#weird man who has been stuck in the formal military setting is now Slightly More Of A Cryptid | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

hopeaterart · 4 years ago

Note

How about the story of how Sadao and Holly met? Or their first date?

Oh, you’re gonna be happy: I already had something more or less written.

Holly nervously checked her watch, feet bouncing in impatience under the table. He should be here by now.

She had recently arranged an interview with the pianist of the Aotsugi, a japanese jazz band who had recently published their first original album. While the reception in their home country had been lukewarm, it had been an immediate hit in America, a good chunk of Europe, and North Africa. They had then gone on tour, and during said tour, a bunch of small scandals involving them happened, keeping them in the spotlight and ending with their agent getting arrested for possession of drugs. This city was pretty much the last they were giving a concert in.

The pianist was the only member who had miraculously avoided getting involved in any of the scandals. He was also the only one who had vehemently refused to give interviews. Until now, that is. After a lenghty phone discussion with a raspy man's voice, her in a phone both and hi on the hotel's reception phone that had (thankfully) let her contact him through them, Holly Joestar, upcoming journalist who wished to not involve herself in tabloids, had succeeded in getting an interview with Sadao Kujo, the pianist of Aotsugi.

Even if right now, she felt like a teenager that's just been stood up.

"Uh, lady?" Holly turned, startling the short man behind her. Long black hair in a low ponytail, cigarette at his lips, military cap, heavy trench coat… it was him.

"Oh! You must be mister Kujo!" Holly said, eyes twinkling. The short man snorted.

"Yeah, and you must be the journalist who claim she's actually interested in our music." He answered, sitting down. "I hope this won't be a waste of my time…"

"Don't worry, I already have my questions prepared, you are free to refuse answering if they make you uncomfortable, and I am planning on getting this published in an actual music journal, not in some column of a celebrity gossip magazine. We also agreed over the phone that I was not to publish this until after this tour was finished. It's not due to a breach of contract, but due to not wanting to accidently cause yet another scandal this late in the tour." Sadao nodded, apparently impressed with what Holly considered to be common decency.

"At least, I know I'm not dealing with a paparazzi… let me go get some coffee, and then we can start."

"Alright, so…" Holly started, opening her notebook and starting the recorder. "Let's start with an introduction: who you are, and what your role in the band is."

"Okay. Name's Kujo Sadao, and I'm the pianist and principal song writer of Aotsugi, a japanese jazz band. I'm also the only member of the band that doesn't lend in their vocals for any song." The man explained. Holly nodded, writing a few notes before going onto the next question.

"I'm warning you now, I may ask some questions I didn't plan earlier: so, why don't you back up the vocals?"

"It's 'cause my voice is scratchy as hell from all the cigarettes I smoke." He answered with a shrug. Holly nodded.

"Where did the name of your band come from?"

"Oh god, you really are interested in what we're doing- it's a pun on kintsugi, the practice of repair in objects with golden lacque with the idea that the object has become more beautiful after getting broken through it's repairs." Sadao started explaining, his tone somehow conveying more appreciation despite not changing. "'Kin' means gold, and 'Ao' means blue. As in 'blues', which is appropriate since our songs can get pretty sad. Basically, we were damaged, but we're healing through our music, and we're better off for it."

"Oh!" Holly exclaimed. "I didn't realize just how deep the meaning was!"

"It's a pun."

"But it's a deep pun. Who's idea was it?"

"Shouko, our guitarist and main vocals. She's also a former J-Pop idol, so she's got some expertise in word play."

"I see. Now, what is the main inspirations for your songs?"

Sadao whistled. "I won't go into details, but my fucked up childhood is up there. We all try to contribute with our own experiences, so there's also the flaws of the idol industries for Shouko, the screwed up juridicial system Kaede's parents experienced in her teens, Yuichi's general hatred of discrimination, stuff like that."

"Oh! So, you're an activist band?"

"Kind of. We take the things that hurt us, break them down, and use the parts to fight back in our own way." Holly nodded, fascinated. And to think most people were only interested in what scandals they were involved in! This was far more interesting, and nobler, too.

"Alright! Is there a reason why some songs have a different feel than others?"

"Oh! That's actually pretty simple: depending on what subject we're singing about, we also try changing sub-genre." Sadao explained. "For example, songs about my childhood, which is most of them, are composed to have a blues feel to them, but the ones about Yuichi's anger are more punk. The ones about the pop industries are mixed with, well, pop, which can be noticed in the beat, and juridicial system gets a good dose of smooth- I’m talking about smooth jazz."

