Driving The Last Spike

July 20, 2024

A release party was being held at Time Clock Records for The Theatre Tapes, which officially came out that day. The reception, which was semi-formal in dress and held in a small banquet hall inside the company headquarters, saw the band intermingle with company executives, members of other acts signed to the company including A TO Z SIX, the parents of many of these other artists that were on the younger side including the parents of all of Sweet Juliet’s members, and several music journalists who had come to write stories about the EP and the band.

As Momo’s parents talked to several executives as well as Hideki, her mother in particular was very excited to be here. “I still can’t believe my own daughter managed to pull something off like this,” she said with pride. “To think, she’s still only a high schooler, and yet she has talent that goes way beyond her years.”

Momo was a bit embarrassed to be praised so much by her mom, remarking, “Mom, you don’t have to praise me so much…”

“Awww, how could I not?” Her mother chuckled and pinched her cheek. “My baby’s growing up so fast. I still remember the day you were born. You looked so cute as a baby.”

“I’ve seen the pictures,” Hideki explained to some other executives. “I can verify that indeed, Takahara was a very cute baby.” The whole table laughed in response.

“Listening to it sounds like I got taken back in time,” Momo’s father then commented. “It’s like a bunch of new faces making old music, or something like that.”

“Maybe,” replied another executive to him. “It certainly reminds me of my youth.”

“You know,” Hideki explained. “We were worried about how the new singles were gonna do given how unconventional they were, but so far, the numbers are pretty high for a debut. The preliminary numbers for the EP are also good for pre-orders. If all goes to plan, the first actual album will have a lot of hype.”

Momo’s mom, curious, asked, “How are the numbers anyway?”

“They’re not like A TO Z SIX numbers, but they’re still noticeable. Sweet Juliet is definitely a band that cannot be ignored. If things go to plan, Metal Machine could enter in the Top Twenty on the charts.”

“Nah,” Momo shook her head. “It’s good, but I don’t think it’ll get that high. I’d say it peaks around twenty-five at most. As for You Always Smile, eh… That one’s a bit weirder, so maybe it’ll miss the Top Forty entirely. Either way, it doesn’t matter to me how well it does. I’m still proud of our work, no matter if it’s a hit or not. Every song we work on gets the full treatment from us, whether it’s a single or not.”

“That’s a good mindset to have,” said another executive at the table. “Always putting your best foot forward and putting in effort no matter if the song turns out to be a hit or not is what makes the difference.”

“Good point,” Hideki nodded. “Good point indeed.”

…

The band, still dressed formally, were to get ready for a short performance of a few songs for their guests to show off their skills. The stage setup was simpler than it had been at the Fox Lounge, which was already relatively simple. The ‘stage’ was also not elevated, meaning they were playing on the same level as all of their guests. As Ai turned on her in-ear microphone and sat down at her drum kit, she did a brief check. “One, two, one, two, check, check.” Upon hearing that her microphone worked, she said, “Good evening, everyone. My name, if you don’t know, is Inuyama Ai. I am the drummer, one of two lead vocalists, and one of two primary songwriters for Sweet Juliet. While the rest of the band is getting ready in the back, I’ll be kicking things off with some drumming.”

Indeed, the rest of the band were in a back room. Sadako was busy tuning her electric guitar, closely followed by her acoustic guitar when she was finished. Masato, meanwhile, had just finished tuning his bass, and was now talking to Momo and Ryosuke. “My parents are pleased,” he told them. “As a backup, however, I still have a plan to become an apprentice electrician just in case things don’t work out for us.”

“Have more faith,” Momo chuckled. “We got this.”

“I’m not saying I don’t have faith in Sweet Juliet, Momo-san. All I’m saying is that it’s good to have a backup plan.”

They all then heard Ai begin a drum solo outside, prompting Momo to remark, “And there she goes.”

“Speaking of backup plans,” Ryosuke then said. “Are you guys sure you wanna open with that new song Ai-san wrote? We’ve barely done any recording work on it. Do we have a backup plan in case we decide we don’t wanna do it?”

“Green Man,” Sadako replied to him. “As usual.”

