From left to right: Haruka Tomatsu, Minako Kotobuki, Ayahi Takagaki and Aki Toyosaki.

Sphere, the Japanese Idol group that features Aki Toyosaki who voices Yui and Minako Kotobuki who voices Tsumugi in K-ON! Joining them are Haruka Tomatsu—Plays Ai Hidaka on The Idolmaster and Ayahi Takagaki.—plays Chris Yukine on Symphogear. Voice actors, Idols, and very popular in Japan; I have to admit that they sound good. My personal preference are bands who write their own songs, play their own instruments and such, but sometimes there is quite a lot of enjoyment in watching singers; I’d say check them out, Amazon is a start, however, CD Japan.com is a better option—there is also Ebay.

Last time on K-ON!!!!! “Beautiful World” the girls gather for their first great performance at the Natsu Rock Fest, now; they perform to a huge crowd and the contest which will either grant them stardom or failure is at hand, in:

K-ON!!!!! “Beautiful World” Part 9.

Mio started with ‘Don’t Say Lazy’ a very heavy rock song that kicked up the crowd to the point where more people had ventured into the Blue Court to hear the music of the unknown ‘Hokago Tea Time.’

Tsumugi used a black Korg Keytar which allowed her to be at the front half of the line up near Yui and Mio. She looked beautiful to the eyes of everyone looking upon her. Mugi’s bleached long hair and her gentle smile filled the hearts of the audience as Yui rocked out in rhythm using the Fender Mustang as though she always had and Mio singing with such power that the audience could feel chills as more and more people came from other stages to hear the new band.

Ritsu was playing her drums masterfully, at a professional level, she didn’t rush anymore and kept the beat stable as she and Mio matched each other; she smiled with her long brown hair in twin tails that whipped around as she went for power using her arms as clubs against the skin of the monsters before her.

It was Nao who brought new life to the old song that Mio wrote in high school; her Roland was able to add tones that were never thought to be used on the rocking tune with words that didn’t match the music. Everything was light and fluffy with ‘Hokago Tea Time’ and if that was the case, Nao wanted to enhance the music to get a reaction from the crowd regardless of Mio’s line ‘I broke a nail and fixed it with glue—and being proud of herself for doing so.’

When the song came to an end, there were roars from the crowd, and Sumire could hear it from the booth in which she worked. She smiled knowing that their chances of winning the contest the next day were going up a few points—and hopefully will continue to rise with every song performed.

As the girls traded off the vocals for each song and Miho traded off guitars for her mother they were nearing the first cover song, so Nao called out to the crowd as Miho handed her the Roland in exchange for the SG, “Anyone here from the States!” She said in English—cheers erupted which gave Nao a positive message, she continued; “Well, now, then here is Don Henley for you, ‘Boys of Summer’ I promise not to butcher it!”

There were screams in the crowd as Nao began the beginning tune and started into the song with the rest of the girls playing along. Nao performed the song carefully, she wanted to keep the emotion more than anything in her voice—she was basically replacing the male vocals with female. So many people took this song and they ruined it, changing the lyrics for the worse and just saying the words without any feeling. Nao refused to do that to a classic song, she just wanted to perform it, even if it was the same with her singing it. The reaction from the crowd was very positive and that made it worth while.

‘Hokago Tea Time’ was ten songs in and the sun had gone down; there were spot lights and stage lights illuminating the grounds and the girls forced in banter to create a short break—they needed rest, but they couldn’t. The girls looked out to the large crowd and saw that so many were holding different colored glow sticks in the night shaking them with their cheers. Upon an instrument switch, Miho had told Nao that Sumire had contacted her and said that they were getting massive sales between songs. Tsumugi had put a lot of Yen into merchandise including a huge order of CD’s and a great number of shirts; as for the key chains and necklaces, they too were selling through and Sumire was opening new boxes that she had set behind the stand—it was becoming overwhelming, but they had to continue.

Ritsu was starting to get exhausted and Yui’s stamina was falling too. Mio and Tsumugi were holding up, but both Nao and Mio needed a break from singing, it was putting a strain on them going continuously. The girls continued with ‘Fuwa Fuwa Time’ in a duet of Mio and Nao, followed by Nao performing ‘My love is a Stapler.’

Fifteen songs in, Nao called out to the crowd again in English, “Anyone out there from England!” The response was louder than her call out for the States. “’Want’ by ‘The Cure’ and no, I won’t be butchering it either, I promise.

