Heavy Metal Mystery

Fumi eyed us suspiciously and snatched one of the papers from my hands. “I am the sun, I am the sky. I am free from my chains. Moving forward, that’s all I can do. I must continue on to get closer to you,” she read. “What the hell is this?” she said with a laugh.

I glanced at Saiki and saw that she was at a loss for words. Her cheeks were growing red with embarrassment. She was desperately looking to be saved from this mess. Without thinking, I quickly said the following words with confidence, “I wrote that!”

Both Fumi and Saiki turned to me, the former with a suspicious expression and the latter with an ‘Are you crazy?!’ expression. I gestured to Saiki with my brows and she understood. Saiki quickly turned back to her friend and said, “Chiomi’s a poet.”

“A poet?” asked Fumi with a raised eyebrow.

“I-I-I-I dabble,” I said with a nervous laugh. ‘A poet?! Why a poet?!’ I wondered hysterically to myself. But I can’t really argue since I was the one who decided to come to Saiki’s rescue, and those are her works anyway.

“Huh? Really?” said Fumi. It was obvious that she didn’t believe it. “If you’re a poet, then compose a haiku for me right now,” she said to me with a malicious smile.

“Right now?!” I exclaimed a little too excitedly. “And why a haiku?”

“If you really are a poet, then you should at least be familiar with the popular forms, right?” she reasoned with a smirk.

I gulped. If I really wanted to fool her, I needed to take this chance. Now, I’m no poet. I’m not good with words at all. I tried writing lyrics before but the results were so bad that I immediately gave up. My strength lies solely on music composition and playing. I glanced at Saiki but she had her eyes turned away. Fumi was staring at me the entire time with a raised eyebrow, no doubt waiting to see me fail and expose me for the fraud I am. I….No! This is for Haruto Saiki’s sake as well as my own. And this is also for our promise to make an album together. I needed to come through and fool Koba Fumi to the best of my abilities.

“Traditional looks, but with a modern appeal, collision of worlds,” I recited. I didn’t know why I said this line, but it just came naturally out of me. And no, I did not just make this up on the spot. I am embarrassed to say that this was actually a verse from the song “Japanese Doll in an American Mall”. Saying those words actually made my body stiff up and my cheeks turn a little red. I glanced at Saiki and saw that she had her entire body turned away from me.

Fumi became silent for a bit after hearing my “haiku”. And then she said, “Is that really a haiku?”

“W-What do you mean?” I asked her nervously.

“I mean, it’s in the form of a haiku, but it’s, like, not really about nature and stuff,” she explained.

“Y-You don’t have to be so critical,” I told her. “I mean, art is subjective after all.”

“He’s right!” joined in Saiki.

After about a minute of silence, Fumi nodded her head and said, “Alright, I guess.” And then she went back outside.

Once she was gone, Saiki turned to me and let out a gut-busting laugh. She was clutching her stomach and almost doubled-over. “Did you seriously used a verse from “Japanese Doll in an American Mall”?” she laughed.

“It’s not like I planned it!” I argued back with a flustered expression.

“That’s too funny!” she said before actually keeling over and laughing harder than before. “I was trying *laugh* to hold it in *laugh* the entire *laugh* time!”

I will forever remember this day as the worst day of my high school life.

A few days had passed since then. I was on my laptop and listening to my recorded tracks. I had already finished laying down the guitar and bass tracks for a few ideas and was now reviewing them before showing them to Saiki. ‘Hmm,’ I thought to myself as I reviewed my lead guitar part for the last track. There was something about it that seemed a little…stale. As I listened to it, I couldn’t help but feel lethargic. There wasn’t something to really lift the listener’s energy. The riff was fine and it’s actually one of my favorites, but the rest of the song sounded mediocre at best. ‘Maybe….’ I put on my guitar and decided to lay down a few leads during the second verse. I pressed record and played the very first idea that came to me as I listened to the chord progression. Once I was done, I listened to it one more time and felt satisfied. Finally, it sounded a bit more energetic than before. But after having done that, I began to feel a little skittish about the guitar solo. I listened to it one more time and frowned. I previously thought that it was good, but now it kind of sounded a little too derivative. And so, I recorded a new guitar solo to replace the old one. I played the first thing that came to my head and it melded with the song perfectly. I finally felt like I was done and I uploaded the files onto a drive. And then, I was off to meet up with Haruto Saiki at KABANG!

