The original post of the overture had some terrible French errors [though very authenthic J-rock-type French errors... ^.^;;]. Luckily, MadHatter-san kindly emailed me an analysis of the stage-names and Zeynel-san emailed to correct some grammar and word misusage, and the situation was more or less a little salvaged. ^.^;; There're still a couple of mistakes, but they're either left in on purpose, or not too important... At this point, I'd really have to say - Thank you very much, MadHatter-san and Zeynel-san! I'm eternally grateful to you! And very sorry for mangling French. ^.^;;

This fic series is inspired by Ye^llow-san's challenge involving a rockstar and a violinist. ^.^;; I hope it won't disappoint! This whole series is one tough bastard. >.< I'm really quite punishing unto myself. All language references, music references, and location references are deeply researched. I haven't been able to sleep properly in a while now. ^.^;;

Technical Notes : This part is the prologue.

Switchblade Senritsu | Trembling Shin Seiki
by Djinn

Overture

Akasaka Blitz, one minute from the 3A exit of Akasaka Station, Akasaka, Minato-Ku. Designed for an audience of, at most, 1944, the concert hall was an excellent venue for off-peak rock concerts. The acoustics were manageable, the lighting above average, in the very least functional. Most of the best rock bands in Japan had run a tourstop or two in it, and people kept coming back for more.

Tonight, it held close to 2000.

"Misére Bénie!"

The cry echoed off the walls, echoed off the speakers, the floodlights. It bounced off the ceilings, around the first floor, where the masses stood, around the second, where the slightly richer sat. It swelled, grew, tore at the air in its urgency, its frenzy.

It was like a tidal wave from God.

Mitsui Hisashi peered through the velvet curtains from the skillfully hidden backstage alcove, tapping out a light riff with his loosely-clasped drumsticks.

"They’re calling for us," he smiled, true delight in his voice despite the sardonic tone, "Doesn’t that sound absolutely fucking wonderful?"

"Absolutely." Sendoh grinned, brandishing the gleaming guitar in his hands, "I can barely believe we got this far. We’ve been really lucky."

He paused significantly before he cast a lazy eye over to the heart of the band.

"Ne. Kenji?"

"It has nothing to do with luck."

He didn’t bother to return the glance. His face was as cold as his words.

Sendoh shrugged, smiled. He hadn’t expected anything more from their leader.

"Fujima-san’s absolutely right!" Koshino paced in, fire in his lines, though his hands were wringing themselves nervously, "Sendoh-san! Luck has nothing to do with it -"

"Yamete, yamete! I didn’t mean it that way, Hiro-chan."

Their manager turned an unhealthy puce.

"SENDOH-SAN!!! DON’T CALL ME THAT!!!"

"Hai, hai, manager-san." The guitarist laughed, gestured, rolled his eyes. Koshino sighed.

"Either way, luck has nothing to do with it! It was all about hard work! You lot have been the hardest band I’ve ever worked with - especially you, Sendoh-san!"

"Iie." The singer’s single dropped word silenced them all. He finally rose, turned to face them, eyes shadowed. "It has nothing to do with luck. It has everything to do with me."

He stepped out into the dim light now, a confident smirk on his face. Behind the make-up, the glitter, the leather trappings, pure arrogance shone like lava.

And he had the reality to sanction it.

Wringing his hands again in the corner, Koshino lowered his eyes.

But it was only a delicate murmur. All eyes were trained on this man, with the face of an angel, and the heart of a beast.

"All very well and good," Maki’s hard voice broke the spell, as he, too, rose, striding towards the stage with his bass guitar in hand, "but we have a concert to play. Now if you please?"

"Misére Bénie!!!"

The cry escalated into a roar, almost a keening wail as shadowy figures took their places on the stage. The lights played a frenetic dance across the entire hall as the announcer’s voice ripped through the tumult like a beacon.

"...I present to you Beni Misère!! Drums - Brulant! Bass - Écueil! Guitar - Désir! And vocals - L'Ange Déchu!!!"

The keening wail burst into a frantic scream.

Fujima Kenji descended into the depths of mortal existence, hell and heaven in his mind.

to be continued...

Coming up next : Track 1. Yuuen na Stranger
Emotions run wild as two different worlds collide!

Er. Well. I don’t really have anything to say about this, except that it’s $%#$ hard to write. >.< Authenticity is harder to manage than it looks. On to the footnotes :

Translations/Explanations :

Switchblade Senritsu - Switchblade 'Melody' I wanted to convey hidden danger, a wild feeling, thus 'switchblade'. 'Senritsu' was to tie it to the music theme [and I like the word. :]].

Trembling Shin Seki - Trembling 'New Era' The arc name [there're at least three arcs planned, but I think I'll leave the other two for much >much< later. ^.^;;] is a reflection of the changes some characters will be going through.

Akasaka Blitz - It's a real concert hall in Akasaka, Minato-Ku. I had to do a lot of research to find Akasaka Blitz. The reason for it's specificity will become apparent in Track 1. ^.^;;

Misére Bénie - 'Blessed Misery' French. It's [noun][adjective]. Beni Misère is the band name. I was thinking about suitable visual J-rock band names, and realised that there was a french-leading pattern. ^.^;; Crossed-ref'ed several Fdict.s before finding something suitable and grammatically sound.

Brulant - 'Burning' French. [Verb] Mitsui's stage name. A reference to his 'burning' play. [As the subtitles put it. ^.^;;]

Écueil - 'Rock' French. [Masculine noun] Maki's stage name.

Désir - 'Desire' French. [Masculine noun] Sendoh's stage name. No comments. ^.^;;

L'Ange Déchu - 'The Fallen Angel' French. [Masculine noun][Adjective] Fujima's stage name. Tied in to the band name, among other imagery.