Once again with the Roland G-707 and the opening guitar riff, Nao was performing the same song, just with female vocals, same emotion, same power and Nao handled it perfectly, she moved center stage carefully swapping positions with Mio who took presence by Nao’s work station, she could hear a reverb coming from Nao’s headphones which were laying on the table. Nao held her Ebow and Mio stomped pedal 6 on the GR-700 synthesizer at her feet changing Nao’s guitar to take the sound of a string instrument and she played the guitar with the electronic bow reproducing the string solo.

Mio knew the exact moment to release the action of pedal 6 and Nao returned to her pick still holding the small bow in her hand—she was truly the best of them all, the skill that Nao possessed was brought on from near endless practice. She looked out into the audience as she finished up and Nao could see the girls of ‘Love Crysis’ and looked at Maki who was smiling—Nao knew that Maki loved watching her perform, she was always so impressed and engrossed by Nao’s great skill. When the song ended, the crowd was screaming in the night as Nao fell to her knees and sat on her legs, she was exhausted, but they weren’t done yet. Mio and Yui came to Nao to help her up and Nao returned to her position and picked up her headphones and put them on; thankfully it was a break for both Mio and Nao because Yui was actually going to do a song, she was going to sing ‘U&I,’ the song she wrote for her sister Ui. Yui and Mio changed positions and Nao depressed a few pedals on her synthesizer and loosened her fingers quickly moving them about. She was going to play the song without a pick this time.

Nao and Mio smiled as Yui sung her song, they really wanted Yui to sing again, there was no reason for her not to. She played second fiddle to Nao, but enjoyed being rhythm; even Yui knew she couldn’t lead with Nao’s skill.

The girls continued to play until late into the night, the crowd grew larger and larger and the cheers became louder and louder. ‘Gang of Girls’ had finally appeared and cheered their friends on and finally, after the longest show they have ever performed, they were done. However, they would be remembered well for the contest and no one could deny that ‘Hokago Tea Time’ was a band to take notice of.

*****

Nao sat on the edge of the stage with about thirty people gathered around as Miho’s head lay on her mothers lap and Nao held her Gibson SG in a strange position as she played softly for the small group that wanted to hear the new star of the Natsu Rock Fest. Nao was playing many songs from others and even some of her own, she was just playing randomly, after all, she couldn’t move, Miho was on top of her and she wanted her little girl to sleep. It was after three in the morning and Nao had been playing and singing in a daze for a few hours with people listening; she was so exhausted, but it didn’t matter, she would keep going for the success of ‘HTT.’

Finally, Ritsu came across the stage and stopped next to Nao and said, “That’s enough, its time to go to bed, you need rest.”

“I can rest after we go platinum Tainaka-San, Ritchan, Ritsu, Ritsuko…Next up…’Dust in the Wind…’” Nao said with her eyes half open.

“Don’t you dare play that song, ever, never play it Nao.” Ritsu said firmly, she knew that song symbolized their failures and would never hear it again. Ritsu finally killed the power to Nao’s amp and said out to the small crowd, “I’m sorry, but Nao-Chan and her daughter need to go beddy-bye, as you can see she wants to perform for all of you, but she is still human, so sooner or later her batteries will die and I can’t carry her!” Ritsu grinned to the crowd who clapped their hands and called in unison—‘go to bed, go to bed, go to bed!’

Ritsu collected Nao’s equipment that remained and helped both Miho and Nao to their feet and with the guitar and amp in hand she took Nao and Miho to an awaiting golf cart where the driver would take them to the hotel at the edge of the grounds. The small group of people cheered and Nao waved to them and tried to smile.

“You look like Tomoko in Watamote Naoko, you need to rest and your teenage daughter shouldn’t be up and out this late,” Ritsu said as they boarded the golf cart.

“What? I have bags under my eyes, dark circles?” Nao mumbled. “It’s your fault I’m not popular…let me get my hand held massager…” Nao said in a daze.

Ritsu covered Nao’s mouth with her hand after noticing Miho giggle and said, “Not in front of your daughter who’s the same age as the Anime character, that is just a bad idea and I’m the one who everyone calls immature! I know you are tired Nao, so just be quiet and rest, we’ll be at the hotel soon. Good job, you really gave everything for the band and for all of us, we are going to win the contest tomorrow…of course, the surprise is, there is a J-Pop group in the rock contest… ‘Sphere’ and then it turns out that the other unknown is Hikaru Utada—your hero…”

“Then, I guess we lost…or we can take down Utada, Toyosaki, Maki and Akira and be number one. I didn’t kill myself for nothing today, we will win, nothing will stop us, we are ‘Hokago Tea Time’ and we are number one,” Nao replied.

