Title: Endless Game

Genre: Angst, Friendship

Characters: Arashi

Summary:

What if Satoshi Ohno left Arashi?

Chapter Word Count: 1,497

~~~

Always being rushed, you’re about to break. Warning, that’s the moment when you get violent.

Papers, pencils, art materials, all scattered on the floor. Lying on the heap of crumpled papers on top of the table, a person’s hands were spread on it without moving as it covered his face. Holding onto a black ballpoint pen, the unfinished drawing on the paper was smudged with anger and frustration. The light that was filtered, passing through the tiny window, didn’t reach the corner where the person was.

Waking up from his sleep, he opened his eyes and cautiously scanned his surroundings as if it wasn’t his own place. Becoming conscious of what he was previously doing, he stretched his arms and legs and began to take a clean piece of paper and started to draw again. After a moment of dissatisfaction on his drawing, he angrily scratched the paper with the pen, crumpled it and threw it aside. He scratched his head, fuming at what he did and stood up.

A ring from his phone sounded in the silence. He took it and flipped it open. He looked at the screen to know who the caller was; it was not a recognized number but he answered it anyway. Nowadays, he didn’t care who it was. He always knew that it was a job and he couldn’t refuse anyhow. “Ohno Satoshi here,” he announced to the caller.

The voice at the end of the line was husky and authoritative. “Come to the office now. I’ll send the details through mail.”

And that was it. The caller ended the call and didn’t even introduce his name. Not that he cared as well. Satoshi the lights. He changed his clothes, not even bothering to washing. He knew that work didn’t wait. Everything has to be rushed.

 

At this rate, will you really be happy with how you are now?

Mornings were the worst. He never had any time for himself anymore. He was driven to work, though he easily gets frustrated with his art work these days.

He was able to have his own exhibit before and many catered to his art. They all said that they loved it and they bought a lot of his art works. However, now that he wasn’t famous anymore; now that he has left the boy band that he grew up with, his work got less and less and now, he was just scraping barely enough money to get by. He wasn’t happy but he had to work, right?

He walked in the busy streets of Tokyo and followed the address that was sent to him. He was to follow only the directions that were given to him, though he knew the fastest way to get to the office. Maybe they didn’t trust him enough was what he thought. He couldn’t care less. At this rate, he will be late and they might not allow him work there anyway.

 

I have a bad feeling and though it’s tiny, empty, and warped, but I can’t stop it. Impossible things all around; there’s no choice but to confront them.

He was stopped in an alley by four dark suited males. He couldn’t see their faces as they wore crazy masks, covering their faces. He halted and asked them, “Why?” And they just laughed at him. Their laugh was scary, crazed and deep. He formed his karate stance, trying to scare away the men but they laughed even louder.

They didn’t know how afraid he was. His knees were wobbly and jelly-like but he showed tenacity. He looked around to find something to fight with. His eyes caught an old baseball bat beside the aluminum trash bin. He immediately grabbed it and swung with all his might. He missed the man on his left but he was able to hurt the one next to him. Satoshi heard him howl in pain but as he was about swing again, his arms were held in place by the one who was bigger and somewhat stronger than the rest of them.

He felt a hard blow on his head. The last thing he knew, he was being dragged deeper into the alley until he lost consciousness.

 

My memory rewinds itself as the world becomes dim. What’s on the other side?

He woke up with pain on his head but as he was about to reach and touch it, he couldn’t.  His hands were tied to a pole. He screamed in terror, “What do you want from me?!”

There was no light to see where he was now. But when he shouted, the lights were opened and he could see that he was in a basement. A revolting screech sounded and his insides turned. He felt squeamish but he kept silent at that point. He thought that they might torture him if he continued to talk. Then, he heard footsteps coming near.

They were the men that he saw earlier. However, they were only three now. His sweat were like beads that were forming on his forehead as he saw that one of them was holding the bat that he used to hit them earlier. Are they going to hit me? What the did I do to them? He thought miserably. He couldn’t possibly have actual enemies out there, could he?

The shortest of the three was the one that was holding the bat and he was in a stance that was going to strike. He closed the gap between them and laughed. “Look at your face! You look like you’re about to cry!” Satoshi recognized that voice but he wasn’t sure. He didn’t want to think about his past. It will just make him miserable.

“Shut up!” the tallest shouted. “Ohno-san will just be angry at you later.”

Satoshi has an idea already who they were but he didn’t know why they were doing this to him. “Oy! Stop this already!”

“Why should we?” asked the shortest of the three. “Will you do what we want you to do if we stop this?”

“What do you want?!” Satoshi screamed, breathing heavily now. He could feel his insides burn in anger. He wanted to escape but he was tired to even move his body.

There was another pair of footsteps coming and they were four again. Satoshi had a bad feeling about this but he wasn’t sure if his thoughts were real. It was like a wild nightmare.

 

We should continue towards the conclusion even if we can’t see an answer there.

“Come back and sing again,” the newcomer said. He could recognize it as the voice that called him earlier.

Satoshi was dumbfounded with what the man had said. “How did you know that I sang before?”

“Oh, come on!” the tallest of them spoke.

“Why do you want me to sing again?” Satoshi asked. “I haven’t sung for two years!”

“Sho, let him be,” the other one spoke. Sho? Oh, my god! Arashi?

The shortest of the four poised again, this time it seemed like he was really going to hit him. As the man swung the bat in midway, Satoshi screamed at the top of his lungs, “Stop!  Nino, stop!”

He stopped but he was still holding the bat on his left hand. “How did you know?”

The one who was more silent took off his mask. “Oh-chan’s not that stupid.”

“Jun?”

“Yes, Ridda,” Jun answered.

The three followed Jun and took off their masks as well. Satoshi felt relieved with what he saw. Knowing that it was his past friends, and not some sick yakuza that wanted him dead for ransom, his body already relaxed.

“I’m not your leader anymore,” Satoshi said. “Stop calling me that anymore.”

Jun smirked. “On the other hand, Nino, continue.”

“You don’t have to tell me twice,” Nino noted as he poised as a batter again.

“Okay! Okay!” Satoshi screamed in resignation. “I’ll come back!”

“Nice work, Jun!” Masaki screamed in glee, jumping up and down, his hair bobbing.

“What about me? Didn’t I do anything?” Nino protested.

Sho released Satoshi on his binds and they all bowed and apologized to him. Satoshi relaxed his arms and sighed.

“Sorry,” Nino apologized. “Arashi didn’t feel the same without you.”

“But,” Satoshi asked, “What about Johnny-san?”

This time, Sho spoke. “We submitted our resignation letters. We told him that if,”

Jun cut Sho in mid sentence, “If you weren’t there, we wouldn’t be Arashi anymore and we would refuse all projects that will be given to us,”

“But because Johnny-san thought us important as well,” Nino continued, “he accepted our resolve.”

“That’s right,” Masaki agreed.

“But you didn’t have to result into violence,” Satoshi reprimanded them.

“Oh, yes we did,” Nino said merrily. “Or else you wouldn’t come back.”

They all laughed at Nino’s remark as they went to Masaki’s car and went to a bar that they went to frequently to cheer and announce their leader’s come back in the industry.

 

~~~

 

A/N:

This was a really tough one. I just read a fan fic that used music as her muse and used the lyrics to help her with the story. As I was watching AraFes ’13, I tried it also, thinking that it would help my writing. I hope that you liked this.

What do you think? Tell me your thoughts. :D

P.S.  I think Arashi would never be Arashi if one of them left. I love them all and I don’t think they would allow any of the members to leave.