“Welcome!” greeted the receptionist as I walked in. Their name was Kotetsu Kyo. They’re the resident receptionist for KABANG! and had been working there since my second-year of middle school. They were an androgynous figure with medium black hair and white highlights, purplish-blue eyes with purple eye shadow and eyeliner, red lips, and white skin. They had four piercings on their left ear and a small ring on their right nostril. Their attire consisted of a black leather jacket on top of a fishnet top over a black undershirt, skinny black jeans, and black pumps. If you haven’t noticed yet from my introduction of them, they were a goth.

I waved to Kyo and headed straight for the stairs that led to the studio below. I was almost at the steps when a hand grabbed my shoulder from behind. I turned around in surprise and was greeted by Juri with a large Cheshire grin.

“W-What?” I asked her nervously.

“I heard from Saiki now that you’re a poet,” she teased.

“T-T-T-That…!” I attempted.

Juri’s smile turned a bit more sympathetic and said, “You did the right thing protecting Saiki’s integrity.” This was the first time she, Juri, ever treated me as anything more than a toy for her amusement. I smiled…. That’s when I realized that it would also be the last time she would treat me this way. Her smile quickly grew back to its previous state and she dramatically said, “A haiku to protect my love! “Human suffering, it’s an attack from above, our minds become goo”!”

“That’s from ‘Brainwaves and X-Rays’!” I shouted back with reddened cheeks. “That wasn’t even the song I recited!”

“Really? I assumed that that was the one Saiki was talking about,” guffawed Juri. “She said that you recited something from Blue Year and that was the first thing that came to mind.” Her laughter rang throughout the entire establishment and it sounded as if a pack of hyenas had made this place their hangout. My cheeks were burning hot right now and I was on the verge of entering a mental breakdown.

A loud SNAP came to my rescue and Juri’s laughter quickly died down. “Stop making fun of him,” said Komori Nao. She was the co-owner of KABANG! with Moriuchi Juri. I learned from Ikki that she became attached to the establishment the year before my introduction to the place. She and Juri had known each other since high school and Nao was actually the manager of Juri’s band. After Juri purchased the shop and became the new owner, there was a period of time when the establishment wasn’t doing very well. Nao came on board and helped to bring back the establishment from going bankrupt and has since become it’s co-owner alongside Juri. A common saying amongst KABANG!’s regulars about the two owners’ relationship is “Juri handles the entertainment while Nao handles the business”.

Komori Nao was a woman shorter than Juri by only a few measly centimeters. She had wavy honey brown hair and fierce amber eyes. She had a nice figure on par with Juri’s, but her skin was a bit more fair compared to Juri’s light tan. Her personality was the complete opposite of Juri’s. She’s way more mature than the former and is kind and honest. She’s also very strict when it came to business, but fair.

“Wha? I was only having a little fun,” complained Juri.

“Sorry about her behavior, Shiomi,” apologized Nao.

“W-Well, I’ll be going now,” I told them and I promptly rushed downstairs to meet up with Saiki in the studio.

We listened to the tracks together. All the while, I had my eyes glued on Saiki in order to gauge her reaction to each track. That was all. And she didn’t disappoint. At times she was really getting into it and nodding along, other times she listened with a confused expression. During certain parts, she wore a ponderous expression as if she was trying to make out what was going on musically. And on the parts she didn’t like at all, she shook her head with a disappointed look. I enjoyed seeing her honest feedback on the music through her actions. It meant a lot to me as an artist.

Once she was done, she took off the headphones and said, “I really enjoyed tracks 2, 4, 5, 7, and 9. Tracks 1, 6, and 8 was okay, but I thought that they could be better. Track 3 was really weird.”

“I was thinking about how to combine some of those musical ideas from the albums you made listen to and it came out like that,” I told her with transparent honesty. “I’m not really good with writing pop music so that may be why the third track, which I wrote trying to combine modern pop and J-pop with rock, sounded off.”

“It was a good attempt,” she said in consolation. “But I like the general chord progression. Maybe we can keep that and rewrite the rest.”

“Sure thing,” I agreed. “How about the lyrics?” I asked her.

