| Back To Fanfics |

Secret Identity
by Black Rainbow

Disclaimer: SD belongs to Takehiko Inoue. Plot, band name and songs by Jahnna N. Malcolm as this is based on her book. ^__^ only original characters are mine...

Chapter 1

“One, two, three, FOUR!”

Sakuragi Hanamichi growled out the lyrics of White Noise, his band’s new song. He could feel the music vibrating in his veins as the rest of the band joined in. They were doing some last-minute practicing for an audition in the newest club in Shohoku, *crush. The band had been playing together in other in Osaka for a while, but lately they moved back to Kanagawa. So now the band is looking for a place to play their music in a nearby club, and it was their good luck that *crush opened and advertised for a permanent band.

Mitsui Hisashi, the drummer, joined in the beat enthusiastically, while Rukawa Kaede, the bassist, picked up the rhythm. Fujima Kenji (Rukawa’s cousin from Shoyo) worked on the synthesizer. Hanamichi marveled at how good they sound (all of course, owing to himself the Tensai) when suddenly all he could hear is static and feedback. Somewhere behind him, he also heard Mitsui cursing.

“CUT!” Hanamichi roared. “Will someone please fix those levels!”

Mitsui got up, fooled around with the levels, and stomped back. “Where’s that brother of yours, anyway?” he asked, annoyed.

“I don’t know,” Hanamichi replied sharply. His brother, Kiminobu, is a genius with the mixing board but lately he’s always late, or totally absent, when the band needed him. “He’ll be at the audition,” Hanamichi said, hoping it was true. He himself was annoyed with his brother but he wasn’t going to show it to Mitsui. His brother and Mitsui seemed to be going through some “relationship problems” and he wasn’t going to get involved. Putting his guitar down, he started to tie his hair back (he had been trying to grow his red hair for a long time, and now it’s already below his shoulders) and shoved in inside a cap, hiding it. Somehow, people think that his hair makes him look scary, so he hides it when he goes to audition.

He picked up his guitar and prompted the rest of the band to continue the practice. In a few minutes, they finished White Noise, Sakuragi and Rukawa’s voices harmonizing together perfectly.

“Perfect,” Hanamichi murmured smugly.

“Not quite,” Fujima corrected. “The levels is still a little weird. The harmonies are okay, though.”

“Where is that brother of yours?” Mitsui asked again.

“It’s none of your business!” Hanamichi snapped, not wanting to admit that he didn’t know.

“Maybe we should get a new sound tech,” Mitsui muttered. “Kimi already blew us off at the Carpe Noctum audition, and now -”

“Kiminobu is the best sound tech in Kanagawa!” Hanamichi snapped.

“What use is that if he’s not here!” Mitsui shouted back.

“Look, it doesn’t matter,” Fujima said loudly to get their attention. “We have 15 minutes to get to *crush.

The four of them waited quietly for the manager of *crush to arrive. During the last half-an-hour, Hanamichi had complained (very) loudly about managers who aren’t punctual at auditions, Mitsui and Hanamichi had a fight over several things including Kiminobu’s absence and Sakuragi’s attitude, Fuijma tried to calm them down while actually feeling hitting both of them, and Rukawa watched coldly, seemingly unmoved. Then the four of them fell into a nervous silence, knowing that there aren’t a lot of clubs that are looking for bands at the moment, and that this audition is really important to them. While they stared at each other, the door opened. Sakuragi got up.

“Mr. Taoka, we’re Souled Out.” He said. Taoka just looked on. Sakuragi glanced at the rest of the band, shrugged, and picked up his guitar. He started the count in, but was interrupted by Taoka.

“No, no, no! Are you an all-boy band?”

They looked at each other. “Ano… yes,” Fujima muttered.

“This is too overdone! Everywhere you see now you have these all-boy bands or all-girl bands. I want something new! An all-girl back-up with a boy up front, or an all-boy back-up, with a girl up front . . . Anything but an all-boy or all-girl band! Those kind of bands are a dime a dozen.”

“Nani? Aren’t you even going to listen to us?” Mitsui burst out. Hanamichi stared at Taoka, trying to figure out if this guy is suffering from some mental illness or something.

“I don’t need to. As I said, bands like yours are a dime a dozen—pretty faces but no talent,” Taoka said.

“What?” Hanamichi roared. “You jerk! We came all the way up here and you’re not even going to listen to us?”

Taoka’s eyes twitched in anger. “Who do you think you are, kid? I can make sure your band never plays anywhere near Kanagawa, so watch your mouth!”

“Teme…” Hanamichi raged. “Who cares about playing for an asshole like you?” He was about to give Taoka one of his famous headbutts when Fujima and Mitsui pulled him back.

“Are you a total idiot?” Mitsui ranted. “You just called him an asshole!”

“He is one,” Hanamichi replied nonchalantly.

“Do’ahou.”

“Rukawa! What did you say?” But Hanamichi was interrupted by the rough shove Mitsui gave him.

“Thanks to you, now we will never get another audition here.”

Hanamichi was going to get up and give Mitsui a headbutt when he suddenly thought of something. “Daijoubu,” he said. “We’ll get an audition.” He walked out, leaving the rest of Souled Out wondering what he meant by that.

Sakuragi stared at the mirror. His long red hair was now in beautiful waves, and he had gotten Haruko, his friend from high school, to help him cut some bangs. “Okay, hair,” he murmured. “No more hiding in caps.” Even as a girl, I am good-looking, he thought smugly, when the bathroom door opened.

Both Hanamichi and Kiminobu gave a startled shout. Then they looked at each other, Kiminobu in shock, Hanamichi waiting for his brother’s reaction. After what seemed like 10 minutes, Kiminobu asked hesitantly, “Hanamichi?”

Hanamichi grinned. “Hai,” he said, making his pitch higher.

“What are you doing?”

-TBC-

| Back To Fanfics |