“I hope you’re right Nao-Chan…” Ritsu said.

*****

“Now with the knowledge of our full competition, we need to choose the song that will wipe them all out…and yes, I mean all of them,” Nao said as she looked at Miho under the covers of her hotel bed, she was sleeping soundly even over the conversation with all of the girls gathered.

“You look like such a geek with that on Nao-Chan,” Ritsu said referring to the headgear attached to Nao’s braces. Mio didn’t waste any time correcting Ritsu by knocking her on the head and saying, “If you make a comment like that again, you’ll need it too!”

“It’s ok, I’m used to the metal mouth jokes and I don’t think Ritsu means it, she just likes it when you hit her Mio, I think she loves you and wants to be in a submissive relationship with you where you hit her all the time,” Nao said in return.

Ritsu’s cheeks were bright red and she said, “I’m not like that, I’m sorry for what I said, please don’t say that about me again, I made a mistake; you actually look cute.”

“See Mio, I told you Tainaka-San was like me, I’d fondle her and kiss her right now, but I don’t want to do it with my little girl around,” Nao said still sounding serious.

“Nooooooo! I’m not into that!” Ritsu cried.

“Yes, I know, but I had to embarrass you for making fun of me while I’m trying to plan our strategy for the contest,” Nao said.

Ritsu became quiet and looked down and Nao continued; “In order to defeat the top four acts in front of us, we should probably sing our swan song…”

“Swan song! But we’ll bleed from our eyes and mouths and turn to dust!” Ritsu suddenly said excited.

“This isn’t ‘Symphogear’ do you think this is an Anime—Mio, you live with her, why do you let her watch so much!?” Nao said a bit flustered.

“I can hit her again if you want Nao-Chan?” Mio replied.

“No, if Ritsu gets brain damage before the show, we won’t have a drummer, besides, I think she’ll like it too much…” Nao replied.

Ritsu once again blushed and looked down, this time however, Yui had comforted her and told her to be quiet so Nao could finish.

“Anyhow, our swan song, the one that takes every amount of skill we have; vocal power, and a lot of stage presence. ‘Una Ju, Hold the Tofu!’ Written by me with Mio, Yui and Tsumugi; we all know it, the lyrics, the music, and I remember when we played it in our practice, it was exhausting, however, we just need to perform one song and that will be our judgment. We already know that Utada is going to perform a song that is five minutes or longer with either guitar or piano. We know what both ‘Love Crysis’ and ‘Gang of Girls’ are capable of and finally, we have to face ‘Sphere’ which already has the music handled for them, but their popularity and stage presence will almost ensure a win—I don’t know why a singing group is in this contest, but I don’t think we were ever supposed to enter. So, regardless of that, are we all decided on the swan song?” Nao said.

“I’m in; any song about food is a masterpiece anyhow!” Yui said.

“We should have written a song about yakisoba…but I’m in, I think it’ll bring the others a tasty defeat!” Tsumugi said.

Mio nodded and so did Ritsu, it was going to be ‘Una Ju, Hold the Tofu!’ or bust!

“OK, its decided, we should prepare our instruments for performance, replace everything for optimum sound, no matter what it takes, we’ll win or drop trying, we are last because we are the new band and they aren’t handing out awards for that, so let’s show them what ‘Hokago Tea Time’ is about—oh…and we are wearing the maid outfits; Miss Yamanaka altered them for us…for sex appeal; I don’t know if that is something that I feel is necessary for us at our age, but I think that every bit counts…plus its going to be hot today, so it’ll be comparable to the outfits we wore yesterday except more tea time like. Come now, let’s get ready,” Nao said.

*****

As slippery as a snake,
Never in a clam bake,
I want U-na Juuuuuuu!

Add some teriyaki,
Please don’t go by me,
I want U-na Juuuuuuuu!

Pile on the rice,
Give me all the spice,
It’s the adventure of my life,
Eel on rice—Una Ju!

Give me una ju, hold the tofu!

Give me Una Ju, hold the tofu!

I want, U-na Juuuuuuuu!

Una…Ju….Una…ju….

Let me serve your table,
Give you a hot towel;
Clean your hands, clean your face,
We’re here to serve you—start you off with tea…

Oh master—mistress you got it on your collar!

Holler, holler!

I want U-na Juuuuuuuu!

Sushi hot,
Sashimi cold,
Have it in a roll

NO! A BOWL!

