J-Rock Battle Royale
by Scarlet and Dana

Chapter 1

It was noisy, too noisy by far to allow anyone to take a nap. The bus, filled with high school students, had been making its way through Tokyo's crowded streets for two hours already. A few passengers were desperately staring at the starless sky from behind their window, wishing they could manage to get some sleep before the bus stopped, but most of them were talking nonsense just for the fun of it. They were too excited to do anything other than speak rowdily, tease someone or laugh, again and again without ever thinking about shutting their mouth up, even at one o'clock in the morning. Toshiya Hara (B-15) grumbled loudly; rubbing his eyes with the back of his two hands. A few of his classmates glanced at him as he shrugged and he attempted to change his position in vain. The young boy sitting next to him, Kyo Niimura (B-14) had his head resting on Toshiya's shoulder, a slight drip of drool caught between his lips. He was sleeping. He was freakin' sleeping; probably unaware of the fact that of the 42 students, no one but him had his eyes closed. The blonde was snoring loudly, his black sweater stuck between his arms as a blanket. Toshiya knew him well or else he wouldn't have let him use his body as a pillow. Kyo was short both of height and temper and used groans most of the time to express himself while Toshiya was outgoing and talkative, but somehow, their bond was strong and they trusted each other completely.

They used to be neighbours and, as a kid, Toshiya had spent countless moments in the other boy's company. They first went to the park together to throw rocks to older girls and shared every toy they had. Later, they attended the same school, threw erasers to their teachers simultaneously and had the same first crush.

But the little kids that used to be called brothers ended up becoming two boys that were everything but similar. Even though they had different interests and other friends, they had still managed to preserve their relationship the way it used to be.

"Hey, Kyo!" Toshiya whispered, poking his friend lightly on the shoulder. After a moment, the blonde cracked an eye open.

"Don't 'hey' me and let me sleep instead." he yawned.

"I see that you're in good company." Aoi Shiroyama (B-9), who had been standing a few seats in front of Toshiya, suddenly appeared beside them, a smirk curving his lips. Toshiya attempted unsuccessfully to hide his gasp of surprise with a fake cough.

"My conversation was astonishing," the young man replied with a chuckle, watching Aoi as he sat on one of the unoccupied seat near his friend.

Kana Kobayashi (G-5), who had just realised that the place next to her wasn't empty anymore, covered her blushing cheeks with the back of her hands as soon as she spotted her new companion. She looked around nervously before finally burying her face in one of her mode magazine. Behind her, Izumi Watabe (G-20) and Koda Kumi (G-4) were laughing their head off. Those two girls, along with their clique, were the school's best example of the old "beautiful but deadly" cliché.

"Come on, Kana-chan!" Izumi giggled. "Your magazine can't be more interesting than Aoi-kun's ass"

Kana murmured a small "leave me alone" as she hugged her legs closer to her body. She flipped the pages of her magazine once or twice before turning her MP3 player on.

Aoi, ignoring the girls, had crossed his slender legs and was now staring at Toshiya with a placid visage. He had obviously something on his mind because no one would have remained as indifferent as he was after hearing such comments about his anatomy.

"What's the matter, Aoi?" Toshiya asked

"That Miyavi fellow was about to drive me nut!" the young man whispered with some unnecessary hand gestures. He waved his finger with absolutely no subtlety in direction of Miyavi Shimizu (B-8), who was looking intently at him as he did so. Even Kai Uke (B-4) and Nao Murai (B-19), standing close to Miyavi, had temporarily stopped their lively conversation about cars to stare at Aoi with their face full of interrogations.

"He's been ranting about the crappy weather for an hour." Aoi explained. He sighed loudly, rolling his eyes in a caricatured way.

"Why did you sit right next to him then?" Toshiya asked. He raised an eyebrow at the boy, who remained silent for a few seconds.

"I don't know." The other finally replied as he shrugged.

They looked at each other without saying a word until Toshiya finally dared to add a short: "Ah... I see." before closing his mouth once again.

Aoi wasn't really tall and his limbs were thin but he still remained incredibly attractive with his pale skin, his bottomless eyes, his long face and his masculine jaw. As soon as he wasn't in company of his closest friends, he would smoke, hidden in one of the darkest corner of the school without making even a single attempt of communication with someone else. His collected but somehow mysterious attitude had managed to catch the attention of most of the girls of the class. For some unknown reasons, Aoi hadn't dated any of them this year and Toshiya couldn't help but to elaborate various theories that would explain his friend's awkward behaviour.

"Hey, Toshiya-kun! Aoi-kun!"

