Team Present, prompt 1: What’s wrong with being naked?
Title: What’s wrong with being naked?
Rating: PG
Pairing: Gen, slight hints of Taguchi/Kame
Summary: The boys spend some time together and have adventures.
Prompt: What’s wrong with being naked?
Warnings: Mentions of nudity.
Notes : Thanks to my beta B for her hard work.
4 weeks ago
“I BECAME HUMAN?”
Kamenashi Kazuya bares all and onlookers are left in no doubt that his body is indeed human.
In comparison to the earthquake which hit Tokyo city last night, the residents of a luxury apartment complex were more startled when Kamenashi Kazuya (KAT-TUN) jumped from a balcony on the second floor, naked.
When questioned regarding his state of dress (or lack thereof), Kamenashi echoed the infamous words of Kusanagi Tsuyoshi (SMAP) when the star was confronted by police officers during a naked rampage in Roppongi, ‘What’s wrong with being naked?’
Residents of the adjacent apartment building were interviewed. A female resident told reporters, ‘At about 2am, I heard screaming from the street. It was right after the earthquake so we (the family) were all awake and in the kitchen. At first I thought someone was hurt, then when I looked out of the window I saw Kamenashi-san…..’ Her husband added, ‘She didn’t move from the window, so I had to take the children to their room.’ Another female resident said, ‘I heard screaming even though my window was closed. There was someone standing naked in the street, surrounded by a crowd of people. At first I couldn’t see who it was, but upon close examination I realised it was Kamenashi-san. I recognised his eyebrows.’
Kusanagi Tsuyoshi-san was not available to make a comment regarding this incident.
* * *
3 weeks ago
KAT-TUN’S TANAKA KOKI IS DATING A FOREIGNER?
Fans of the Johnny’s band KAT-TUN were surprised when they spotted Tanaka Koki (27) walking out of a restaurant with a blond haired woman.
One witness described the woman as, ‘young and skinny, with shoulder length blond hair. She was wearing sunglasses and her jacket was zipped high enough to cover half of her face so I couldn’t see her face clearly, but she was skinny and tall for a woman.’ -
Ueda threw the magazine across the couch and grabbed his phone.
Message to: Kamenashi Kazuya
10.35am
I wore those jeans you gave me and the trash magazines are calling me a woman.
Inbox. Message from Kamenashi Kazuya
10.59am
You can thank me for the excellent disguise later. Why were you wearing a wig?
Inbox. Message from Kamenashi Kazuya
10.59am
Actually, you don’t have to answer that. I don’t want to know.
Ueda glared at the message. What’s wrong with liking wigs?
* * *
2 week ago
‘Nakamaru,’ a familiar voice filled the room.
‘Huh,’ Nakamaru answered, glancing at his laptop while trying to organise his text books.
‘Nakamaru,’ Kame’s face frowned at him from the screen, ‘Why are there pictures of you sleeping with your mouth open and with drool sliding down your jaw in your car parked on the side of the road?’
* * *
1 week ago
‘Do you think they will lecture us for 3 days?’
‘If they wanted to lecture us, they could just do it in Tokyo, there would be no need for us to drive for 2 hours out of the city.’
‘Maybe they’ll film it and make it a DVD special or something,’ Nakamaru suggested.
‘There’s got to be a catch,’ Koki said, the moment they got out of the van.
‘Maybe there are hidden cameras,’ Nakamaru said, sounding hopeful.
‘Where do you think we are? Korea?’ Koki asked, ‘Member Training isn’t organised so that we can all sit together and talk about our feelings in front of the camera while they feed us food and fruity drinks. It’s punishment! Punishment!’
‘Which means that even if there are cameras in there, they are probably there to capture blackmail material,’ Ueda added. He picked up his backpack and walked towards the door of the building.
‘Are you serious?’ Nakamaru asked after him.
Beside him, Kame removed his Versace sunglasses and hooked them on the front of his shirt, before following Ueda.
‘Who cares?’ he muttered.
‘Who cares,’ Taguchi echoed with a grin as he fell into step with Kame.
Koki ran a hand through his hair in frustration, ‘We’re going to kill each other,’ he stated, ‘I know it. It will be like a horror movie, we’ll get killed one by one, starting with Taguchi.’
‘Well it’s a perfect setting for a horror story,’ Nakamaru muttered, staring at the worn looking sign of the Ryokan.
The owner was an elderly woman who greeted them politely and didn’t make a fuss about them being celebrities - or maybe she just didn’t recognise them. Nakamaru didn’t particularly mind, especially if it meant that they would be able to get some proper rest over the next three days. The place was so run down he doubted there would be many people disturbing them.
The owner muttered something about the second floor not being in use so they had to share two rooms between the five of them. Three of them would share the larger room; the remaining two would share the smaller room. There were brief complaints about who snored the loudest (which were ridiculous because Nakamaru was sure that he didn’t snore), but this was settled maturely when Koki sprinted into the smaller room and tried to lock them all out. Unfortunately, while they were struggling with the sliding door, the old wooden frame suddenly creaked loudly.
‘Koki!’ Kame hissed.
‘Don’t get mad at me,’ Koki’s voice came from the other side of the door, ‘it’s your fault for leaning on the door.’
‘I think the door is jammed,’ Ueda said, ‘It looks pretty old. If we force it, it might break.’ He and Kame shared a look, trying hard to hold back grins, before turning away from the door together.
‘Since we’re feeling generous, you can have that room to yourself, Koki.’
Taguchi laughed loudly and knocked on the door for good measure before following Kame and Ueda into the other room.
‘Oi!’ Koki’s voice was still capable of being heard through the wall separating the two rooms and Nakamaru felt his hopes for a quiet, restful break begin to disintegrate at a rapid pace.
‘Come on!’ Koki cried, ‘Kame-chan! Uepi!’
Kame and Ueda seemed perfectly content with arranging their bags and ignoring Koki’s pleas.
‘Nakamaru!’
Nakamaru looked reluctantly towards the wall. What if Koki needed to go to the bathroom? They would have to get the door fixed eventually, not to mention pay for any costs of repairs…
‘Don’t fret, Nakamaru, we’ll help open the door eventually,’ Ueda said, and Nakamaru wondered how Ueda knew what he was thinking because Ueda hadn’t even looked up from where he was busy unpacking his bag.
‘We need to complete the activities together, though,’ Nakamaru reasoned. What if Koki broke the door down trying to get out? Really, Nakamaru was a fan of avoiding drama at all costs.
‘What activities?’ Kame asked.
‘Weren’t you listening?’
‘Sorry, I think I must have passed out.’
Nakamaru did remember Kame with his sunglasses and hat covering half his face, slouching down in the back seat. No wonder the briefing had been oddly quiet.
