From Blue To Green

Kaga Tomohisa, known as Tomo by friends and fans alike, was not
having one of his better days. Or one of his better weeks. In fact, the whole
month had been kind of a shit storm, between recording issues, a major
mess with the band's banking, and pressure from the boss. They had staff
for a reason ... except Tomo had fired half the people working with them
over the course of the month for gross incompetence, negligence, or just
plain irritating the shit out of him. Hence the growling from Masaki to get
his shit together, he supposed. But this latest mess to land in his lap, so to
speak, really was the last straw.
Patient in spite of his anger, Tomo waited and watched Junpei as he
finished recording the vocal tracks for their next single. Junpei and Masaki
had been friends since middle school and when Tomo took the job as
Vertis's drummer and leader, he had thought he had known what he had
been getting himself into. Junpei had insisted from the start that leading a
band wasn't his strength and that much was certainly true. Hadn't once
stopped the ass from constantly questioning Tomo's decisions, undermining
his authority in front of their kouhai, and generally being a next level
asshole. To say nothing of being a scandal magnet.
“All right, thank you everyone for your hard work!” Junpei announced
with a loud clap of his hands.
Surprised, Tomo glanced at their engineer and though Kenichi didn't
say anything, Tomo was starting to recognize that look. Yup, he was done
with this bullshit.
“Jun-san, got a minute?” he asked as the singer came into the booth to
collect his things.
“Hmm, I can give you five,” the blond said, checking his watch, “but
you should probably talk quickly. Places to be.”
Tomo made sure sound booth was empty before locking the outer door
and then leaning against it.
“This girl you've been seeing,” he started, but Junpei was already
scowling at him.
“Really, Kaga-kun, I see a lot of girls. My private life really isn't any
of your business.”
“Is it true that you got Erina-chan pregnant?”
 “I doubt it,” the blond said, tucking a strand of hair behind his ear.
“She's a band girl, Kaga-kun, you know what they're like. If she says I got
her pregnant, well, I might believe she got pregnant, but I doubt it's mine.”
“Actually, she says not only did you get her pregnant, but that you paid
her to make it go away. Someone made a substantial withdrawal from the
band's account last month, one I didn't authorize, and yet somehow has my
seal,” Tomo said, crossing his arms over his chest mostly to keep from
punching Junpei in the mouth.
“... I'd be very careful what you imply, Kaga-san,” Junpei said stiffly,
trying to pull himself up taller. Tomo had the height advantage, however,
and he wasn't about to be intimidated by this loser any longer.
“You think you can just do whatever you want, to hell with the
consequences, isn't that right?” he countered.
“I think Vertis wouldn't even exist without me,” Junpei said,
stubbornly crossing his own arms. “I think you would be smart to
remember that before you go shooting off your mouth.”
“When you go to Masaki-senpai later, be sure you tell him I gave you a
chance to be honest with me and you blew me off,” Tomo said. “You're
fired, give me your keys.”
“You can't –.”
“You hired me to be the band's leader, so I'm being the band's leader.
Sakamoto Junpei, you are dismissed from Vertis, effective immediately.
Give me your keys. Right now, or I'm calling Security.”
Junpei hesitated a moment, then dug out his keys and separated off the
ones for the studio and the band's storage unit.
“We'll see what Masaki-kun has to say about all this,” Junpei muttered
as he slapped the keys into Tomo's outstretched hand.
Tomo didn't even bother with a response, turning his back on the
egotist. He had already warned their boss that he might have to release
Junpei; if Masaki decided to take Junpei's side, threaten to cancel Vertis's
contract or whatever, well, Tomo had a few ways of dealing with that. It
wouldn't look good for anyone if he had to admit the reason Junpei was
leaving was because of improper use of funds to pay for a girl's abortion.