“That said,” Masato laughed. “It’s a little late to back out now, Ryosuke-kun. I’m pretty committed to doing the new song to kick off the show.”

“Me too,” Momo replied. “I think it’s a great introduction song based on the rehearsals we did. I say we make it the opener for our first album, in fact.”

“That’s still a bit of a ways away,” Ryosuke pointed out. “The end of the year at least. Things may change.”

“Alright,” Momo then said as she picked up her flute case. “Let’s begin filing out. The drum solo’s gonna lead into the new song, so we should get going.”

Back out on stage, Ai was coming to the end of her drum solo. With furious and chaotic playing, she concluded her short presentation with several crashes on the cymbals, earning her applause from the crowd of executives, journalists, other acts, and family. She then closed her eyes and held her drum sticks up in the air for a moment as the rest of the band emerged. Once they all took their positions, Ai began to play a steady, powerful, and angry-sounding 4/4 beat. She played alone for eight measures before Ryosuke joined in on the keyboard. Compared to their other songs, the riffs on the keyboard and later guitar were simpler, with more emphasis being put on the drums and bass. After another eight measures, Ai began to sing the new song, titled Re-Birth-Death, while Momo stood in the back.

You broke my heart and I glued it back together

You stole my voice, but I gained my tongue back

You thought I could never survive

You told me that by leaving, you’d be the death of me

You told me that by leaving, I’d never feel again

You thought I could never survive

Oh, never survive indeed

But instead

I was reborn

Maybe you leaving

Was all I needed

For the second verse and chorus, the guitar became more frequent on the track, with Momo also adding in backing vocals and duetting on some lines.

May your days be short, and your nights be long

May you never feel true happiness again

May you remember your words

The words you said, you said to me

The ones that you thought would bring me down

I’ll always remember those words

And instead

I was reborn

Maybe you leaving

Was all I needed

When you left me, my soul was reborn

When you left me, a weight was lifted

Right off of my back

You will never control me, you’ll never see me

You will never even sense me

I am free

Oh yes, I am free

And now I see

I was reborn

Maybe you leaving

Was all I needed

You thought you’d be the death of me

But instead, you failed

Yes, you failed!

Yes, you failed!

When the third chorus ended with its extended section, Momo walked to the piano and began to play a solo on it. This solo, in comparison to the rest of the song, was far more complex, being a fast-paced and frantic piece that seemed to perfectly match the defiance of Ai’s lyrics and vocals. After a twelve-measure solo, Ai began to sing once more, singing a short bridge before going into the fourth verse and chorus. Ai yelled out the last set of lyrics in the fourth verse plus all the lyrics in the fourth chorus, pitching up her voice to do so.

My rebirth is almost complete

The only thing I need is your memories to die

My rebirth is almost complete

The only thing I need is for you to get out of my life

And don’t come back!

You broke my heart and I glued it back together

You stole my voice, but I gained my tongue back

You thought I could never survive

And I can’t even remember the good times we had

Because so few just seemed to exist

NOW GO AND GET OUT OF MY LIFE!

GO AND GET OUT!

AND NOW I SEE

I NEVER NEEDED YOU

AND NOW I SEE

MY REBIRTH COMING SOON

YOU THOUGHT YOU’D BE THE DEATH OF ME

BUT INSTEAD, YOU FAILED

YES, YOU FAILED!

YES, YOU FAILED!

YES, YOU FAILED!

YES, YOU FAILED!

NOW GO!

A guitar solo by Sadako signalled the beginning of the ending section of the song. Hideki smiled as he looked at the band, remarking to himself, “And to think, that’s the first time they ever performed that song…”

When the solo ended, Ai chanted a few more lyrics as all other instruments faded away until there were only drums left, and after a few more bars, the song itself closed out.

I don’t need you anymore

I don’t need you anymore

I don’t need you anymore

I don’t need you anymore

I don’t need you anymore

I don’t need you anymore

I don’t need you anymore

I don’t need you anymore

With the song ending after about six and a half minutes, the crowd cheered and clapped as several journalists nodded to each other and began to write down notes about the performance. Momo stood up from the piano and told the crowd after turning her in-ear microphone on, “Thank you very much. That was a song by our wonderful drummer, Ai-chan. She actually writes many of our songs, but this one is one she wanted to sing herself. That was called Re-Birth-Death, and it will be on our first album, which will hopefully be coming out later this year. Now, Ai-chan has a few words of her own.”

