Fangirl Invasion 2 – Chapter Four

Story Title: Fangirl Invasion 2
Chapter: 4
Author: tashiichaan
Type: Short Story
Genre: Crack fangirl humour, ENCORE XD
Chapter length: 3,081 words
Banner designed by: tashiichaan
Summary: The new year’s approaching, and Arashi is given a few days off to prepare themselves for the upcoming Johnny’s Countdown. However, as far as they’re concerned, their relaxing days are about to be interrupted by the return of three very, very familiar girls.
Note: I’m so sorry for the impossible chapter length – I think I might have written this while high on Sho sex XD Okay here’re a few things I’d like to point out for this chapter:
1) The portrayal of the Countdown in this chapter is the exact events of the Johnny’s Countdown 2007-08, details and all.
2) For a clearer visual imagination of the story, here’s the picture of the stage, and here’s the circled seatings of the characters.
3) During Arashi’s introduction (after their ‘Happiness’ performance), I couldn’t quite catch what Sho rambled, so I only wrote in the front and the end part of his sentence xD
4) I got a feeling this is quite a boring chapter, because there isn’t much that’s exciting. But I’ll let you decide after you read. And enjoy! <3

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Fangirl Invasion 2
Chapter Four

If you hadn’t looked closely, you’d think there was a rather colourful stampede at the car park and entrance area of the Tokyo Dome. It was as if an important football match was ongoing, except the crowd didn’t consist of men. Among them, there were dyed curls, fancy skirts, knee-high leather boots, squealing little boys, and they were all unashamed to show to the entire world the banners they carried and the fans they brandished called uchiwa with pretty boys’ pictures printed on them. And no straight-thinking hormonally-induced male would be caught dead among the flailing women who also called themselves fangirls.

Because it was the night of New Year’s Eve, and Tokyo Dome was the venue for the Johnny’s Countdown. Not a good place for any mindless insults to the Johnny’s boys tonight, or a painful death was ascertained.

In the middle of the crowd, Pairu stood rather rigid among the flurry of rabid fangirls and without moving her head, she cast her eyes around her and warily analysed the sorts of women she was surrounded by. There was a rather large group of KAT-TUN fangirls who looked pretty fanatic, judging by the number of uchiwa they were jiggling around and the messages they wrote on banners, and they dressed and looked just like KAT-TUN, too. A few metres from them, a few Kanjani8 fangirls were busy trying to form the words ‘関ジャニ∞ 愛してるよ!’ with penlights conjoining and plastered on a white cardboard. And behind them, she caught one unsuspecting TOKIO fangirl hiding a camera inside the curve of her shirt.

“This is going to be a vicious battle of the fangirls…” Pairu gulped, carefully holding onto her Sho uchiwa very possessively to her chest.

“PAIRUUUUUUU! WHAT’RE YOU DOING STANDING THERE ALOOOONE?”

Pairu grunted in annoyance when Reiji pounced on her from behind. She shrugged the hyperactive girl off of her and glared at her, pointing her uchiwa accusingly at her. “Waiting for you while you went attacking the uchiwa vendor, of course.”

“It’s your own fault you’re broke and could only afford a Sho uchiwa,” Reiji teased, and waved her uchiwa proudly. Not one, not two, but three of them: Matsujun, Ohno, and Nino. And in her other hand, she clutched a white material, and judging by the number of times it was folded, it would open to be a REALLY big banner.

“I swear, I tried to stop her but she kept flinging paint at me,” Sakura sighed, shaking her head in disappointing failure.

Tashii, who was at the back of the group, was eyeing the KAT-TUN fangirls while gripping onto Sakura’s arm, and then said to her in such relief, “Sakura-chan, thank god you’re normal, you don’t wear crazy emo clothes and your hair hasn’t exploded in a case of failed rainbow dye.”

“Is that supposed to mean something?” Sakura wondered aloud with narrowed eyes.

“…you know I love you no matter what,” Tashii merely replied with a cheeky grin, fanning Sakura with her Aiba and Sho uchiwas in a gesture to calm down Sakura’s imaginary fumes. She turned to the rest and asked, “Everyone ready?”

“YESSSSSS!” Reiji squealed, and without another word she scrambled past them and towards the gathering crowd at the entrance.

“She didn’t touch anything alcoholic, contains caffeine and or sugar, did she?” Pairu asked suspiciously as they followed in Reiji’s evident trail.

“Maybe Matsumoto-san’s denial drove her mad?” Sakura suggested darkly.