Eel on top,
Rice on the bottom,
Pour on the teriyaki!

I want U-na Juuuuuuuuu!

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me!” Sumire yelled and ‘Hokago Tea Time’ stopped their practice.

“What’s wrong Sumi-Chan?” Mugi asked concerned.

“You guys think you can win a contest with that? That’s your swan song? You are all playing heavy rock to the stupidest lyrics I ever heard; this isn’t high school…damn it! Do ‘Singing,’ you didn’t perform it last night, its Mio’s greatest song, why aren’t any of you thinking! What the hell is wrong with all of you?!” Sumire screamed causing people to take notice out on the festival grounds.

“Don’t use those words around Miho, Sumire; this is what we do, songs about marshmallows and rice, curry and honey sweet tea, I don’t understand why you have such a huge resentment; we are doing fine, you are our manager, but we are the band, we decide what we perform,” Nao replied.

“And its that kind of thinking that is going to have four established acts wipe the floor with all of you—you all look like sluts in those maid outfits—you should be wearing school uniforms; you are after school tea time, not a bunch of maids—that might have worked when you were fifteen, but it wont now, you need to be better prepared, the contest is in a few hours…now, things are going to be different. Mio, you are the lead singer, you will perform ‘Singing’ in its full version; and I have matching attire for you all to wear which you will. Nao, the headphones stay off when you are in front of a microphone, I don’t want people to think that you are getting the lyrics fed to you through them. Take up your SG; you don’t need the synthesizer to perform this song. Let’s go, off the stage and to the hotel room. Let’s go, NOW!” Sumire said sternly.

Nao unhooked her Roland and computer and packed it up with the help of Miho and all the girls took a transport to the hotel where they followed Sumire’s instructions. Nao quickly replaced the strings of her Gibson SG and tuned it and then returned it to its case, she then joined the others as they were getting dressed in matching outfits which consisted of proper school uniforms with short color coded pleated skirts and sweaters with an ‘HTT’ patch on the left breast side. Sumire reworked everyone’s hair and make-up and made sure they were all presentable.

“I expect you all to give it everything you got at the contest, we aren’t going to be playing stupid games anymore—I want all of you to succeed more than any of you seem to…so, do everything I tell you to and don’t question me. Each of you are a specific personality, Mio is the shy one, Ritsu the tomboy, Mugi the glamour, Yui the fun one and Nao the smart one…” Sumire was cut off by Nao who said, “We aren’t an Idol group, we are a rock band and you know that, what has gotten into you Sumire?”

“You guys can go up against ‘Gang of Girls’ and ‘Love Crysis’ without a problem, its ‘Sphere’ and Hikaru Utada who are going to take you apart—fun is fun, you all performed for like seven hours last night and Nao played for over two afterwards, we sold out boxes worth of goods and have just a few more and we will be able to show something for our effort—if you want to call the ‘eel song’ your swan song, you are right, you’ll be killed by it and turned to dust and become a waste, that’s something you use when you don’t have anything riding on your future. You will enter the stage, bow and take up your instruments; Mio will introduce all of you. Nao and Yui are on back-up vocals, Mugi and Ritsu will focus on their performance of the music. Mio, you may break free from your bass when you feel it’s necessary to give more power to your vocals, and in the end, we’ll win first place and everything will change for the better—its time for our slice of life to return and this is how it’s getting done; does everyone understand?” Sumire said.

The group answered that they did and followed Sumire back to the stage. Miho stayed close to Nao who had become quiet, some leader she turned out to be…

The contest had now begun with ‘Love Crysis’ starting, followed by ‘Gang of Girls’ and then ‘Sphere.’ Hikaru Utada finished and ‘Hokago Tea Time’ was now up. Nao looked at Utada with admiration and suddenly said, “I love you Utada-San, I…I…you got me through a difficult time, your music is the best!”

Utada passed Nao and smiled whispering good luck to her. Sumire stopped the girls and quickly said, I’m sorry, I really am…I’m sorry for the way I’ve been acting, saying such horrible things around Miho, for sounding like I wasn’t a friend, a wife, a sister. I just want you all to be successful, nothing more, you can do it, just do your best out there.”

The girls nodded, but were unsure, but they would follow Sumire’s instructions. With their instruments already set up on the Fire Stage, the girls were introduced and came out in a line with Mio in the middle, Nao on the right and Yui on the left with Tsumugi next to Yui and Ritsu next to Nao. The girls folded their hands and bowed at the same time then after straightening they retrieved their instruments and Mio began, “Hello, we are ‘Hokago Tea Time’ I’d like to introduce our members. On rhythm guitar is Yui Hirasawa!” Yui said her piece and Mio continued to introduce everyone, each said a piece and gave thanks and then Mio introduced the song, “And now, we present to you, ‘Singing!’”

