front end of the room, he spotted something interesting: an ornate stage, complete with a microphone. Some students wearing blue armbands were by it, talking amongst themselves and working on some papers.

“What’s with that stage up there?” Ashura poked his host, getting her attention. She turned around and followed his finger. “They doin’ anything special up there?”

“Not really, as far as I can tell. That is just the student council’s announcements area. They reserve it for their activities mostly, no one else uses it.”

“Like, they can’t, or they just don’t?”

“Well, there is no real reason to. Unless it is something dire, no one has a reason to go up there.” Adora went to take a bite of her food before stopping mid-chew. She shot a glare at the specter haunting her. “You’re not thinking of using that stage for your own ends, are you?”

“Me? Never~”

“I already told you, I am not playing for a crowd. That is final. This Musica business has nothing to do with me. It never has, and it never will.” She then pulled out her notebook and flipped it to one of the latest pages. She tuned out the rest of the world as she took to writing lyrics once more. Ashura looked over her shoulder and noticed the contents, whistling in approval.

“Damn kid, you wrote all that?”

“Eep! D-Don’t scare me like that!” Sighing, she scooted the notebook over to give her spiritual partner a better look. “This is what I have been working on lately. I am almost done with this song, but…”

“Buuuut?”

“I am having trouble figuring out how to end it. Nothing I came up with seemed to flow properly.”

“Hmm..” Ashura studied the page, tilting his head inquisitively. “Here, lemme try something. Give me your hand.”

“Huh? What are you- whoa!” Adora’s left hand was possessed by Ashura, who took the pen from her right hand and began to write in her notebook. “H-Hey, hold on, that’s my song…”

“Yeah, and I’m helping you finish it… there, how’s that?”

“That’s… not bad actually. I… I like it.” Adora smiled at the page, with Ashura grinning back at her. “I-It’s still not done, but i-it should be easier to finish the final stanza from here.” Adora then closed her notebook and went to put away her tray. As she began to leave the cafeteria, the duo passed by the student council’s stage.

Smirking deviously, a lightbulb went off in Ashura’s head. Without warning, he dove into Adora’s body, forcing her out.

“WAH! What’s going on?!” Adora turned around and watched as her blue hair flared out wildly once more and her body popped open her jacket coolly. A familiar row of sharp teeth grinned back at her before she raised her head, revealing a set of sapphire eyes staring back at her. “Ashura?! What are you-”

“I’m thinking it’s time I lit a fire under your ass.” Ashura looked to the side before running up to the group of council students, ignoring the pleas of her host.

“Oi! You guys there!” The tomboy called out, turning their heads. “Got a question for you guys; can I borrow that stage up there?”

“I-uhh… I’m sorry, but who are you?” One of the student council members asked. “We don’t normally let non-council members up here-”

“I’m not gonna do anything bad, promise. I’m just gonna sing this song I made and then I’ll be outta your hair.” The boy let out a sigh before stepping to the side.

“Please don’t cause a mess, we just finished cleaning the stage…” Waving off the boy, Ashura stepped up to the podium, taking a good look at the crowd of students eating lunch. She placed the notebook in front of her and skimmed through the pages before landing on the perfect song. Clearing her throat, Ashura tapped on the mic, getting the attention of the cafeteria.

“HEEEYYY EVERYBODY! WHO’S READY TO HEAR SOME GODDAMN MUSIC?!”

Her scream into the mic caught everyone off-guard, making the students jump out of their skin. Knowing she had everyone’s attention, Ashura’s grin grew wider.

“Alrighty folks, I got a lil’ something planned for you all today! Keep those ears wide open, ‘cause I’m gonna make you all start rockin’ out!”

Murmurs about the strange girl on the student council’s stage rode through the crowd. Many were unsure of what to make of this newcomer, and if she was going to be a problem. These whispers didn’t stop Ashura, however, as she took a deep breath and then began to play.

Adora gasped in shock as she recognized the lyrics Ashura was singing. That was the song she was just working on! Not only was it a deeply personal song to her, it wasn’t even complete yet! And here Ashura was, singing it out loud without a care in the world!