Ai then also spoke up on Momo’s cue, telling the crowd, “Thank you very much! Thank you! I hope you enjoyed that one! That was our first ever performance of it! If you haven’t met us before, we are Sweet Juliet. We’re a new band, and as of today, we now have an EP out called The Theatre Tapes, all of which were written by our lovely keyboardist Ryosuke…”

…

July 21, 2024

The band were spending their Sunday working in the studio, their last session before they planned to head out on the road starting on July 28th as part of A TO Z SIX’s Summer 2024 Tour. As Ai recorded on the drums in a live room, Jin was going over other recordings nearby with Momo and Ryosuke. “Okay, so… This unnamed as of yet song here starts off on the piano…” He then started up a piano track Ryosuke had laid down. “How does it sound so far?”

“It sounds good to me,” Momo replied.

“I don’t like it,” Ryosuke shook his head. “I wanna do another take of that.”

“Why? I think it sounds fine.”

“Not to me, it doesn’t.”

“But-“

“Listen,” Jin assured Momo. “It’s his part. He decides if it sounds good or not. Besides, we got plenty of time. We got until the end of the year to finish this album. At this rate, we might finish it so soon the company holds off on releasing it for a while.”

“True,” Momo nodded. “They wouldn’t want us releasing so much music at once. If we flood the market too quickly, it’ll diminish our sales.”

An engineer working at the booth then noticed Ai had stopped playing. Inside the live room, Ai got frustrated and slammed her drum sticks down. “Fuck! I messed that last part up bad!”

“Calm down,” said the engineer in response. “We’ll just run that last part back. We got time.”

“I was hoping to finish up a song today, but maybe we won’t be able to.”

“We will. Trust the process. Let’s start again.” The engineer then pressed a countdown button, and Ai began to play the drums once more. The engineer remarked to Jin, “Sounds like she’s got a bit of a perfectionist streak, huh?”

“She’s probably just stressed since this is the last session before their first tour. It’s probably a bit intimidating for her as someone who’s never toured before.”

“I was gonna say,” Momo added. “As someone who has, it’s definitely a bit intimidating if you haven’t gone out on the road before. Ryosuke, if you got any issues or questions, just ask me or Sadako-chan, okay? We both know what it’s like to tour.”

“I must admit,” Ryosuke then sighed. “I’m a bit worried. I’ll be spending my whole summer on the road away from my family. It’ll definitely be a new experience for me. How do you like the road?”

“Honestly,” Momo replied. “I love it. It’s fun visiting different cities and venues. I’ve even gotten to go outside of Japan. You’d be surprised how popular J-idols can be in some countries. I’ve even been to America once.”

“America?!”

“Yep. We once did four shows there at two different conventions and two other cities. They were smaller venues, but they were packed. Maybe one day, Sweet Juliet may tour in the US.”

“Maybe… Heh…”

…

Outside of the headquarters of the company, three journalists were comparing pictures they had taken outside of the building earlier. “That’s a good shot,” said one of them to the other as he inspected a picture. “You got a shot of them holding hands, huh?”

“Sure did,” he replied to him. “It’s gonna be a good payday when we give these to the boss.” The picture in question showed Momo and Ryosuke briefly holding hands as they walked into the front of the building. Although they had done so for only a few seconds, it was enough for one of the three journalists to capture it on his camera. “Did either of you go to the event last night?”

“I did,” replied the third journalist. “They kept their hands to themselves and didn’t seem too lovey-dovey there. They probably knew it would be a bad idea to do it when around a lot of people.”

The first journalist asked him, “How was the event?”

“They played some good music, they said a few words to the crowd, and overall, it was present. Still, I can’t believe these guys were hiding something like this.”

“And to top it off,” then said the second journalist. “I got a source online who has something on Sadako.”

“Something on Sadako?”