With Reiji at the front of the group, they queued up at Entrance 8 to wait for security check. They stifled their cruel giggles when an unsuspecting fangirl lining up in front of them was caught with a Sony Cybershot camera in her bag. She was relieved of her camera which would only be collected at the end of the show, and she was then sent into the stadium in dejection.

“We’re friends with her,” Tashii said to the security guard, pointing to the very-Japanese Sakura among the non-Japanese group. Sakura nodded, even though they all knew full well she wasn’t even in the Arashi fanclub.

The guard, who looked as if anyone plunging themselves into the rainbow world of pretty boys and idols (a.k.a. fangirl obsession) should get shot, checked their tickets very carefully that they swore he was probably even scanning his laser eyes for thumbprints. He then clipped them briskly and returned them to the girls, and requested (no, ordered) to look through their bags.

“Too bad we’re not allowed cameras,” Pairu said sadly as the guard rummaged through her handbag. He glanced confusedly at a notebook that was scribbled completely in Malay, to which Pairu sneered.

“Oh we’re not at loss on that part,” Tashii replied, giving them a very mischievous grin that could only tell them she was up to no good.

“You’re free to go, enjoy the concert!” the guard wished them monotonously and already turned his grim face to the next in line.

“What do you meaaaaan, Tashii-chan?!” Reiji asked in a high-pitched voice, bouncing over to Tashii’s side and begging her for the secret.

Tashii turned around to her friends with the most triumphant and smug expression. “Well, I’ve hid it in my skirt.”

Everyone instinctively set their eyes onto the teal bubble skirt she wore and stared in mortification. For a incomprehensible reason, each and everyone of them started imagining a very, very wrong image in their heads.

“Ohmigod, how do you hold it between your legs?!” Reiji demanded, in an excited tone that meant she was more fascinated than horrified.

“Reiji, don’t be nasty!” Tashii scolded in mock offence. She clutched onto the hem of her bubble skirt and was about to lift it up when Pairu panicked and stopped her midway.

“ARE YOU MAAAAD?! D’YOU KNOW YOU COULD GET KICKED OUT FOR THAT?!” she half-yelled in horror.

Tashii looked at her friend in confusion. “Whaat? I’m not trying to be obscene, even though it’d definitely attract some attention,” she reasoned with a mild, perverted smile. Smacking Pairu’s hands off, she pulled up her skirt to reveal skin-tight shorts inside. The side pocket of the shorts was bulging slightly, in the shape of a rectangular object.

“It’s rather ingenious, if I might say so,” Tashii bragged with a smirk as she pulled out said object to reveal a camera.

Sakura marvelled at what was indeed an ingenious cover-up. “Your pervy brain does have its function after all.”

Tashii wordlessly dropped her skirt back down with an expression that spelled out ‘I know I’m smart” and hooked her arm around a near-fainting-with-relief Pairu. “Let’s go find our seats!” she announced, and proceeded to lead them to the main hall.

The stadium had set up a theta-shaped stage that lit with undivided attention from the stage lights. Cameras took up almost every metre of the perimeter of the stage, followed by the neverending rows of seats that were slowly being occupied. From afar, the people at the other end of the stadium could easily fit a metaphor of busy ants, zigzagging around seats to interact with acquaintances or to search for their seats. Crew members were frantic with last-minute adjustments, and guards patrolled around to control the crowd. It was noisy; very, very noisy, but the atmosphere was filled with an incredible sense of anticipation and speechless awe that it felt as if their knees could’ve weakened just by the exuded air they felt. Excited chills ran down their skin as the four girls descended the stairs closer and closer towards the stage that was to unveil their greatest dream ever to come.

“Sugoi…” Tashii breathed.

“Row 26… Row 26…” Pairu recited to herself as she stood literally on her toes, scanning the vast, crowded area before them for their designated seats. The flat ground which previously served as a football field had been replaced with cemented ground and a flood of makeshift folding chairs. They were divided into several clusters of seats that were separated by fences and a 7m-wide track. The cheaper seats were to the side of the stadium, on different levels. But of course, the girls didn’t have to face the torture of bringing binoculars.

“Twenty-six rows from the stage, or from the back?” Sakura asked just as they crossed the track.

“Not like my uncle actually showed me a map of the stadium, but I’m guessing we’re sitting over there.”

Everyone followed the target of Pairu’s pointing finger: it was in the second cluster of seats away from the stage. On a happy note, their seats were situated at a spot with a very comfortable view of anyone passing on the west side of the stage. On the downside, they would have to fight for views that would be blocked by jumping fangirls and waving hands. Thanks, flat surface.