Toshiya recognized the cheerful voice of Ayumu Sasaki (G-6). She had a red t-shirt caught between her fingers that she was shaking it in the air from one side to the other. "Sign here!" she announced as she was throwing a marker in Toshiya's direction.

Kyo instantly snapped out of sleep and caught the projectile before his friend had the opportunity to even make a single move. Toshiya stared at him in shock, with wide eyes and his mouth slightly opened.

Ayumu laughed for a split second, raising her eyebrow at Kyo who literally froze at the moment he became aware of the fact that his name hadn't been called.

"You want me to sign too, right?" he finally asked

"Yes. I just thought that you were still sleeping, Kyo-san." Ayumu replied with a shrug. She then dropped the t-shirt on Toshiya's lap and announced: "A souvenir of our trip to Tokyo."

While Kyo was writing and that the brunette was left with no other choice but to complain, almost twitching on his seat, Toshiya noticed Hanae Yamada (G-17) who had been standing right behind Ayumu since the beginning. She was quite undersized and had a round face with short brown hair tied into a ponytail. Toshiya couldn't recall ever having a decent conversation with her but he offered her a smile, nonetheless. She was usually tagging with Ayumu, Megu Sato (G-7) and Misaki Takahashi (G-10) who were three girls more voluble by far than she was.

"Hey, Toshiya! Stop moving! I'm trying to write" Kyo almost yelled.

"Then find a table or something!"

"We're in a bus, you dork"

"Calm down" Aoi sighed. "Are you writing a novel Kyo? Give me the marker"

Kyo did as he was asked to and the other boy signed his name rapidly before handing the pen to Toshiya who did the same.

"Thanks" Ayumu grabbed the t-shirt and bowed slightly before heading back for her seat, Hanae at her feet.

"I..." said Aoi, scratching the back of his neck with his hand while he was yawning. "I think that I'll leave. You look horrible Tochi. Try to get some sleep before we arrive."

He patted the top of Toshiya's head with his palm, biting his bottom lip not to laugh at the moment he stood up and proceeded to make his way back to his previous seat. Toshiya stretched on his chair, sighed and Kyo put his head once again on his shoulder.

"Goodnight, dork." he said unintelligibly, his eyes already closed.

Toshiya heaved a sigh. He was looking at Aoi's silhouette through half-closed eyelids. The young man had regained his initial place next to Miyavi and he looked like he was nodding at what his companion was saying.

"That mister how-is-the-weather looks more entertaining than me." he whispered to himself.

"I said goodnight" Kyo repeated louder.

"Yeah, goodnight"

The noise had dramatically decreased and rare were the student who were still awake. Toshiya even caught a grasp of the blond and disordered hair of Maya Masahito (B-16), the official hyperactive "clown" of the class. He had his head resting on the arm of his chair. The girl next to him, Chiasa Yoshida (G-19), his girlfriend -or that's what the majority of his classmates thought-, was sleeping in a similar position.

Close to them, in the area of the front of the bus, Tsukiko Amano (G-1) and Yui Inoue (G-2) were both asleep. They were best friends and it was unusual to see one of them without the other but Toshiya was surprised to observe that a few seats were separating them.

He was the last one to close his eyes and fall into a deep, dreamless sleep.

***

Toshiya was awoken from his uncomfortable slumber by a loud banging noise to his left. He tried to move, but Kyo, still unconscious, was slumped on his lap. It was impossible to tell how much time had passed, but the bus was completely dark. Toshiya was surprised to see that everybody, from his friend Aoi to Hiroto Ogata (B-5), who had eaten a full box of chocolate only few hours ago, were completely knocked out. Everybody? The heavy banging was still present. Toshiya looked around; trying to find the source of such noise, but a strong headache was making his vision more than a little blurry. Slowly, as to not disturb his friend, he put Kyo back in his own seat and got up, now free to scan the almost silent bus.

A few feet behind, he could see a figure hitting the plastic of the window almost frantically. He recognized the short blond hair of Reita Suzuki (B-10), as well as the tails of the strange headband the boy wore to hide his nose. Reita was a quiet, taciturn student who didn't get noticed much, and Toshiya was surprised to see the rage and panic on the usually calm face.

What is he doing...? What is happening?

What's that weird smell?

Hearing the sharp footsteps of heeled feet behind him, he turned around. The sudden movement blurred his vision again, but he saw clearly a uniform-clad woman with a gasmask waving a bludgeon rather close to his head.

His last thought before passing out for the second time on the hard floor of the bus was that Reita had finally stopped banging on the window.

[Remaining: 42]

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