“We think we may have found a private social media account connected to her,” he explained. “And it has some… Interesting content.”

“How so?”

“The account follows a bunch of other accounts that post lesbian stuff, including porn.”

“Porn, huh?”

“Honestly, based on this, we think she might be in the closet.”

The other two journalists were floored. “No way,” replied the first journalist. “So not only do we have a couple in the band, but someone’s gay, too? Now this is some serious shit.”

“You got that right,” replied the third journalist as he wrote down notes on a notepad. “This is gonna be some top news when it gets leaked online.”

…

July 28, 2024

A week later, Sweet Juliet were in the middle of a joint rehearsal with A TO Z SIX inside the very first stop of their tour, Sendai. The arena they were playing in could house around seven thousand people, and was sold out, albeit with almost all A TO Z SIX fans. As the band did an instrumental rendition of The Tragic Tale of the Green Man, the rest of A TO Z SIX watched with great interest. Yuna remarked to the others, “Wow, Takahara-senpai and Takagawa-senpai are really good.”

“I meant to go to one of their shows at the Fox Lounge,” replied Miyako. “But you had to be twenty to enter, so I couldn’t go.”

“Why twenty?”

“It’s a nightclub,” she explained to the younger girl. “They won’t let people who legally can’t drink in there, unless they’re performers of course. They’ve let several acts perform there who legally couldn’t attend normally.”

Ami, who was a year older than Momo and was closer to being able to get in, said, “I got one more year before I could go in. I know where I’m gonna go as soon as I turn twenty.” She then explained to Yuna, “You know, we actually did some of our first shows there.”

Curious, Yuna asked her, “Really?”

“We did some limited-capacity shows there during the pandemic,” Ami explained. “Limited to only about one hundred people instead of the normal three hundred people, and all of them had to be vaccinated. They were unusual, but we were so excited to perform live that we didn’t really care. A lot of acts from Time Clock Records are test-ran there since the owner of the club is connected to the record company. It’s no surprise Sweet Juliet performed there too.”

Back on stage, Momo was partway through a flute solo when she suddenly messed up and stopped. “Hang on, hang on, shit…” Once the band came to a stop, she said, “I fucked that up. We gotta do it over again.”

“Good,” Masato replied to her. “I was hitting some really bad bum notes on bass.” He then took a deep breath to calm his nerves. “I don’t know, man. Maybe it’s just the fact we’re about to perform to almost seven thousand people after performing to just a couple hundred in June.”

“I know it’s a bit of a jump,” Momo replied to him. “But trust me, you’re gonna be fine. I jumped from less than a hundred during the end stages of the pandemic to five thousand when restrictions got fully lifted.”

“What’s the biggest crowd you’ve performed in front of?”

“Thirty thousand in Saitama,” Momo replied. “Sadako-chan can tell you all about that.”

“I was so worried,” Sadako replied. “It was our biggest crowd yet, and we were one of two headliners plus an opener. I thought for sure I was gonna fuck up and make us look bad compared to the other headliner, but I did fine. The next night, I wasn’t worried at all. Like I said, we’re all gonna be fine.”

“Alright,” Ai then said as she began to count down for the song once more. “Let’s start it from the beginning. Instrumental like it was before. One, two, three, four, one, two, three, four!” Ryosuke then began the song on the organ setting on the synthesizer. As the band played the song, they had no idea that a storm was brewing behind the scenes.

…

In the back offices, Hideki was signing some last-minute paperwork when he got a phone call. He looked at his cellphone and saw it was a number he recognized from a newspaper. Curious, he answered it with, “Hello? This is Tomoe Hideki of Time Clock Records.”

“Hello,” then said a voice on the other end. “This is Matsui-san from the Sekai Shimbum. We’re calling because we’re about to run a story about A TO Z SIX and Sweet Juliet.”

Now growing worried, he asked him, “What kind of story?”

“It’s about Takahara Momo and Takagawa Sadako,” the reporter explained. “We have two stories we’re combining into one, actually. Do you have any comments on Takahara having a boyfriend or Takagawa being gay?”