The four of them edged themselves into the row, passing fangirls cautiously and finally found reaching the four vacated seats with their numbers on it awaiting them. They received stares by their neighbours, mostly by Reiji’s very-much-un-Asian features and Tashii and Pairu’s exuberant bickering in a combination of English and Malay about the prejudice of their unimportant seats considering the strings they pulled with Pairu’s relation with her (distant) uncle.

“Ladies and gentlemen, please return to your seats. The Countdown will be starting shortly, thank you,” a deep, faceless voice announced, bellowing out and echoing around the stadium.

Tashii and Pairu stopped arguing. “Oh my god,” Tashii gasped. She stared at Pairu with widened eyes, but Pairu finished her sentence for her.

“THAT’S SHO-CHAN!”

They both shrieked very loudly and hugged each other in uncontained excitement. Not as if it was an eyesore of a sight, because the crowd had screamed along at Sho’s voice and it was deafening. But the screams definitely grew louder and higher-pitched, when Arashi stepped out from backstage to take their positions in the middle.

“Aaaaaaah I see Jun-kun! JUN-KUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUN!” Reiji wailed, jumping on her toes with a hand cupped around her mouth, the other waving madly in the air. “What the – Jun-kun what in the heavens are you wearing?!” Reiji demanded out loud before she went into fits of hysterical laughter; because Jun was wearing glasses that were dark-rimmed, thick and huge and possibly stolen from his grandmother.

“TOKYO DOME ARE YOU READY TO KICK OFF?!” Jun yelled into his microphone.

The crowd answered him with energetic cheers and deafening ‘yeaaaah’s!’. Tashii and Pairu and Sakura, who got infected with the escalating exhilaration in the atmosphere, couldn’t contain their excitement any longer and joined Reiji jumping up and down, waving their uchiwa and screaming. Jun scanned the crowd in a suave manner and his eyes stopped at a noticeable European woman who was of course Reiji, and he grinned and waved.

MATSUMOTO JUN WAS ACTUALLY ACKNOWLEDGING HIS WORST KNOWN FEAR.

“Kyaaaaaaaaah Matsujun smiled at me!” A fangirl, from the row behind the girls, squealed and did a fake bout of delighted fainting, and her friends snorted into giggles.

Reiji looked murderous. But of course Sakura had to quickly point out that Ohno was looking their way, and she forgot her murder plot and returned to squealing almost immediately. But KinKi Kids was already starting the opening performance and hence Arashi headed backstage.

“Oh no, Sho-chan please don’t go,” Tashii pleaded pitifully.

But nevertheless, they endured the performance (not like they hate them, but just that they love and only love Arashi and anything of hearts and rainbows of that fandom?) and of course Arashi bounced back onto stage singing ‘Happiness’ and all hell broke loose. As proof, Pairu almost knocked off her chair when she bolted up from her seat and went completely mad the instant she heard, ‘Hashiri dase!’, and Reiji was practically vibrating her three uchiwas vigorously in the air, you’d be amazed by the strength of her arm muscles and her lung capacity when it came to shrieking.

“Konbanwa! Arashi desu yoroshiku onegaishimaaaasu!” Sho bellowed as the song ended, and Arashi’s polite bows were met with agreeing screams.

Sakura had a sudden jolt of an idea in her head and turned to Reiji, “Reiji-chan, do you think Arashi will introduce -”

“NEWS!” Jun announced.

Pairu’s sudden outburst of a high-pitched scream could pierce their eardrums, literally. She joined the many adoring squeals of “Yamapi!” as NEWS strode down the aisle adorned in arresting red and singing the chorus of ‘Hoshi wo Mezashite’.

“RYOOOOOOOOOOO!” Tashii hollered oh-so-lovingly, and went into a string of incoherent yells just before Sho introduced TOKIO.

Sakura leaned over Reiji’s tall frame and sighed at the flailing duo. “Don’t you think this is getting -”

“OKADAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!”

V6 appeared on the stage and Tashii and Pairu were already going into a never-returning frenzy of squeals and pointing at Okada, while jumping and holding onto each other for support, all at once. It was a surprise they haven’t lost their voice yet, and Sakura was about to point that out very crudely when Tackey and Tsubasa was announced.

“TAKKIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!”

“There’s no going back to sanity!” Sakura cried out, shaking her head madly with her hands clutched onto her cheeks.

But Sho went on to call out the next band – “KAT-TUN!”

“KYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!” Sakura screamed, totally forgetting her misery and had crossed into the realm of fangirl insanity, by throwing her hands up in the air and waving them vigorously as she shrieked along.

“There has to be one more band…” Tashii murmured to herself, with a distinct hollow in her voice thanks to the two-minute length of hollering. She ignored it and started cheering again when the last band, Kanjani8 walked out singing their exuberant ‘It’s My Soul’ song, all dressed in white costumes except for Ryo who was such a contrast in red.

