[Shaman King] Twin Stars * chapter 2: testing for talent

[lucathia]

Title: Twin Stars
Chapters: 2/?

Author: lucathia_rykatu
Series: Shaman King
Genre: General / Romance
Characters: (main) Hao, Yoh, Anna, Jeanne, Ren (side) Horo Horo, Tamao, Faust, Pirika, Ryu, Lyserg, Marco, Ryu, Manta, Nichrome, Opacho, and others
Disclaimer: Shaman King is not mine.
Archive: livejournal / ffnet

Summary: A child of the streets, Hao is awarded a chance to earn some money.  The catch?  Crossdressing.  AU world of singers and idols.  Throw in Yoh who is oblivious to Hao's existence, Anna and Jeanne who are competing for the top spot in popularity, and Ren who somehow thinks that Hao would be a good edition to his fan-girl base. Eventual romance.

(prompt #96: writer's choice: newcomer)

-----chapter 2: testing for talent-----

 

“Anna-sama! Wait!”

 

The young yet popular singer didn’t stop walking, but she did slow down somewhat, allowing the pink-haired girl to catch up with her.

 

“What is it, Tamao?” asked Anna when the other girl’s steps finally matched up with hers.

 

“Um...Manager Ryu asked me to give this to you.”

 

Anna took the piece of paper that Tamao was holding.

 

“What’s this?  Schedule change?” asked Anna with her eyebrows raised.  She quickly glanced over her new schedule, noticing that her free time slot was now taken.  A recording from another time slot had been moved there.

 

Tamao nodded.  “Yeah...we were going to reserve the recording room at the first time that we marked down on your schedule, but when I went to do that...it was already taken.”  Tamao lowered her head, her hands clasped in front of her.  “I’m sorry!”

 

Anna waved her hand, dismissing Tamao’s apology.

 

“If only I had tried to reserve the room sooner-” babbled Tamao uncertainly.

 

“Who reserved the room before us?”  The blond-haired girl, even though she didn’t need Tamao’s apology, wasn’t about to let the subject drop altogether yet.  She narrowed her eyes at her schedule.

 

It was almost bound to be the X-Laws.  They were always getting in her way.  Their lead singer, Iron Maiden Jeanne was such a hypocrite.  That girl-

 

“Um...I think it’s Bones Entertainment?” replied Tamao.

 

Anna raised her eyebrow.  Bones Entertainment?  That was unexpected...to say the least.  After all, the last time she heard of the company, it was about them going out of business.  Had they finally found someone to promote after all?  She smirked, turning around.

 

It wasn’t like they were going to affect her much.

 

“Anna-sama, watch out!”

 

Despite Tamao’s warning, all Anna saw was dark brown hair before she got knocked over.

 

“Oh my gosh, Anna-sama, are you all right?”  Tamao quickly knelt down next to her.

 

Anna blinked hard before she opened her eyes to glare at whoever had the dare to run into her.

 

She was greeted by the sight of a girl who appeared to be the same age as her.  Her long, dark brown hair was pulled into two ponytails with black ribbon.  Her lengthy bangs hid most of her face, but Anna could still see how red it was.  Anna’s eyes flickered over the girl’s clothing, growing skeptical when she saw the silky black dress that the girl wore and the pair of devil wings on the girl’s back. Not to mention the tail that was sprouting from behind the girl.

 

The girl either didn’t see Anna’s glare, after all, her bangs were covering her eyes, or she chose to ignore it.  She quickly stood up, smoothed out her dress, mumbled a hard-to-hear apology, and began speeding past Anna and Tamao.

 

When the girl reached turned the corner, Anna could hear someone talking to her.

 

“Hao, did you get lost?”

 

“No...someone ran into me.”

 

Anna fumed.  She ran into that girl?  Wasn’t it the other way around.  Nevertheless, Anna let the matter drop as she stood up, refusing to take Tamao’s helping hand.

 

So that girl’s name was Hao.

 

Wasn’t that more of a guy’s name?

 

She shrugged to her own question, thinking that the girl’s parents must have been really cruel to give her such a name.  She instead focused her thoughts on the girl’s voice.

 

Even from the few words that she heard from the girl, Anna could tell that the girl’s voice sounded like a young boy’s alto.  A normal person would probably start wondering that maybe it wasn’t a coincidence that the girl had a boy’s name, but all Anna was thinking at the moment was that the girl’s voice was a very peculiar voice, one that would bound to be very popular.

 

She had to cross out her previous thought of Bones Entertainment having nothing on her.

 

She was going to have some fierce competition from now on.

 

-----0-----

 

Hao felt his face warm up as he tried to fix his ponytails.  When Faust had mentioned the image of a “devil” for him, he had thought that it wouldn’t be that bad.  After all, being the devil meant that he would look “evil” right? 

 

Apparently, that was the opposite of what Faust and that damn stylist Pirika had in mind.

 

When Hao was presented with the mirror, all he could think was...

 

What the hell?

 

If it wasn’t because he was trying to act somewhat lady-like, he would have swore out loud.

 

He had donned the silky black dress with wide, multi-layered sleeves without protest.  He was fine with that.  There was nothing much he could do about that. 

 

But...but what in the world did they do with his hair?

 

Unable to wrench his eyes from the mirror, he reached a hand towards the two bouncy ponytails that were tied with frilly, black ribbons.

 

“Um...Faust...I thought my image was supposed to be of the ‘devil?’” asked Hao finally, unable to fathom his outlandish appearance. Why was his hair tied up with ribbons?? RIBBONS?

 

Pirika giggled loudly.  “It is!”

 

He felt like turning around and glaring at her.  Since when did he ask her?  But, he still couldn’t take his eyes away from the horrible sight.

 

Hao stared harder at the mirror.  He didn’t see how his image was any way devil-like!

 

The bubbly blue-haired girl then pointed to the black wings that were sprouting from his back.

 

Oh.  So that was it...

 

What!

 

That freaking pair of wings was supposed to make him look like a devil?

 

“Don’t forget that you have a tail to go with the outfit!” added Pirika happily.  “You make a very cute devil!”

 

The girl laughed as she seemed to bounce out of the room.

 

“Now off to my next victim, oh, I mean customer!  Man, I wish Oniichan actually had to appear on screen...then I could dress him up as well!”

 

Hao was still shocked.

 

So he wasn’t supposed to be an evil devil...but a CUTE one?

Seriously...what kind of mess did he get himself into?

 

But anyway, that was all in the past now that he was in the recording room.  Faust handed him the lyrics to Kyoyama Anna’s song, “Oversoul.”  Hao just stared at it, not reaching out to take them from Faust since he was wondering why Faust was giving those lyrics to him.  Faust answered without Hao having to voice his question.

 

“Since you don’t have any songs yourself yet, I want you to try singing this song.  I need to hear your singing voice first,” explained Faust.

 

Hao nodded, his two damn ponytails bouncing around, thumping him on the back.  He took the lyrics from Faust’s hand and glanced over it quickly, saying the words quietly to himself.

 

The head of the orphanage hadn’t liked people singing, so he had no idea how his singing voice would sound.  When he sang the song softly to himself, he was surprised at the control he had over his voice.  His voice didn’t sound bad either.

Faust, it seemed, was very pleased that his intuition about Hao’s talents had been correct.

 

-----to be continued-----

 

Next up: “My name is Ha--wait, never mind, please call me Ha-chan.”

Comments

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[lucathia]

Yay, friend! :) Thanks~