‘You should try sleeping more in a bed,' Nakamaru suggested. It wasn't like he was worried or anything, Kame's eyebags just offend him.
There was no answer, but Kame was grinning at him.
‘You’re such a woman, Nakamaru.’
And that’s what he gets for being nice.
‘TAGUCHI!’ Koki’s voice boomed from the next room, followed by an angry cry of ‘BE QUIET’ from the room across the hall.
‘Ah, looks like I’ll have to save him before one of the other guests kill him off for disturbing their rest,’ Taguchi said brightly.
‘Good luck,’ Ueda death panned.
* * *
They were freshly bathed and having dinner when Koki and Taguchi joined them. Koki looked pissed but thankfully had enough control not to blow up in public. Taguchi muttered something about using the window while Koki grunted. Ueda reminded Koki to wash his socks.
‘Let’s go talk to the owner,’ Kame said, ‘It wouldn’t be good if she found out on her own and thought that we weren’t going to tell her.’
Nakamaru nodded. He was a little nervous, but Kame was right, it was best to face the problem honestly. He was also almost sure that their manager would kill them if they did anything else to damage the group’s reputation this month. Surprisingly though, the owner didn’t seem angry at all when Kame apologised. In fact, Nakamaru thought she appeared a little frightened, studying Kame’s face and then walking away while muttering ‘so it’s that room today…’
‘Well, that was weird,’ Kame said when the owner was out of sight.
‘Yeah,’ Nakamaru agreed. That was probably the first sign that something wasn’t quite right.
* * *
‘Seriously?’ Koki asked, ‘Why?’
‘Because we owe it to our manager to at least try, we’ve caused enough trouble for him in the past few weeks,’ Nakamaru explained. He didn’t really want to guilt-trip the members into participating, but he knew that he would be feeling guilty as hell if they didn’t at least try to follow the instructions their manager had left them.
‘Our teamwork is fine,’ Kame said.
‘I know, but there must be a reason why we were asked to do these activities, right?’
Kame didn’t protest further. Nakamaru knew that Kame was aware of the trouble The Naked Incident had cause for their PR team. Kusanagi at least could blame the alcohol, whereas you would expect that most people would think to put something on before jumping off balconies, earthquake or not. But then again, Nakamaru already knew that Kame didn't think like most people.
‘As long as it doesn’t take too long,’ Ueda said, and Nakamaru took that as agreement to proceed.
He took out the notes he had made during the briefing, careful to sit upright in case there were hidden cameras around, and ran a hand through his hair. He was interrupted by Taguchi’s outburst of laughter and Koki throwing at pillow at him.
‘For God’s sake, Nakamaru, there aren’t any hidden cameras around!’
Nakamaru cleared his throat and ignored them. They could laugh all they want now, but Nakamaru wasn't going to be the one with flat hair on the off chance that there was hidden camera.
‘First, we have to ask each other questions. It’s supposed to help us better understand each other or something.’
‘We’ve all known each other for years, Nakamaru,’ Ueda said. Nakamaru had nothing to say to that; even he thought these teamwork activities were unnecessary. He knew that they had been careless in the last few weeks, which had led to some bad press about the group (well, four of them had been. He still wasn’t sure why Taguchi was here too, but he supposed it wouldn’t be teamwork training if they were missing a member.) Perhaps their manager just wanted them to spend a few days together to reflect on their mistakes?
‘I’ve got one,’ Kame said, ‘who ate my hamburger today? I bought one for the trip, but it was gone when I woke up.’
Nakamaru, Koki and Ueda all turned to stare a Taguchi.
‘You’re on a diet, right? I was helping you!’ Taguchi tried to explain, while Kame glared at him.
‘I’ve got one, too,’ Koki raised his hand, which Ueda slapped down ('What are you, in class?').
‘What were you doing sleeping in your car in broad daylight? Don’t you know that you snore?’
Nakamaru rubbed his temples, ‘I was trying to hide from the other students between classes. I guess I just fell asleep. And I don’t snore.’
‘Classes,’ Kame muttered, ‘Sounds like fun.’
‘If Nakamaru gets followed by people, you’d probably get mobbed,’ Ueda said, patting Kame’s arm. Nakamaru nodded in agreement. The last time Kame had enrolled himself in a class was when he suddently decided he need to take a professional photography course. His first assignment had been to practice street photography and in the end the traffic police had to be involved. Kame did end up with some fairly interesting photographs though.
Since they were asking questions, Nakamaru did have something he was curious about.
‘What was Ueda doing wearing a wig?’
‘What’s wrong with wigs?’ Ueda said defensively, ‘it’s the perfect disguise.’
‘Were you trying to cross-dress?’ Taguchi piped in.
‘Don’t be ridiculous, it was a wig for men, it’s not my fault the girl who saw us was blind.’
‘What were the two of you doing anyway?’
‘Shopping. I was trying to tell him that wigs were the perfect disguise and this whole incident just proves it. If Koki had a proper disguise, he would never have been spotted and those articles would not exist.’
‘Dude,’ Koki said, ‘if you hadn’t dressed like a girl, there would be nothing to write about.’
‘It was all because of Kame’s jeans.’
‘Hey!’ Kame cried, ‘I’ve worn those jeans before and was never mistaken as a girl.’
‘No, wait,’ Taguchi said, ‘What about that one time on the train…’
‘My hair was longer then!’
Kame and Ueda engaged into a conversation about skinny jeans and why men shouldn’t be mistaken as women just because they happen to have longer hair (or happen to be wearing a longer length wig).
The next activity involved one person being blind folded while another lead him around the Ryokan. Unfortunately this activity was cut short because Koki was paired with Taguchi and kept giving the blind folded Taguchi instructions that made Taguchi walk into walls. Nakamaru was blind folded in a team with Kame and Ueda, who insisted on giving him contradicting instructions. The last straw was when he and Taguchi ended up walking into one another.
By the time they laid out their futons, he was having homicidal thoughts, especially as now they were all sharing one room and the corners of this futon were overlapping with Kame and Koki’s.
When he later tried to remember the events of that night, he would swear that he had felt something chill down his spine. Other than this frightening sensation, however, he remembered nothing else between falling asleep and waking up straddling Kame. His hands were slipped under Kame’s Yakuta.
‘Well,’ Kame said, ‘This is awkward.’
Nakamaru screamed.
* * *
‘Are you sure you weren’t just rowdy and this whole possession thing is just an excuse?’ Koki asked.
His ridiculous question was doing nothing to calm Nakamaru’s nerves. Nakamaru wasn’t sure which was worse, being possessed, or coming to his senses only to find himself molesting Kame. His face heated up as he glanced at the angry scratch marks across Kame’s chest.