Saiki took out a brand new stack of papers, this time smaller than before, and showed them to me. They were neater than her rough drafts and the ideas and words were more clear. I read through some of them and smiled. As I said before, I’m no lyricist, so I don’t really know what makes a lyric good or bad or sophisticated or basic. I mean, I read them normally just like anyone else and interpret them as I see fit. But that’s about all the experience I have with them. I just know that if I like what I hear or read, then it must be good. At least to me.

“These are really good,” I told her honestly. “Do you want to start recording vocals?” I asked her.

“Let’s start with the second track,” she agreed. “I think it’ll go well with these lyrics.” She entered the booth and I sat behind the mirror to push the record button. She did three takes, all of which were amazing. I could honestly sit there and listen to her sing the entire day. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I’m in love with her voice.

Once she was done, we listened to the takes together. It was decided that the second take was the best and I put together the tracks. Now, we just needed the drums.

“So who’s going to play drums?” she asked me.

I couldn’t believe that the time has finally come for this. I glanced at her with a nervous expression and said as reassuringly as possible, “I know a guy.” Saiki apparently didn’t think much about my expression and simply nodded in approval to my suggestion

We recorded a few more tracks together, many of which Saiki wasn’t very satisfied with after hearing them together with her vocals. I told her that we can always rerecord and rework them if needed, and that it was a good idea to at least see where we’re at with some rough recordings. She understood and we were finally finished for the day.

I took the tracks home and uploaded them to my computer. I listened to them again by myself to see if I could generate ideas for how to revise and perfect them and was able to jot down some notes. And then, it came time to call the drummer….

I picked up my phone and dialed the number. The line was ringing and the phone was picked up quite shortly. “Hello?” came Ikki.

“Hey,” I greeted him through the phone.

“Yo, Iomi! What’s happening?” he asked me.

“Nothing, really,” I told him with a small chuckle. “Hey, listen, can I ask you for a favor?”

“What is it? Need some tickets to a festival? Need a limited album you can’t get anywhere else? Need a gig with a band to make some quick money?” asked Ikki excitedly.

“Why does it always sound shady when you say these things?” I asked him irritatedly. I sighed and said, “No, I need some drums.”

“Swirl? Belgian? Yokohama? Johann?” he asked, listing the various big-name drum brands.

I was getting really annoyed by his jabber, as evidenced by my trembling body and my twitching right eye. “I don’t need to buy drums!” I yelled back at him. “I want you to play drums on some tracks I made,” I told him a little more softer with a sigh.

“Cool! Send them over!” he told me. His nonchalant happy-go-lucky personality really irked me. But I nevertheless accepted his offer and hung up the phone after saying farewell.

As soon as I set down my phone, I immediately sent the files over to him. Once that was done, I leaned back in my chair with my fingers pushing against my eyes. Talking to Ikki at night was one headache I didn’t need. But at least he was ready to help. Now, all I had to do was wait for him to finishing tracking his drums.

The next morning, I received an email from Ikki with the recorded drum tracks. Most of the songs had one recording, but a few had multiple takes. I was tempted to listen to them, but since today was a school day, I had to stave off my curiosity and save it for a better time later today.

While out walking to school, I met up with Ikki the usual way: him coming up to me with a slap to the back that would always make my back ache throughout the entire school day. “Did you listen to what I sent you yet?” he asked me with a cheeky smile.

“Not yet,” I told him. “I’ll listen to them today.”

“Man, when you asked me to record some drums, I was really surprised,” he told me. “I haven’t recorded drums for you ever since you started programming them yourself on the computer since last year. How are the videos doing?”

“They’re fine,” I replied back casually. It was true. Before, I had always asked Ikki to record drums for my videos, whether they were originals or covers. But ever since I discovered the ease of programming drums on the computer, I was quick to implement it in my videos without giving Ikki much thought. Because of that, I hadn’t really collaborated with Ikki in a long time save for a few jams with his band from time-to-time. I can understand his excitement when I had asked him for the first time in a long while for some drums.

“Are these tracks for your videos?” he asked me. My eyes widened anxiously but I kept my mouth shut. “They don’t really sound like something you would do though.”

“Eh? R-R-Really?” I asked back nervously.