Harry nodded, taking a few more notes. "So, depending on who the song is about, you change genres?"

"Sub-genres. We're still jazz musicians, and we're all from Japan. This affects how we play. We just like having some diversity in our music." Sadao explained.

"Oh! So, Japan has a large jazz scene?" A nod from the short man. Holly's face lit up at the new tidbit of knowledge. "I didn't know that! Could you please tell me more?"

Sadao truly smiled for the first time that evening. "I'd love to, but maybe another time?"

"Oh right! We're in the middle of something. Sorry about that, I can be fairly scatterbrained." Harry apologized, Sadao nodding in acceptance of her apology. "Now, back to the interview! How did the band start out?"

"Okay, how do I put this without making it sound like we're all crackheads…" Sadao muttered, not noticing that Harry heard until he chuckled nervously. "We're not! But uh… it's a weird story…"

"I can deal with weird." Harry reassured. Sadao hummed, but shook his head.

"If you say so, but there's already weird stories about us because of all the scandals, and I don't want to add to the dumpster fire." Holly nodded in understanding as Sadao went back to thinking. "We met in a bar." He said suddenly. "Shouko's career was going downhill like most idols after the few first months, Kaede had been thrown out of her house by her boyfriend, Yuichi's career as a garage band's drummer was going downhill, and I was actually a waiter off my shift. After a few drinks and gathering around the pool table, we bitched about our respective problems for four hours, and got thrown out. Well, fired in my case. We decided to just crash at the capsule hotel three streets corner away. About a month and a lot of bullshit later, the band was formed. Our first album was actually a cover one, mainly of love songs. It basically compiled everything we played as gigs. Our second one, Kiri no Hansha, is our first original album. It means 'Foggy reflection', by the way."

Holly 'oooh'-ed. "So you all have different origins. How did you all start out? In the realm of music, I mean."

"Errrr… I was part of the music club at my school consistently and all of that stuck, Kaede actually used to work in orchestras, Yuichi was part of a garage band, and I already mentioned several times that Shouko used be an idol. I don't know for the others, but I also had an obsession with jazz music when I was younger."

"Oh! I really want to ask you about it, now." Holly whined, Sadao snorting in answer.

"I'd be glad to tell you in a less… formal setting." The short man re-assured, smiling when Holly visibly lit up. "What's the next question?"

"Alright! There's only three left, and one of them is kind of linked to the scandals, but it doesn't really concern your group, alright?" Sadao nodded in understanding. "What are your future plans?"

"We're finishing the tour with our current agency -it should correspond to when our contract ends- then we're taking a break from everything, and we start on our next album. I can't say much about it, but we're planning on doing something more uniform this time around. We've also been invited to play at a few events in the coming months, so we're gonna be doing that while working on the next album. I can also say that we're not planning to split anytime soon." Sadao said in a matter of fact tone, taking a sip of of her coffee before pulling a face. "I shouldn't have let it cool."

Harry snorted, before going onto the next question, of which she slightly changed the wording on the paper. "So you are planning on changing agency? Is it because of what happened with your agent?"

"Oh, we were planning on finding another agency long before our agent turned out to have drugs." He snarled. "Beside the fact that he's an over-controlling asshole, our current agency is also the idol agency that exploited Shouko, threw her out, and then forced her to come back due by using her contract when we started working independently. We only accepted so we could rise in our career faster, and we're not pretty little things to put in a magazine." A wolfish grin appeared on her face. "And they don't have any rights over our music either, since Yuichi argued for our contract that the songs we sing belong to who wrote them. And since our first album- it's just called Aotsugi Covers- is a cover album, and I pretty much wrote the entirety of Kiri no Hansha…" Sadao trailed off with a smile. "Get fucked, Ai records. Please don't put that in the interview, they don't even know I'm doing this." Holly snorted.

"Don't worry! I keep my promises: this won't get published until your group finishes it's tour. Now, last question: how do you feel about the overwhelmingly positive reception to your music?"

"Great! We all do. Meeting our fans was a blast." Sadao admitted, a bright smile stretching his features. "Felt good to be appreciated."

"O-oh…" Harry said, his attitude dropping. He shut the recorder as Sanae raised an eyebrow.

"Is that it?"

"Yes. I'm finished asking you questions about the band…" Harry said, averting his eyes from Sadao. She then raised her head. "So, about our next meeting- no!" A strong windows just made his notebook fly away from the table and in the middle of the streets. The blonde woman was about to get out of his chair to fetch it, but Sadao was out in an instant, jumping in the street. Thankfully, the streets was empty as the notebook landed, the short man bending over to pick it up.