Kame, thankfully, was too busy glaring at Koki to notice the fact that Nakamaru’s face was now several shades darker. For once it was Koki who was KY, as even Taguchi wasn’t smiling.
‘What usually happens to people who get possessed?’ Ueda asked.
Nakamaru’s head snapped back to where the owner was drinking her tea. He had been so distracted by Koki that he'd forgotten why they were here in the first place - to get some answers.
‘Well, usually she targets couples. She would possess one of them in hopes of making them break up.’
‘But there are no couples here,’ Nakamaru said.
‘Yes, but you see, you friend here must have reminded her of my deceased father who used to run this place.’
‘We looked alike?’ Kame asked.
‘Not at all,’ the owner said and they stared in confusion. ‘Well, not exactly - you do have one thing in common. My father’s eyebrows were plucked to a perfect 46.8 degree angle too.’
They were all silent for a moment, until Kame stood up.
‘Is this a joke?’ He asked calmly. Nakamaru winced; Kame was scariest when he was like this. ‘Where are the hidden cameras?’
‘Like I explained, Suzu-san was in love with my father in life and in death. Normally her pranks on couples staying here are harmless, it’s the first time she’s … gotten so physical with someone.’
‘Pranks like locking people in rooms?’ Koki asked, suspicion clearly in his voice.
‘You have a ghost running around and you never thought to do anything about it?’ Ueda asked before the owner could answer.
‘Well, it wreaked havoc for our target honeymoon clientele, but after that the rumours started to spread and we began to get people interested in supernatural stuff. It’s low season now, but we have been booked out annually during golden week.’
The smugness in her voice annoyed him, especially when Nakamaru was the victim here.
‘So you let the place run down, to complete the look?’
‘Of course, it saves me repair costs too.’
Koki looked like he was about to say something very rude, and for once Nakamaru didn’t care. It was Taguchi who spoke up.
‘How do we get rid of her?’
‘Well, she come comes out at night, so your friend is safe during the day.’
‘That does not make me feel better,’ Nakamaru stated, ‘We need a way to dispel the spirit or convince her to leave me alone.’
The owner shook her head. ‘I don’t know any way to do that.’
‘Look,’ Ueda said, ‘If you help us we will advertise this Ryokan. We are on television quite often, you know, our tour is being scheduled and we hold concerts around the country. That way even with the spirit gone, the Ryokan can become a honeymoon hot spot again.’
‘And if I don’t help?’
‘Didn’t I just say that we are on television? Furthermore, Tokyo dome also holds 55,000 people, I can think of a lot of things I can say about this place in front of an audience like that.’
Nakamaru stared at Ueda in admiration. It was rare to see Ueda threaten people so seriously these days.
‘What was our record for the number of days of performing at Tokyo dome in one tour?’ Kame asked.
‘Thirteen,’ Taguchi replied with a grin, ‘That makes 715,000 fangirls.’
* * *
‘So what’s the plan?’ Nakamaru asked. He almost regretted it immediately; if he didn’t ask, then he would at least be able to pretend that one of them had a plan that had even the remotest possibility of working.
‘The owner said that Suzu died at the onsen at the property a few blocks away, right?’ Koki asked, ‘Her parents ran a business there until she died.’
‘The plan is, we go there and wait for night to come. Then Nakamaru will get possessed by Suzu and try to attack me, Suzu will be distracted because it’s the place of her death and then we vanquish her.’
‘You vanquish demons, Kame, not ghosts,’ chirped Taguchi.
‘According to what manga?’
‘Wait,’ Nakamaru said, ‘One, we’ve left the Ryokan, how do we know she will follow us? Two, even if she does follow us and possess me, what if she doesn’t get distracted? Three, even if she gets distracted enough for us to make a move, how are we going to vanquish, dispel, exorcise her?’
‘I bought salt,’ Koki spoke up. He took out a saltshaker from his bag.
‘How is that supposed to help?’ Nakamaru cried.
‘Don’t they always have salt in Western supernatural movies?’
‘If we’re talking about Western movies, shouldn’t we be digging up her bones or something? Isn’t that what always happens?’ Ueda added.
‘We are not going to be digging up graves,’ Kame said, looking disgusted. ‘Besides, this is Japan, we should get someone to do a ritual or something.’
‘We can get someone to do a ritual if whatever we’re doing today doesn’t work. Right now, I just want to survive tonight!’ Nakamaru declared.
‘No, I want to survive, it’s my virtue at stake here.’ Kame said.
They snorted.
When they arrived at the entrance, a teenage boy was standing there, leaning against the wall and fidgeting with his phone.
‘My aunt asked me to let you in, but I have to lock up in an hour. I have a date,’ he said without looking up.
‘That’s fine, we’ll be done by then,’ Kame replied. The boy looked up to stare at Kame. For a moment, Nakamaru was excited about the prospect of meeting a male fan, he didn’t think they had many. Then the boy blurted out:
‘I’m a Giants’ fan!’
Kame brightened immediately and began to talk about his favourite games, until Koki swung an arm around him and reminded him that they had a fish of the supernatural variety to catch. The actual onsen was a nice surprise. The changing rooms were smaller than those at the Ryokan they were staying at, but the facility was clean and in good working order. It seemed like the locals still used it despite the business having been closed for years.
* * *
‘I think if I stay here any longer my organs will cook,’ Koki said.
Nakamaru had lost track of how long they had been in the water, but the sky had indeed darkened considerably.
‘How do you think she died?’ Ueda asked, ‘Suicide?’
‘Maybe she found out the owner’s father was marrying someone else and downed herself here?’ Kame suggested.
‘Maybe the owner’s father was being forced to marry someone so they attempted a lover’s suicide, but only she died?’ Koki said.
‘That’s so cheesy!’ Taguchi laughed and splashed water at him. Koki splashed back. Nakamaru turned away when they stood up to aim bigger splashes at each other. He followed Ueda and Kame as they moved quickly away from the water fight that was beginning to take place.
‘But if she was angry, wouldn’t she try to kill him or something? Instead of … you know?’ Nakamaru stared at Kame’s chest as he spoke and then looked away in embarrassment.
‘Maybe she was trying to have one more go at it, before offing him?’ Ueda chuckled.
‘I would never hurt Hiroshi-kun,’ a familiar voice said. Nakamaru looked around, trying to work out who had spoken, but Kame and Ueda were staring at him with wide, fearful eyes.
‘TAGUCHI! KOKI!’ Kame cried, ‘WE HAVE A PROBLEM!’
‘What?’ Nakamaru asked, ‘What’s going o- it was an accident.’
Nakamaru blinked. He had wanted to say, What’s going on?