Predictably, Masaki was thoroughly displeased with Tomo's actions,

angry enough to actually come to Tomo's apartment that evening.
“When you said Vertis was having issues, I wasn't expecting you to
actually fire Jun-kun. What the hell were you even thinking??”
 “I was thinking that I had already given him too many second
chances,” Tomo said, offering his boss a beer before sitting down with his
own drink. “I was thinking Nagai-san deserves better. I was particularly
thinking that if she decides to go public with this, it could ruin more than
just the band. Especially if she got around the rules by saying she had been
raped. She's only seventeen, Boss, and angry with Jun-san's broken
promises.”
“You don't even know that she's telling the truth!” Masaki growled,
abandoning his beer to start pacing the lounge.
“Jun-san didn't deny sleeping with her. And I have the withdrawal
from the bank account that I absolutely did not approve. I already talked to
the bank about it, security footage shows Jun-san going in with the
withdrawal slip. I won't work with a thief, senpai, and I won't work with
someone who lies to my face. You put me in charge of Vertis back then. I
have to put Vertis first and that means releasing Jun-san. If this means the
end of Vertis, then so be it.”
Masaki stopped his pacing to narrow his eyes at Tomo.
“You're completely serious about this.”
“I told the bank I would deal with the problem without pressing
charges, but that's as much to protect Vertis as it is a courtesy to Jun-san.
He stole fifty thousand yen, boss, and I'm not even demanding he pay it
back if he'll keep his mouth shut and agree to say he's leaving the band due
to musical differences.”
“... meaning if I do let Vertis go right now, I'll be the one stuck with
your bills,” Masaki muttered, sitting back down on Tomo's couch. “All
right, fine. Did he at least finish the single before you fired him?”
“I have a meeting with Ken-tan in the morning, we should be able to
salvage what he recorded into a good enough single. I'll post the
announcement of his departure in the morning and put out a quiet call for a
new frontman after that.”
“Send me a copy of your release before you post it. I'll make a transfer
into the band account to cover the missing funds so you can pay your bills
on time.”
“Boss, you don't have to do that....”
“Bills have to be paid. I'm sure you'll earn it back for me and then
some if I keep you on the label. It's less than what firing the lot of you
would cost me anyway,” the older man said with a loose shrug.
“We won't let you down.”
“I know you won't,” Masaki said with a thin smile that somehow felt
ominous. “But you have until the end of the week to find a replacement
vocalist or we're going to have to take a serious look at canceling tour
dates. I don't want that and neither do you.”
“I've got contacts,” Tomo said. “And if we have to, Kazu-kun will lend
us Shige-kun while we settle things.”
“I'm sure he would, but I'd rather not go that route,” Masaki grumbled.
“Fans might start to think it should be permanent.”
“There's always bandmen looking for work,” Tomo said, shrugging.
“I'm sure we'll find someone quickly enough.”
“End of the week!” Masaki repeated as he started for the door.
As soon as his boss was gone, Tomo got back on his computer. Out of
work vocalists weren't quite as common as out of work guitarists, but he
could still ask around, see who was looking for another chance. Or a first
chance? With lives coming up so soon, he wasn't sure a raw rookie was
really what they wanted. Then again, Junpei's established persona had been
at the root of several of their problems with him. Maybe younger was the
way to go.

Tomo hated turning in anything less than their best work, but Junpei
had forces his hand. He and Kenichi had done the best they could with
what they'd had, maybe when the fans heard it they would stop being so
tetchy about Junpei leaving the band.
As it was, despite the mini-tour having been intended to support the
single, Tomo and Fuuma had already scrapped the original set list, building
a new one from across all four years Vertis had been together. A few subtle
posts on social media had given them a good look at which of their songs
the fans most missed hearing, it had been easy enough to build from that.
“Coffee?” Fuuma murmured, settling a familiar paper cup in front of
Tomo. “Caramel macchiato, extra whip, just the way you like it.”
“Thanks,” he said softly, sighing and scrubbing his face with one hand.
“You're early. By a couple hours.”
“You're interviewing singers this morning, yeah?”
“Trying to,” Tomo agreed, scowling at the clock again. Already twenty
minutes late. Didn't bode well for this next interview.
“So let me help, Boss,” the bassist teased, flashing him a cheerful grin.
“I know you're the band leader, but you don't have to do everything
yourself, you know? Never have, never will.”
“You help me plenty already,” he said, unable to resist that smile. Or
the lure of coffee. Fuuma knew him so well, though he couldn't really feel
any surprise at that anymore.
 “Sorry, sorry, sorry, I'm here, sorry. Some idiot stepped in front of my
connecting train, I had to hop two different buses to get down here, so
sorry for my lateness.”
Tomo gave the panting man currently doubled over in front of his table
an assessing look. Early twenties, jeans, shoulder-length black hair, silver
jewelry including a handful of piercings. He certainly looked the part, from
what Tomo could see so far.
“And you are?” Fuuma asked.
“Sorry, sorry,” the guy apologized again, bowing especially low before
straightening and pulling his hair back into a sloppy tail. “Fujimori Jin,
stage name of Takahisa, previously of ... no bands worth mentioning,
actually. Um, pleasure to meet you both, please treat me well, senpai.”
“Takahisa-san, hmm?” Fuuma said, trading a look with Tomo. “All
right, well, suicides do happen, usually at the worst times. Let's get to know
each other a little bit, yeah?”
Tomo sat back and let Fuuma take the lead. Maybe it was just wistful
desperation, but something about this kid ... if he could impress Fuuma,
maybe they would be okay yet.