“I mean, I’ve heard you record some poppier stuff for your original work, but these tracks kind of had a different feel to them. It was like they were built on an entirely different blueprint from what defined your other works.”

‘I hate it when he gets curious like this,’ I told myself. Ikki wasn’t an idiot by any stretch of the imagination, even though I constantly consider him to be one. But I only say that because of his behavior rather than his actual intelligence. You see, despite his annoying wild-child vibe, Ikki is really astute. His ability to perceive things is really on another level.

I was about to deny his words when he quickly added, “Oh, and those vocals! I didn’t know that you knew a vocalist with a voice like that! Man, it gave me shivers!” He then brought a finger to his chin in a gesture of pondering. “But those vocals also sounded strangely familiar.”

“I-I-It’s just someone I met on social media!” I attempted to convince him.

“Did you perhaps get the lead vocalist of Nijigami to perform on these tracks?” joked Ikki.

“Ack!” I yelped. How? How am I losing to Ikki? My eyes darted to the left and sweat was pouring down my temples. “It’s just someone I found that sounded like her,” I told him in a quiet voice that sounded like I was confessing to a crime.

“Man, the people on social media is really amazing,” he said dumbly.

I let out a relieved sigh. No matter how astute and perceptive he may be, Ikki is still Ikki. Even so, I know now that I needed to tread even more carefully around him.

“Niomi!” came Haruto Saiki. She was running up to me with Fumi and Taka behind her.

“Hey, Mr. Poet,” greeted Fumi with a smirk.

“Hello, Timmy!” said Taka.

“It’s Shiomi!” I shouted back in a whine. I think I just grew some gray hairs from all of this stress.

“Let’s walk to school together,” said Saiki.

“Huh? B-But,” I said in protest.

Saiki turned back around and walked right next to me. Fumi and Taka stayed by her other side. I gulped and had my eyes to the ground. It was embarrassing for me to do something like this. Especially from all of the attention I was getting from everyone else. There’s no doubt that everyone was questioning why a guy like me was walking next to the school idol as if I was her friend or something. Oh, why can’t I just go to school in peace?!

Saiki leaned a bit close to me and whispered, “So, were you able to record the drums?” I glanced at her and answered back with a little nod. I was too caught up in the fear of being judged by others to answer back with words. Her smile grew bigger than before and her body shook in excitement. All the while, I felt a pair of eyes staring at us. At first I thought it was the people watching us. But of course they were watching us, this was a sight you don’t see everyday! I glanced at Fumi and Taka, but it wasn’t them; they were busy engaging in some kind of conversation. That’s when I realized that the presence was right next to me. I slowly turned my head and saw Ikki staring straight at me and Saiki. I knew by the look in his eyes that he was being perceptive again. This scared me.

We finally reached the school and Saiki ran off with her friends to her locker. “Hey, what’s your relationship with Haruto Saiki?” Ikki asked me as we were changing shoes.

I jumped at that question and quickly stuttered, “W-W-W-W-What do you mean?!”

“I mean, you guys look like you’re pretty close,” he said. He threw his hand back behind his head and said with a laugh, “I mean, I’m not saying that it’s impossible for you to become friends with her, but it kinda seems a bit weird that someone of her status would be friends with someone like you.”

I understood what he meant by that statement. “You’re right,” I told him.

“Or not!” he quickly interjected with a laugh. “I don’t mean it against you when I said what I said.”

“But what you said also makes sense,” I told him. “I mean, I thought that it was impossible myself.”

We both became silent for a bit. “Are you and her working on something together?” he asked me suddenly.

“W-What makes you think that?” I asked back nervously.

“I was kind of getting a kind of secretive, sneaky vibe from you both this morning,” he told me. “It sounded like she was asking you about something.”

“She was asking me about the trip,” I told him quickly.

“No, that can’t be it,” reasoned Ikki with a shake of his head. “The way you guys communicated, it was like the same way two people planning a secret birthday party would act towards one another.” I couldn’t say anything else to divert his attention. Ikki noticed my silence and quickly said with a laugh, “At least that’s what I think. But I could be wrong.”

I nervously joined him in laughing. “Right?” I agreed awkwardly. I was relieved that the secret hadn’t gotten out. Who knows what would happen if it did? But I promised Haruto Saiki that I would keep her secret and help her make an album. And I intend on keeping it till the end.