‘It was an accident, right here, in this place.’ Was that his mouth moving? Everything seemed very far away. He felt a strange detachment from what was happening around him and even though Nakamaru tried desperately to concentrate, it was like there was a cloud surrounding his mind preventing him from focusing.
‘I was getting out of the water and slipped on a bar of soap and fell. But I really wanted to get up because Hiroshi-kun was waiting for me. We were going to have a special night.’
Suddenly, it felt like something had been dumped on his head. In his peripheral vision, Nakamaru could see Koki holding the top of the salt shaker in one hand and the empty shaker container in the other.
‘I told you salt wouldn’t work!’ Someone cried in the background.
‘Should we tie him up?’
‘How about I knock him out?’
‘No, can’t afford to leave bruises.’
Everything was blurry, but one thing was clear - Kame’s face was getting a lot closer. Were those his hands moving - why yes they were -
- and then suddenly, he was falling and everything was turning black. The last words Nakamaru heard before he lost consciousness were:
‘Rin, pyou, tou, sha, kai, jin, retsu, zai, zen!’
* * *
When he opened his eyes, Nakamaru found himself lying on a hard, dry surface. He sat up, rubbing his temples, looked down, and then scrambled around for a spare towel.
‘Seriously, Nakamaru, that is the last thing you should be worried about. You were just possessed. Again,’ Ueda said.
‘Nothing we haven’t already seen anyway,’ Kame added.
Nakamaru ignored their comments. ‘What happened?’
‘Uepi dispelled Suzu’s spirit,’ Taguchi answered.
‘Ueda did what?’
‘I am a man of many talents and secrets,’ Ueda said.
‘Wait,’ Koki spoke up, ‘That chant you used sounded really familiar.’
‘Not possible,’ Ueda insisted, ‘It’s a super powerful secret chant that has been in my family for generations.’
Personally, Nakamaru didn’t care about the origins of the chant. He was just relieved that everything was apparently over. Right now he just wanted to get out of this place and back to Tokyo as soon as possible.
‘Let’s get out of here,’ he said simply and was met with a chorus of agreement. His body was still feeling heavy so Nakamaru lagged behind as he walked towards the changing rooms. Suddenly a scream cut through the air.
‘It’s locked!’ Koki cried.
Kame ran up next to Koki and they tried the door together. Nakamaru felt dread build in the pit of his stomach.
‘This has to be some kind of a joke.’
* * *
‘Kame,’ Nakamaru hissed. It was pitch black now, and Nakamaru could only see the outline of Kame’s body and the towel around his face.
‘Use your towel to cover… down there, not your face!’
‘People can recognise my face, but not my crown jewels,’ Kame hissed back.
If it was left to Nakamaru, they should have just stayed the night in the water and be cooked alive. Who cared that the osen was an outdoor one? It would have been better than freezing their naked assess off running through the main street (however deserted to may be) in the middle of the night. He wasn’t sure their idol careers could withstand this. They could be arrested. Their manager would kill them.
‘Hey!’ Koki cried somewhere to his left, ‘I remember where I’ve heard that chant before! Sailor Mars uses it in Sailor Moon!’
‘It took you long enough,’ Ueda said.
‘Oh look!’ Koki’s cried again, a moment later.
‘SHHHHH!’ Nakamaru hissed at him.
‘Look!’ Koki whispered, somehow equally as loud. It took Nakamaru a moment to work out what Koki was pointing to. When he did make out what the objects were, he stared at Koki in horror.
‘We can use this, Koki!’ Kame cried excited.
‘SHHHHHHH!’
‘We can use this to cover ourselves!’ Kame whispered and then held the base of a large traffic cone against his hips.
‘Kame,’ Nakamaru said, proud that at least his voice didn’t sound as hysterical as he felt, ‘the traffic cones are a little too big to cover your you-know-what.’
‘But it would still cover it,’ Kame reasoned.
‘You’re going to walk around with something the length of your arm sticking out the front?’
‘Four of us can wrap our towels around our waste and put the cones over our faces, while one person leads us back to the Ryokan. That way both our faces and private parts will be covered, well, except for the one person leading us back.’ Taguchi suggested.
Nakamaru remembered their disastrous teamwork activity with the blindfolds and then tried to imagine four of them with the red plastic cones over their heads, walking in a single line.
‘We’re trying not to draw attention here,’ he said.
‘Can we stop arguing and keep walking? I’m freezing,’ Ueda hissed.
Kame shoved a traffic cone at Nakamaru’s chest. Nakamaru shoved it back.
‘Just take it,’ Kame said, ‘Even if you just hold it vertically upright, it will still cover a portion of your body.’
And that was now Nakamaru found himself running naked across the streets at night with his bandmates, hugging a plastic traffic cone, a towel over his face, and wondering where he went wrong in his life.
* * *
Present
‘How do you think KAT-TUN has changed with this new single?’ Tamori-san asked.
‘I think we have grown closer as a group,’ Kame asked smoothly, ‘We’ve also been doing some group activities together and travelled together recently.’
‘Oh? That’s nice. Where did you go?’
‘Because everyone has been busy with solo activities recently, we decided to go to an onsen together, to relax,’ Kame said, ‘There is no better way to get closer to someone than to bare all and bathe together!’
Nakamaru decided Kame's take on the whole thing was much better than the explanation they received from their manager ('We decided to call an Emergency Member Training so that you could spend time together and appreciate what it means to be in a group and put more effort into staying out of trash magazines.')
‘Ah,’ Tamori nodded, ‘Onsen trips certainly strengthen relationships. There are many opportunities to talk and discuss things in a relaxed atmosphere like that.’
‘Oh yes,’ Kame agreed and then laughed, ‘And after trips like that you can gain a lot of knowledge that you will have to take to your grave.’
Nakamaru didn’t know whether he wanted to laugh or cry.
Extra
‘Really? You stay over at each other’s houses and cook together?’ Tamori was asking the AKB48 girls sitting in front of them. They giggled and talked about cooking and other things Nakamaru tried to tune out.
‘- have KAT-TUN members been to each other’s houses?’
Nakamaru’s attention returned in time to see someone pass a microphone to Taguchi.
‘Yes, sometimes the other members come over and cook for me,’ Taguchi laughed. Nakamaru could only stare at him.
As they stood up to prepare for their performance, Nakamaru moved next to Taguchi and whispered, ‘What was that about? You didn’t have to make up the cooking part.’
Taguchi just shrugged and moved away. Someone bumped lightly against his shoulder and Nakamaru turned to find Ueda beside him.
‘Don’t be dense, Nakamaru,’ Ueda said, ‘Remember the report about Kame’s naked incident?’
Nakamaru nodded; what did that have to do with anything?
‘Well, Kame lives on the 15th floor.’
It was only after their performance that Nakamaru remembered Taguchi lived on the second floor.