Nao started in on the guitar riffs as Mio joined with the bass and then the rest began as the heavy rock tune of probably Mio’s greatest song began; she thought that Nao would be ruined after this no matter what place they took in the contest, but when Mio looked over to Nao she saw a bright, braces-laced smile towards her little girl, Miho was cheering the loudest and Mio understood as she began the lyrics…

Our now flows by, riding on the wind
It can make it to any country, any world
We’re overcome with joy from hearing our melody’s first cry
Dawn turns to dusk in our little every day

You can’t give lies in front of your best friends
Don’t just brake as you please

Let’s go even without a road, the notes we let go are our map!
The beats pound out an oath in our hearts
Yes, We Go! Yes, We Play!

The sweat dripping from our foreheads and fingertips
It can turn into any color, even a rainbow
A racing but slowing rhythm, passes us by but collides with us
It’s our ordinary, but once-in-a-lifetime stage

Things like cuts won’t hurt us, a smile taught us
That courage is limitless

Even though it has no name, let’s sing this song, it’s the wings of the dream we painted
together
If we meet eye-to-eye, we’ll convey that feeling
Yes, We Fly! Yes, We Sing!

The moment, the moment is, ah, unstoppably coming to an end
The end can go on, so the beginning can too
So we’ll believe in the future

Let’s go even without a road, the place we set off together is our road!
The beats pound out an oath in our hearts
Yes, We Go! Yes, We Fly! Yes, We Play!
Always and forever… Yes, We are Singing NOW!

They had played this song a million times it felt like, in the clubs and got a great reception, but this was insane, the huge crowd was screaming and going crazy; would they win the contest? Maybe performing silly fluff songs was just too immature now at their age and Sumire was right, would they have received the same roar of the crowd doing the ‘eel song’ as she called it?

The girls bowed and left the stage to return with the other acts. They all stood in a line close to one another, Yui and Tsumugi stood close to ‘Sphere’s’ Aki Toyosaki and Minako Kotobuki and they looked at each other for a moment with smiles on their faces, Yui noticed Aki’s Yaeba or single fang-looking tooth on the left of her smile and said to her, “I want a Yaeba just like yours that’s so cool!” Aki smiled her reply as she touched the implant with her pointer finger and winked to Yui’s amusement.

The emcee began naming the winners of the contest. Fifth place sadly went to ‘Love Crysis’ which Nao somewhat felt it was punishment for ‘everything,’ it was a horrible thought, but something deep down made her want to take the win away from them as much as possible, even if they were forth, it was better than losing to ‘LC.’
Forth place was actually taken by ‘Gang of Girls’ and Akira—although disappointed—began cheering for the tea time girls to go all the way.

Third place was announced to ‘Sphere’ to everyone’s surprise—why?

Sumire could feel it, with her direction, she gave the girls the win, it was over, Utada would take second and ‘Hokago Tea Time’ would be the winners!

The emcee spoke up, “Second place in the battle goes to…’Hokago Tea Time’ the newcomers who made a name for themselves, you all should feel proud…and that makes Hikaru Utada the winner!”

A shock ran through Sumire’s body…they should have won, her planning, it was perfect…’HTT’ defeated three major acts; they should have won against the soloist, why?

The camera crews from the news and entertainment channels crowded Utada, but after a few brief words, she said to them that they should be talking to the newcomer ‘HTT’ and find out more about them, it wasn’t every day that an unknown band would take second against stars.

As Sumire went to apologize to the girls, she stopped dead in her tracks as the camera crews and reporters crowded ‘Hokago Tea Time’ and bombarded them with questions that Nao and Tsumugi quickly handled at the start, with Ritsu and Yui coming in after seeing the comfort level and Mio hid behind Ritsu as she always did, yet she was the one that they wanted to talk with.

As the big name acts stood in the outskirts of the stage watching the unknown ‘Hokago Tea Time’ entering stardom they could simply smile at them and wish them success. Sumire and Miho stood to the side and watched as everyone’s lives would change from here on in.

Next time on K-ON!!!!! “Beautiful World” ‘Hokago Tea Time’ experiences fame and a new beginning. Each member gets their spotlight on stage in part 10. Be here next Thursday!

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