“Oh dear, this is such a paradise…” Reiji gasped in delight, her grin broadening as she scanned the Johnny’s boys gathering at the enjoining stage in the middle and waving to the fans heartily.

“My heart!” Tashii croaked dramatically, and pretended to faint onto Reiji’s shoulder. And Reiji could hardly stand on her own without jumping on the balls of her feet madly.

Just then, someone tapped on Reiji’s shoulder and inquired out loud, “Ano… could you bend a little? You’re too tall and I can’t see!”

Puzzled by the English-speaking voice, the girls spun around and were met with an annoyed gaze from the girl sitting directly behind Reiji. The fangirl who had previously assumed Jun was waving at them and took liberty of that. Reiji realised this and gave her a rather cold stare.

“I’m so sorry, but that’s not possible. I won’t have a chance to enjoy the show myself, y’know,” Reiji answered coolly.

“What about me? Don’t I need to enjoy it too?!” she squeaked.

The girl next to her stretched her hand out in front of the irritated girl to hold her back, and bowed apologetically to Reiji. “I’m so sorry for my friend’s rudeness! She just hasn’t got enough love from her favourite boys. Nika,” she turned to the shorter girl sternly, “I’ll switch place with you, alright?”

“Suraya, just forget it. Not like she can grow 10 centimetres higher for just one night,” her friend on Nika’s left remarked with a smirk.

The girl named Nika, who was glowering at Reiji now, threw a dirty look at said friend, who was slightly shorter than Reiji. Yet, enough to make Nika appear like a dwarf. In fact, Nika appeared to be shorter than both her friends, and it was a rather amusing sight. “Mai, you’re such a bully. You’re enjoying this aren’t you?! WHY TELL ME WHY!”

“Because I can look over the head of this very nice girl in front of me,” Mai retorted with a huge grin, jabbing a friendly thumb at Sakura, “and I’m feeling particularly selfish today, so I’m not giving up my seat. Nika doesn’t seem to have a problem either.”

The other friend on Nika’s right, whom Mai called Suraya, smiled sympathetically and suggested, “Well… there’s always the option of standing on the chair…”

Mai shook her head in disagreement. “No, the security guards would whisk her out for obstructing other people’s views. But smart idea, at least we won’t have to hear her whine.”

Suraya nodded with an devilish grin and they both stifled their sniggers. Nika pouted and crossed her arms in a dejected manner. “I knew I should’ve worn platform shoes, or brought a wooden crate or a mini stool.”

“Or inherit good genes,” Reiji suggested cheekily. Nika scowled at her.

“Despite the shortness, you know you’re still about 20 meters away from the real deal,” Suraya exclaimed chirpily, patting Nika’s back, “THE REAL ARASHI IN THE FLESH!”

“Aaah!” Tashii suddenly exclaimed, causing everyone to stare at her in confusion. Tashii gestured at the Arashi uchiwas Suraya, Nika and Mai were clutching and beamed at them. “Fellow Arashi fangirls!”

Reiji nudged Tashii in the ribs and hissed softly, “Why’re you being so friendly with the enemy! She took the spotlight away from my Jun-kun’s smile! THINK ABOUT THE SMILE!”

In blinding tears and a stabbing pain in her sides, Tashii avenged herself by elbowing Reiji back and she doubled over in pain. So right now both Tashii and Reiji were crouching over their seats, grabbing their sides tightly with their faces contorted in a lot of pain.

“Both of you should really behave,” Pairu reprimanded sternly, and then turned to the three girls they’d just gotten to know with a warm smile, “I’m Pairu, by the way. Yoroshiku!”

KAT-TUN’s, ‘Real Face’ blared into the stadium and KAT-TUN began the first performance of the year 2007 Johnny’s hits, and Sakura had already launched herself into a lethal combination of flailing and shrieking, and completely dazed with her eyes glued onto the six men on the stage that ignorance was very much blissful. Towards her friends, that was.

“Well, isn’t this going to be an interesting New Year?” Mai commented as cheerfully as though noting the fine weather outside, “and with more Arashi fangirls to celebrate with! Not too bad considering we’re flat broke now, ne minna?”

Suraya smiled warmly to everyone else, while Nika broke into an euphoric cheer because she had taken advantage of the fact Reiji wasn’t blocking her small frame anymore, and had even leaned over Reiji’s folding chair to get a clearer view of Arashi retreating backstage, accompanied by a high-pitched squeal of “GREETINGS FROM AMERICA, ARASHI!”

~