Poll Team Present Prompt 1
Rating: PG
Pairing: Gen, slight hints of Taguchi/Kame
Summary: The boys spend some time together and have adventures.
Prompt: What’s wrong with being naked?
Warnings: Mentions of nudity.
Notes : Thanks to my beta B for her hard work.
4 weeks ago
“I BECAME HUMAN?”
Kamenashi Kazuya bares all and onlookers are left in no doubt that his body is indeed human.
In comparison to the earthquake which hit Tokyo city last night, the residents of a luxury apartment complex were more startled when Kamenashi Kazuya (KAT-TUN) jumped from a balcony on the second floor, naked.
When questioned regarding his state of dress (or lack thereof), Kamenashi echoed the infamous words of Kusanagi Tsuyoshi (SMAP) when the star was confronted by police officers during a naked rampage in Roppongi, ‘What’s wrong with being naked?’
Residents of the adjacent apartment building were interviewed. A female resident told reporters, ‘At about 2am, I heard screaming from the street. It was right after the earthquake so we (the family) were all awake and in the kitchen. At first I thought someone was hurt, then when I looked out of the window I saw Kamenashi-san…..’ Her husband added, ‘She didn’t move from the window, so I had to take the children to their room.’ Another female resident said, ‘I heard screaming even though my window was closed. There was someone standing naked in the street, surrounded by a crowd of people. At first I couldn’t see who it was, but upon close examination I realised it was Kamenashi-san. I recognised his eyebrows.’
Kusanagi Tsuyoshi-san was not available to make a comment regarding this incident.
* * *
3 weeks ago
KAT-TUN’S TANAKA KOKI IS DATING A FOREIGNER?
Fans of the Johnny’s band KAT-TUN were surprised when they spotted Tanaka Koki (27) walking out of a restaurant with a blond haired woman.
One witness described the woman as, ‘young and skinny, with shoulder length blond hair. She was wearing sunglasses and her jacket was zipped high enough to cover half of her face so I couldn’t see her face clearly, but she was skinny and tall for a woman.’ -
Ueda threw the magazine across the couch and grabbed his phone.
Message to: Kamenashi Kazuya
10.35am
I wore those jeans you gave me and the trash magazines are calling me a woman.
Inbox. Message from Kamenashi Kazuya
10.59am
You can thank me for the excellent disguise later. Why were you wearing a wig?
Inbox. Message from Kamenashi Kazuya
10.59am
Actually, you don’t have to answer that. I don’t want to know.
Ueda glared at the message. What’s wrong with liking wigs?
* * *
2 week ago
‘Nakamaru,’ a familiar voice filled the room.
‘Huh,’ Nakamaru answered, glancing at his laptop while trying to organise his text books.
‘Nakamaru,’ Kame’s face frowned at him from the screen, ‘Why are there pictures of you sleeping with your mouth open and with drool sliding down your jaw in your car parked on the side of the road?’
* * *
1 week ago
‘Do you think they will lecture us for 3 days?’
‘If they wanted to lecture us, they could just do it in Tokyo, there would be no need for us to drive for 2 hours out of the city.’
‘Maybe they’ll film it and make it a DVD special or something,’ Nakamaru suggested.
‘There’s got to be a catch,’ Koki said, the moment they got out of the van.
‘Maybe there are hidden cameras,’ Nakamaru said, sounding hopeful.
‘Where do you think we are? Korea?’ Koki asked, ‘Member Training isn’t organised so that we can all sit together and talk about our feelings in front of the camera while they feed us food and fruity drinks. It’s punishment! Punishment!’
‘Which means that even if there are cameras in there, they are probably there to capture blackmail material,’ Ueda added. He picked up his backpack and walked towards the door of the building.
‘Are you serious?’ Nakamaru asked after him.
Beside him, Kame removed his Versace sunglasses and hooked them on the front of his shirt, before following Ueda.
‘Who cares?’ he muttered.
‘Who cares,’ Taguchi echoed with a grin as he fell into step with Kame.
Koki ran a hand through his hair in frustration, ‘We’re going to kill each other,’ he stated, ‘I know it. It will be like a horror movie, we’ll get killed one by one, starting with Taguchi.’
‘Well it’s a perfect setting for a horror story,’ Nakamaru muttered, staring at the worn looking sign of the Ryokan.
The owner was an elderly woman who greeted them politely and didn’t make a fuss about them being celebrities - or maybe she just didn’t recognise them. Nakamaru didn’t particularly mind, especially if it meant that they would be able to get some proper rest over the next three days. The place was so run down he doubted there would be many people disturbing them.
The owner muttered something about the second floor not being in use so they had to share two rooms between the five of them. Three of them would share the larger room; the remaining two would share the smaller room. There were brief complaints about who snored the loudest (which were ridiculous because Nakamaru was sure that he didn’t snore), but this was settled maturely when Koki sprinted into the smaller room and tried to lock them all out. Unfortunately, while they were struggling with the sliding door, the old wooden frame suddenly creaked loudly.
‘Koki!’ Kame hissed.
‘Don’t get mad at me,’ Koki’s voice came from the other side of the door, ‘it’s your fault for leaning on the door.’
‘I think the door is jammed,’ Ueda said, ‘It looks pretty old. If we force it, it might break.’ He and Kame shared a look, trying hard to hold back grins, before turning away from the door together.
‘Since we’re feeling generous, you can have that room to yourself, Koki.’
Taguchi laughed loudly and knocked on the door for good measure before following Kame and Ueda into the other room.
‘Oi!’ Koki’s voice was still capable of being heard through the wall separating the two rooms and Nakamaru felt his hopes for a quiet, restful break begin to disintegrate at a rapid pace.
‘Come on!’ Koki cried, ‘Kame-chan! Uepi!’
Kame and Ueda seemed perfectly content with arranging their bags and ignoring Koki’s pleas.
‘Nakamaru!’
Nakamaru looked reluctantly towards the wall. What if Koki needed to go to the bathroom? They would have to get the door fixed eventually, not to mention pay for any costs of repairs…
‘Don’t fret, Nakamaru, we’ll help open the door eventually,’ Ueda said, and Nakamaru wondered how Ueda knew what he was thinking because Ueda hadn’t even looked up from where he was busy unpacking his bag.
‘We need to complete the activities together, though,’ Nakamaru reasoned. What if Koki broke the door down trying to get out? Really, Nakamaru was a fan of avoiding drama at all costs.
‘What activities?’ Kame asked.
‘Weren’t you listening?’
‘Sorry, I think I must have passed out.’
Nakamaru did remember Kame with his sunglasses and hat covering half his face, slouching down in the back seat. No wonder the briefing had been oddly quiet.