Ashura continued to roar out to the crowd the song before her, belting out the depressing lyrics with an upbeat fervor. The juxtaposition of the contents versus the tone of the vocalist elevated the song more than it once was. Each line was delivered with the utmost confidence, despite the lyrics denoting a searing self-loathing agony. The crowd before them went from idly listening to actively getting up and joining Ashura in feverishly jumping to the beat.

Soon, everyone in the cafeteria was enraptured by the impromptu concert. Students were clapping, jumping, or even singing along to the chorus. Ashura continued her rhythm, with each saddening line came a delivery filled with hope and determination. The tomboyish persona howled to the crowd, her violent voice screaming from her chest as the words hit the room. The words were deeply concerning and depressing, yet the way Ashura roared them out in defiance to their meaning was unnatural. It was like she was singing and dancing in spite of all these flaws laid bare.

A small bump of a foot caught Adora’s attention, who was curled up in a ball behind Ashura. Ruby eyes, wet with tears, looked up and saw confident, sapphire eyes that gazed upon the crowd with passion in their eyes. Adora’s emotions were a mess; she wanted to crawl in a hole and hide away, to forget this horrible experience. Yet another part of her was struck with awe; to see this person rally a crowd of people who barely knew her just to listen to her song.

Adora’s heart felt like a massive spike was thrusted into it as she finally let it all out. Ashura gave her a sidelong glance before she felt something stir within her. A blue energy engulfed the girls, coalescing around their chests. Their eyes then began to glow in a bright ruby and sapphire hue respectively. Both girls knew exactly what this was: Musica.

Ashura kept the chorus up, causing the Musica around her to pulse in tune. Adora felt it too, the feeling of the strange, new magic warming her heart. Its beating matched her own heartbeat, and Ashura followed the aura as a magical metronome. In turn, the Musica began to create a magical beat that created a melody akin to backup instrumentals. The magical beat was growing stronger with each verse, sending a beautiful, pulsing shockwave across the whole hall. It was time to bring it all home.

Taking a deep breath, tears streamed down Adora’s face as she shot to her feet, back against Ashura’s. It started as a faint whisper, with the crowd offering a small clap rhythm to lead it up. The duo’s voices slowly rose in volume and emotion, with everything pooling from their hearts. The crowd’s hype grew as their claps got louder, matching the singer’s fervor. Their eyes flashed a heterochromatic Ruby and Sapphire for a split second as the final chorus harmonized between the two girls.

“PLEASE, JUST GIVE ME A SIGN THAT YOU CAN HEAR ME!”

“PLEASE, JUST GIVE ME A SIGN THAT YOU CAN HEAR ME!”

The crowd erupted like a vocal volcano, screaming violently alongside the wild rocker on stage. Ashura’s face was strewn with sweat while Adora’s own was riddled with tears. The same lyrics were synchronized with each other, with differing emotions tied to each person’s lines. Yet despite this dichotomy, the two girls managed to mirror each other’s moves perfectly. And with a final cry, the song came to an end. The Musica exploded in a colorful array of blue aura, engulfing the crowd in a vibrant hue as the magical energy washed over them.

…

Silence. The entire hall stood still as they watched the blue-haired girl slump over, bangs shadowing her eyes as she let out haggard breaths. Suddenly, her arm shot up, striking the signature Rock-n-Roll Horns. The crowd roared to life once more, cheers and applause flooding the hall. Ashura’s face was drenched as she let out a relieved sigh; another job well done, if she had to say so herself. Turning around, she caught a glimpse of her host and her eyes widened.

Adora was crying. Hard. Amongst the cheers and hollering of the crowd, Adora was screaming at the top of her lungs, anguish in her voice. She clutched her heart and let her emotions run wild. Ashura gave a small, knowing smile before facing the crowd once more. She spoke softly to her partner, low enough for only the emotionally-wrecked girl to hear.

“Get used to that feeling, kid. This is what it means… to be a ‘Rockstar’.”