And then, a car turned out of nowhere and hit him full-on as he was getting back up, sending him flying a few meters away.

"Oh god!" Holly screamed, jumping into the streets to make sure Sadao was alright. The shorter man groaned as Holly came near him, the driver of the car also getting out to yell at him.

"Hey! What the hell's your problem-"

"What the hell is YOUR problem!? You hit this man with your car!" Holly angry retorted as she helped Sadao get up.

"Don't worry, Joestar-San, wouldn't be the first time that happens." Holly turned toward Sanae with a semi-confused, semi-surprised expression.

"Wha-"

Crunch

"...One of my leg is broken." Sadao suddenly said. He then started falling down as blood visibly started appearing on his pants. "Yeah, my leg's broken." He then landed on his knees with another crack. "Call an ambulance." He then fell to the ground, and started screaming.

"OH MY GOD-"

"You got hit by a car. Again."

"Shut up, Kaede."

"It wasn't even as big as the one from last time, how the fuck did it break your leg?"

"I said shut up." Sadao told his band mate, who put her hands in the air. It had been a few days after the incident. He hadn't remembered much after he fell down, mainly a few minutes of screaming, Joestar-san trying to calm him down, the ambulance coming in, getting into the ambulance alone, and he then blacked out from pain. When he woke up, his leg was in a cast and she was high as a kite on morphins.

He would have to play the piano in a wheelchair for their last concert of the tour, which had been postponned. Thankfully, the theater had found a spot where they would be able to play next week instead of this Friday, and everyone who had bought a ticket had been offered a refund or a ticket for the new date, depending on what they wanted. The spot left vacant had instead been taken by an impro team. Guess they're gonna put those impro skill to play.

"Yeah, Kaede. Leave Sadao alone." Yuichi snapped. The constantly angry guy then turned her attention to the pianist. "You're sure you're gonna be alright for the concert?"

"Yuichi, it won't be the first time I'm either high as shit or in extreme pain at a concert." Sadao deadpanned. "I thought our concerts in London and Manhattan proved that."

"How the hell no one notices the bullshit you get into is beyond me." Shouko muttered from the chair she was sitting in.

"It's because everyone else was focused on the bullshit you got into during those concerts." Yuichi snapped again. Shouko frowned at him.

"At least, I never went in a holding cell."

"Guys, it's fine. Stop fighting. The reason why I don't get caught when I start bullshitting is because I make sure I don't get caught." Sadao said. "Also, I've been at it for longer than you guys. Been doing this since I was seven so my parents would go easy on me. Also, believe it or not, but Ichiryu was onto something when he said we should all probably go to therapy. So I don't feel the need to do stupid shit in my past-time. I have other coping mechanisms, now."

"Uh-uh. Does Kaname-san knows it was your idea to frame our agent, or…?"

"I am under no obligation to answer to that question." Sadao robotically answered Shouko, who sighed in exasperation. "But yeah guys, don't worry. I'll be fine for the concert."

"That's good to know." Kaede noted. Someone then knocked at the door. "Come in!" A blond caucasian woman entered. Sadao sat up as straight as his current position allowed her.

"Joestar-san?"

"Hi, mister Kujo!" The blond woman answered as she got in the room, holding a huge bouquet of flowers. "I just wanted to come and check if you were alright?"

"Oh, yeah. Don't worry." Sadao answered. "Guys, this is Holly Joestar, aka the only journalists who gives a shit about what we do." All of his band mates proceeded to turn toward her, introducing themselves and thanking her for taking the time to learn more about them.

Harry simply thanked them for letting him ask questions, before fully turning toward Sadao. "I got flowers for you right here-" She put the bouquet on a table that was close-by "-and wanted to know if next Wednesday was alright for my jazz history lesson? Or is it too soo?"

Sadao’s face lit up as much as it could in his drugged state. "No, next Wednesday is fine! By the way, we have a concert in two weeks, and Shouko has free tickets on her. If you're interested, you could come?"

"Oh, I would love to!" Harry said. After a short exchange with the singer, the blonde man was given a ticket and left the room with one last goodbye. All the members sighed in something that was not quite exhaustion, but close to it.

"God, that girl is like, our complete opposite." Kaede commented.

"Yeah, I can't believe I'm gonna sleep with her." Sadao commented. All movement in the room stopped. The three other members of Aotsugi then turned toward him with confused faces.

"You- you don't have to." Shouko said after a pregnant silence. Sadao shook his head in answer, baffling his bandmates even further.

"No, I'm gonna."

1 note · View note