Hideki’s blood froze. Those words immediately sent chills up and down his body. He feared that with these stories, the band’s career would be derailed before it could truly begin. Wanting to remain calm, he tried to laugh it off, asking him, “What? Where on Earth did you hear that?”

“We got sent pictures of Takahara holding hands with Sakamoto,” the reporter explained. “And we found a private social media account we believe is linked to Takagawa that has lesbian content.”

Hideki sighed. “Off the record,” he sternly told them. “I would be extremely careful about publishing that sort of unverified nonsense.”

“It’s being reported online,” the reporter then said, dropping a proverbial bomb on the conversation and deeply worrying Hideki. “Someone posted the photos on some forums.”

“I see… We’ll be issuing a statement by the end of the day. Do not publish anything until we say so. Have a good day, sir.” Hideki then hung up on him. He took a deep breath as he looked at his phone before he then dialed the number of the corporate office of Time Clock Records. As a receptionist answered, he said to her, “It’s Tomoe Hideki-san. I need to speak to Masakage-san as soon as possible. We have a problem.”

…

Several hours later, the band was performing the final song of the night before A TO Z SIX was to go on stage, the final song being, of course, Exit Stage Left. As the song closed out and the crowd cheered, the whole band felt on top of the world. The night had gone incredibly well, and for Momo and Sadako, the night was far from over. When the song closed out, Momo bowed to the crowd and waved, telling them, “Thank you! Thank you all very much! Me and Sadako-chan will be back soon with A TO Z SIX! In the meantime, be sure to support Sweet Juliet, and look forward to our first full-length album later this year!”

Ai also waved from the drum kit, telling the crowd, “Thank you! Goodnight! See you all soon!”

As the stage went dark, the band began to pack up and go backstage. Momo put away her flute while Sadako packed her two guitars away. Masato, meanwhile, put his bass away while several stage hands walked over to begin dismantling the drum kit, Momo’s piano keyboard, and Ryosuke’s synthesizer and keyboard setup to clear the stage out and allow A TO Z SIX to dance with no obstructions. So far, everything was going well, with the band having no idea of the brewing storm in the press.

As they all walked backstage, Miyako hi-fived Momo and Sadako, telling both of them, “You guys rocked out there! You got the whole crowd to clap along at the end of Exit Stage Left.”

“We sure did,” Momo replied. “And we’re gonna do it again on the 30th in Sapporo. Now, I just gotta get changed, and I’ll meet you girls back out here for the next show.”

“Sounds good. We’re on in about thirty minutes.”

As the band put away their instruments, Ai told Masato, “And now we can sit back and wait.”

“Yep. I don’t know how Momo-san and Sadako do it. Going from Sweet Juliet to an idol group in one night would tire me out.”

“Same here, man. Same here.”

Just as Ryosuke was helping a stagehand carry out his keyboard, Momo said to him, “Ryosuke-kun, when you’re done, come meet me near the back.”

“Got it,” he replied as he helped the stagehand move the keyboard onto a dolley. Now done, he began to follow Momo over to the back. “So, what’s up?”

“Get in the dressing room,” she replied with a mischievous smile. “I wanna show you something.”

Realizing what she had in mind, he asked her, “Uh, are you sure about that?”

“Aw, come on,” she replied. “I can lock the door and do something quick. Who says we gotta go all the way anyway?”

“Well, you got a point there.” He then whispered to her, “Seeing you in that dress you’re gonna wear soon during rehearsals really turned me on, Momo.”

“Of course,” she replied as the two walked into the dressing room with no one watching. She then locked the door from the inside before she kissed Ryosuke, who quickly returned the favor. Ryosuke soon pinned Momo against a wall as they continued to make out. When they split, Momo told him, “It’s been two weeks since we’ve been able to do anything like this.”

“Too long if you ask me.”

“You’re damn right.” She then unbuttoned his pants and unbuttoned part of her outfit. “I’ll make it quick.”

“I got an idea,” Ryosuke then suggested right as Momo was about to get on her knees.

“Huh?”

“When the A TO Z SIX concert ends, we’ll go back to the room and fuck properly. What do you say?”

“Sounds like a plan. In the meantime…”