‘You should try sleeping more in a bed,' Nakamaru suggested. It wasn't like he was worried or anything, Kame's eyebags just offend him.
There was no answer, but Kame was grinning at him.
‘You’re such a woman, Nakamaru.’
And that’s what he gets for being nice.
‘TAGUCHI!’ Koki’s voice boomed from the next room, followed by an angry cry of ‘BE QUIET’ from the room across the hall.
‘Ah, looks like I’ll have to save him before one of the other guests kill him off for disturbing their rest,’ Taguchi said brightly.
‘Good luck,’ Ueda death panned.
* * *
They were freshly bathed and having dinner when Koki and Taguchi joined them. Koki looked pissed but thankfully had enough control not to blow up in public. Taguchi muttered something about using the window while Koki grunted. Ueda reminded Koki to wash his socks.
‘Let’s go talk to the owner,’ Kame said, ‘It wouldn’t be good if she found out on her own and thought that we weren’t going to tell her.’
Nakamaru nodded. He was a little nervous, but Kame was right, it was best to face the problem honestly. He was also almost sure that their manager would kill them if they did anything else to damage the group’s reputation this month. Surprisingly though, the owner didn’t seem angry at all when Kame apologised. In fact, Nakamaru thought she appeared a little frightened, studying Kame’s face and then walking away while muttering ‘so it’s that room today…’
‘Well, that was weird,’ Kame said when the owner was out of sight.
‘Yeah,’ Nakamaru agreed. That was probably the first sign that something wasn’t quite right.
* * *
‘Seriously?’ Koki asked, ‘Why?’
‘Because we owe it to our manager to at least try, we’ve caused enough trouble for him in the past few weeks,’ Nakamaru explained. He didn’t really want to guilt-trip the members into participating, but he knew that he would be feeling guilty as hell if they didn’t at least try to follow the instructions their manager had left them.
‘Our teamwork is fine,’ Kame said.
‘I know, but there must be a reason why we were asked to do these activities, right?’
Kame didn’t protest further. Nakamaru knew that Kame was aware of the trouble The Naked Incident had cause for their PR team. Kusanagi at least could blame the alcohol, whereas you would expect that most people would think to put something on before jumping off balconies, earthquake or not. But then again, Nakamaru already knew that Kame didn't think like most people.
‘As long as it doesn’t take too long,’ Ueda said, and Nakamaru took that as agreement to proceed.
He took out the notes he had made during the briefing, careful to sit upright in case there were hidden cameras around, and ran a hand through his hair. He was interrupted by Taguchi’s outburst of laughter and Koki throwing at pillow at him.
‘For God’s sake, Nakamaru, there aren’t any hidden cameras around!’
Nakamaru cleared his throat and ignored them. They could laugh all they want now, but Nakamaru wasn't going to be the one with flat hair on the off chance that there was hidden camera.
‘First, we have to ask each other questions. It’s supposed to help us better understand each other or something.’
‘We’ve all known each other for years, Nakamaru,’ Ueda said. Nakamaru had nothing to say to that; even he thought these teamwork activities were unnecessary. He knew that they had been careless in the last few weeks, which had led to some bad press about the group (well, four of them had been. He still wasn’t sure why Taguchi was here too, but he supposed it wouldn’t be teamwork training if they were missing a member.) Perhaps their manager just wanted them to spend a few days together to reflect on their mistakes?
‘I’ve got one,’ Kame said, ‘who ate my hamburger today? I bought one for the trip, but it was gone when I woke up.’
Nakamaru, Koki and Ueda all turned to stare a Taguchi.
‘You’re on a diet, right? I was helping you!’ Taguchi tried to explain, while Kame glared at him.
‘I’ve got one, too,’ Koki raised his hand, which Ueda slapped down ('What are you, in class?').
‘What were you doing sleeping in your car in broad daylight? Don’t you know that you snore?’
Nakamaru rubbed his temples, ‘I was trying to hide from the other students between classes. I guess I just fell asleep. And I don’t snore.’
‘Classes,’ Kame muttered, ‘Sounds like fun.’
‘If Nakamaru gets followed by people, you’d probably get mobbed,’ Ueda said, patting Kame’s arm. Nakamaru nodded in agreement. The last time Kame had enrolled himself in a class was when he suddently decided he need to take a professional photography course. His first assignment had been to practice street photography and in the end the traffic police had to be involved. Kame did end up with some fairly interesting photographs though.
Since they were asking questions, Nakamaru did have something he was curious about.
‘What was Ueda doing wearing a wig?’
‘What’s wrong with wigs?’ Ueda said defensively, ‘it’s the perfect disguise.’
‘Were you trying to cross-dress?’ Taguchi piped in.
‘Don’t be ridiculous, it was a wig for men, it’s not my fault the girl who saw us was blind.’
‘What were the two of you doing anyway?’
‘Shopping. I was trying to tell him that wigs were the perfect disguise and this whole incident just proves it. If Koki had a proper disguise, he would never have been spotted and those articles would not exist.’
‘Dude,’ Koki said, ‘if you hadn’t dressed like a girl, there would be nothing to write about.’
‘It was all because of Kame’s jeans.’
‘Hey!’ Kame cried, ‘I’ve worn those jeans before and was never mistaken as a girl.’
‘No, wait,’ Taguchi said, ‘What about that one time on the train…’
‘My hair was longer then!’
Kame and Ueda engaged into a conversation about skinny jeans and why men shouldn’t be mistaken as women just because they happen to have longer hair (or happen to be wearing a longer length wig).
The next activity involved one person being blind folded while another lead him around the Ryokan. Unfortunately this activity was cut short because Koki was paired with Taguchi and kept giving the blind folded Taguchi instructions that made Taguchi walk into walls. Nakamaru was blind folded in a team with Kame and Ueda, who insisted on giving him contradicting instructions. The last straw was when he and Taguchi ended up walking into one another.
By the time they laid out their futons, he was having homicidal thoughts, especially as now they were all sharing one room and the corners of this futon were overlapping with Kame and Koki’s.
When he later tried to remember the events of that night, he would swear that he had felt something chill down his spine. Other than this frightening sensation, however, he remembered nothing else between falling asleep and waking up straddling Kame. His hands were slipped under Kame’s Yakuta.
‘Well,’ Kame said, ‘This is awkward.’
Nakamaru screamed.
* * *
‘Are you sure you weren’t just rowdy and this whole possession thing is just an excuse?’ Koki asked.
His ridiculous question was doing nothing to calm Nakamaru’s nerves. Nakamaru wasn’t sure which was worse, being possessed, or coming to his senses only to find himself molesting Kame. His face heated up as he glanced at the angry scratch marks across Kame’s chest.
Kame, thankfully, was too busy glaring at Koki to notice the fact that Nakamaru’s face was now several shades darker. For once it was Koki who was KY, as even Taguchi wasn’t smiling.
‘What usually happens to people who get possessed?’ Ueda asked.
Nakamaru’s head snapped back to where the owner was drinking her tea. He had been so distracted by Koki that he'd forgotten why they were here in the first place - to get some answers.
‘Well, usually she targets couples. She would possess one of them in hopes of making them break up.’
‘But there are no couples here,’ Nakamaru said.
‘Yes, but you see, you friend here must have reminded her of my deceased father who used to run this place.’
‘We looked alike?’ Kame asked.
‘Not at all,’ the owner said and they stared in confusion. ‘Well, not exactly - you do have one thing in common. My father’s eyebrows were plucked to a perfect 46.8 degree angle too.’
They were all silent for a moment, until Kame stood up.
‘Is this a joke?’ He asked calmly. Nakamaru winced; Kame was scariest when he was like this. ‘Where are the hidden cameras?’
‘Like I explained, Suzu-san was in love with my father in life and in death. Normally her pranks on couples staying here are harmless, it’s the first time she’s … gotten so physical with someone.’
‘Pranks like locking people in rooms?’ Koki asked, suspicion clearly in his voice.
‘You have a ghost running around and you never thought to do anything about it?’ Ueda asked before the owner could answer.
‘Well, it wreaked havoc for our target honeymoon clientele, but after that the rumours started to spread and we began to get people interested in supernatural stuff. It’s low season now, but we have been booked out annually during golden week.’
The smugness in her voice annoyed him, especially when Nakamaru was the victim here.
‘So you let the place run down, to complete the look?’
‘Of course, it saves me repair costs too.’
Koki looked like he was about to say something very rude, and for once Nakamaru didn’t care. It was Taguchi who spoke up.
‘How do we get rid of her?’
‘Well, she come comes out at night, so your friend is safe during the day.’
‘That does not make me feel better,’ Nakamaru stated, ‘We need a way to dispel the spirit or convince her to leave me alone.’
The owner shook her head. ‘I don’t know any way to do that.’
‘Look,’ Ueda said, ‘If you help us we will advertise this Ryokan. We are on television quite often, you know, our tour is being scheduled and we hold concerts around the country. That way even with the spirit gone, the Ryokan can become a honeymoon hot spot again.’
‘And if I don’t help?’
‘Didn’t I just say that we are on television? Furthermore, Tokyo dome also holds 55,000 people, I can think of a lot of things I can say about this place in front of an audience like that.’
Nakamaru stared at Ueda in admiration. It was rare to see Ueda threaten people so seriously these days.
‘What was our record for the number of days of performing at Tokyo dome in one tour?’ Kame asked.
‘Thirteen,’ Taguchi replied with a grin, ‘That makes 715,000 fangirls.’
* * *
‘So what’s the plan?’ Nakamaru asked. He almost regretted it immediately; if he didn’t ask, then he would at least be able to pretend that one of them had a plan that had even the remotest possibility of working.
‘The owner said that Suzu died at the onsen at the property a few blocks away, right?’ Koki asked, ‘Her parents ran a business there until she died.’
‘The plan is, we go there and wait for night to come. Then Nakamaru will get possessed by Suzu and try to attack me, Suzu will be distracted because it’s the place of her death and then we vanquish her.’
‘You vanquish demons, Kame, not ghosts,’ chirped Taguchi.
‘According to what manga?’
‘Wait,’ Nakamaru said, ‘One, we’ve left the Ryokan, how do we know she will follow us? Two, even if she does follow us and possess me, what if she doesn’t get distracted? Three, even if she gets distracted enough for us to make a move, how are we going to vanquish, dispel, exorcise her?’
‘I bought salt,’ Koki spoke up. He took out a saltshaker from his bag.
‘How is that supposed to help?’ Nakamaru cried.
‘Don’t they always have salt in Western supernatural movies?’
‘If we’re talking about Western movies, shouldn’t we be digging up her bones or something? Isn’t that what always happens?’ Ueda added.
‘We are not going to be digging up graves,’ Kame said, looking disgusted. ‘Besides, this is Japan, we should get someone to do a ritual or something.’
‘We can get someone to do a ritual if whatever we’re doing today doesn’t work. Right now, I just want to survive tonight!’ Nakamaru declared.
‘No, I want to survive, it’s my virtue at stake here.’ Kame said.
They snorted.
When they arrived at the entrance, a teenage boy was standing there, leaning against the wall and fidgeting with his phone.
‘My aunt asked me to let you in, but I have to lock up in an hour. I have a date,’ he said without looking up.
‘That’s fine, we’ll be done by then,’ Kame replied. The boy looked up to stare at Kame. For a moment, Nakamaru was excited about the prospect of meeting a male fan, he didn’t think they had many. Then the boy blurted out:
‘I’m a Giants’ fan!’
Kame brightened immediately and began to talk about his favourite games, until Koki swung an arm around him and reminded him that they had a fish of the supernatural variety to catch. The actual onsen was a nice surprise. The changing rooms were smaller than those at the Ryokan they were staying at, but the facility was clean and in good working order. It seemed like the locals still used it despite the business having been closed for years.
* * *
‘I think if I stay here any longer my organs will cook,’ Koki said.
Nakamaru had lost track of how long they had been in the water, but the sky had indeed darkened considerably.
‘How do you think she died?’ Ueda asked, ‘Suicide?’
‘Maybe she found out the owner’s father was marrying someone else and downed herself here?’ Kame suggested.
‘Maybe the owner’s father was being forced to marry someone so they attempted a lover’s suicide, but only she died?’ Koki said.
‘That’s so cheesy!’ Taguchi laughed and splashed water at him. Koki splashed back. Nakamaru turned away when they stood up to aim bigger splashes at each other. He followed Ueda and Kame as they moved quickly away from the water fight that was beginning to take place.
‘But if she was angry, wouldn’t she try to kill him or something? Instead of … you know?’ Nakamaru stared at Kame’s chest as he spoke and then looked away in embarrassment.
‘Maybe she was trying to have one more go at it, before offing him?’ Ueda chuckled.
‘I would never hurt Hiroshi-kun,’ a familiar voice said. Nakamaru looked around, trying to work out who had spoken, but Kame and Ueda were staring at him with wide, fearful eyes.
‘TAGUCHI! KOKI!’ Kame cried, ‘WE HAVE A PROBLEM!’
‘What?’ Nakamaru asked, ‘What’s going o- it was an accident.’
Nakamaru blinked. He had wanted to say, What’s going on?
‘It was an accident, right here, in this place.’ Was that his mouth moving? Everything seemed very far away. He felt a strange detachment from what was happening around him and even though Nakamaru tried desperately to concentrate, it was like there was a cloud surrounding his mind preventing him from focusing.
‘I was getting out of the water and slipped on a bar of soap and fell. But I really wanted to get up because Hiroshi-kun was waiting for me. We were going to have a special night.’
Suddenly, it felt like something had been dumped on his head. In his peripheral vision, Nakamaru could see Koki holding the top of the salt shaker in one hand and the empty shaker container in the other.
‘I told you salt wouldn’t work!’ Someone cried in the background.
‘Should we tie him up?’
‘How about I knock him out?’
‘No, can’t afford to leave bruises.’
Everything was blurry, but one thing was clear - Kame’s face was getting a lot closer. Were those his hands moving - why yes they were -
- and then suddenly, he was falling and everything was turning black. The last words Nakamaru heard before he lost consciousness were:
‘Rin, pyou, tou, sha, kai, jin, retsu, zai, zen!’
* * *
When he opened his eyes, Nakamaru found himself lying on a hard, dry surface. He sat up, rubbing his temples, looked down, and then scrambled around for a spare towel.
‘Seriously, Nakamaru, that is the last thing you should be worried about. You were just possessed. Again,’ Ueda said.
‘Nothing we haven’t already seen anyway,’ Kame added.
Nakamaru ignored their comments. ‘What happened?’
‘Uepi dispelled Suzu’s spirit,’ Taguchi answered.
‘Ueda did what?’
‘I am a man of many talents and secrets,’ Ueda said.
‘Wait,’ Koki spoke up, ‘That chant you used sounded really familiar.’
‘Not possible,’ Ueda insisted, ‘It’s a super powerful secret chant that has been in my family for generations.’
Personally, Nakamaru didn’t care about the origins of the chant. He was just relieved that everything was apparently over. Right now he just wanted to get out of this place and back to Tokyo as soon as possible.
‘Let’s get out of here,’ he said simply and was met with a chorus of agreement. His body was still feeling heavy so Nakamaru lagged behind as he walked towards the changing rooms. Suddenly a scream cut through the air.
‘It’s locked!’ Koki cried.
Kame ran up next to Koki and they tried the door together. Nakamaru felt dread build in the pit of his stomach.
‘This has to be some kind of a joke.’
* * *
‘Kame,’ Nakamaru hissed. It was pitch black now, and Nakamaru could only see the outline of Kame’s body and the towel around his face.
‘Use your towel to cover… down there, not your face!’
‘People can recognise my face, but not my crown jewels,’ Kame hissed back.
If it was left to Nakamaru, they should have just stayed the night in the water and be cooked alive. Who cared that the osen was an outdoor one? It would have been better than freezing their naked assess off running through the main street (however deserted to may be) in the middle of the night. He wasn’t sure their idol careers could withstand this. They could be arrested. Their manager would kill them.
‘Hey!’ Koki cried somewhere to his left, ‘I remember where I’ve heard that chant before! Sailor Mars uses it in Sailor Moon!’
‘It took you long enough,’ Ueda said.
‘Oh look!’ Koki’s cried again, a moment later.
‘SHHHHH!’ Nakamaru hissed at him.
‘Look!’ Koki whispered, somehow equally as loud. It took Nakamaru a moment to work out what Koki was pointing to. When he did make out what the objects were, he stared at Koki in horror.
‘We can use this, Koki!’ Kame cried excited.
‘SHHHHHHH!’
‘We can use this to cover ourselves!’ Kame whispered and then held the base of a large traffic cone against his hips.
‘Kame,’ Nakamaru said, proud that at least his voice didn’t sound as hysterical as he felt, ‘the traffic cones are a little too big to cover your you-know-what.’
‘But it would still cover it,’ Kame reasoned.
‘You’re going to walk around with something the length of your arm sticking out the front?’
‘Four of us can wrap our towels around our waste and put the cones over our faces, while one person leads us back to the Ryokan. That way both our faces and private parts will be covered, well, except for the one person leading us back.’ Taguchi suggested.
Nakamaru remembered their disastrous teamwork activity with the blindfolds and then tried to imagine four of them with the red plastic cones over their heads, walking in a single line.
‘We’re trying not to draw attention here,’ he said.
‘Can we stop arguing and keep walking? I’m freezing,’ Ueda hissed.
Kame shoved a traffic cone at Nakamaru’s chest. Nakamaru shoved it back.
‘Just take it,’ Kame said, ‘Even if you just hold it vertically upright, it will still cover a portion of your body.’
And that was now Nakamaru found himself running naked across the streets at night with his bandmates, hugging a plastic traffic cone, a towel over his face, and wondering where he went wrong in his life.
* * *
Present
‘How do you think KAT-TUN has changed with this new single?’ Tamori-san asked.
‘I think we have grown closer as a group,’ Kame asked smoothly, ‘We’ve also been doing some group activities together and travelled together recently.’
‘Oh? That’s nice. Where did you go?’
‘Because everyone has been busy with solo activities recently, we decided to go to an onsen together, to relax,’ Kame said, ‘There is no better way to get closer to someone than to bare all and bathe together!’
Nakamaru decided Kame's take on the whole thing was much better than the explanation they received from their manager ('We decided to call an Emergency Member Training so that you could spend time together and appreciate what it means to be in a group and put more effort into staying out of trash magazines.')
‘Ah,’ Tamori nodded, ‘Onsen trips certainly strengthen relationships. There are many opportunities to talk and discuss things in a relaxed atmosphere like that.’
‘Oh yes,’ Kame agreed and then laughed, ‘And after trips like that you can gain a lot of knowledge that you will have to take to your grave.’
Nakamaru didn’t know whether he wanted to laugh or cry.
Extra
‘Really? You stay over at each other’s houses and cook together?’ Tamori was asking the AKB48 girls sitting in front of them. They giggled and talked about cooking and other things Nakamaru tried to tune out.
‘- have KAT-TUN members been to each other’s houses?’
Nakamaru’s attention returned in time to see someone pass a microphone to Taguchi.
‘Yes, sometimes the other members come over and cook for me,’ Taguchi laughed. Nakamaru could only stare at him.
As they stood up to prepare for their performance, Nakamaru moved next to Taguchi and whispered, ‘What was that about? You didn’t have to make up the cooking part.’
Taguchi just shrugged and moved away. Someone bumped lightly against his shoulder and Nakamaru turned to find Ueda beside him.
‘Don’t be dense, Nakamaru,’ Ueda said, ‘Remember the report about Kame’s naked incident?’
Nakamaru nodded; what did that have to do with anything?
‘Well, Kame lives on the 15th floor.’
It was only after their performance that Nakamaru remembered Taguchi lived on the second floor.
Poll Team Present Prompt 1