6 Chapter 6 - Composing

Suzuki Aiko becomes a somewhat-constant fixture to Kson's streams, and by proxy, VShojo.

It's nothing irregular. There are dozens of streamers the talents of VShojo are friends with that are outside the company. If anything, VShojo promotes their talents to expand beyond the company's talents.

Playing games together, reading memes and creepypastas, sharing stories over food and beer—anytime Aiko shows up for a collab with Kson, it's almost guaranteed that a fun time will follow. That, and the stories the two share is almost always insane.

It's only inevitable that Aiko's growth on UTube has only increased as time goes on.

@Suzuki_Aiko Ch. | 288,221 Subscribers

Compared to Kson, Aiko is still a fairly small UTube channel, but considering she started from only over a dozen subscribers? And only over six months? It is beyond impressive.

And maybe Aiko would've been satisfied. She was always humble, and shy. She would've combusted on the spot if she had hundreds of thousands of people watching her stream.

But I'm not Aiko, and the spiritual Western blood in me sings for me to keep climbing.

Which is why,

[Suzuki Aiko | Female Human | Age: 20]

Occupation: Virtual Streamer

Str: E+ | Agi: E+

End: D+ (E+) | For: E+

Mag: - | Int: E

Cha: E | Voi: E+

Com: E+ (F+) | 

Streamer Points: 296

Talents: [Survivor (Expert)], [Natural Streamer], [Endurance Streamer], [Golden Voice], [Composer (Veteran)], [Natural Composer]

For my 100,000 Subscriber celebration, I'd done a singing stream. Then I did a mukbang stream for my 200,000 Subscriber special, and to celebrate me finally getting 'financially secured'. And by that, I mean I finally purchased something to make sure Aiko's extended family won't get in the way.

Now I'm approaching 300,000 Subscribers. It's really quite amazing to think about. And I want to do something special.

I want to compose a song. 

And now I'm going to do it for real.

It's just past midnight. I've ended my stream, did a quick check through the Stream Marketplace, and got myself a few cans of beer and coffee to keep me awake and energized. The application is already opened, and my mouse hovers over the 'New Project' button.

I'm just-, well, excited. This will be my first song! And I'll be damned if I don't put all I have into it.

The mouse is clicked. The application shifts as a new project is made.

And I begin working.

I'm still an amateur at making songs, but my Talents are backing me up. Over 2000 Stream Points for both Composer (Veteran) and Natural Composer felt a bit much at first, but I would've been lost without them. I'm also using Golden Voice to occasionally find notes that match the song I'm making.

It's…rough. I spend hours hunched behind the desk, drinking beer as I do my best to compose the song, one second at a time. By the time I'm done, it's to find sunlight peeking through my window blinds.

And that's only the melody itself. I haven't done anything about the lyrics, or the bass, and I'll still need to record myself singing the song before I can put it all together.

But it's fine. I'm more than excited to keep going.

After a quick breakfast—some onigiri I bought the night before—I'm off to a nearby karaoke bar. I greet the kind lady manning the front desk and rent myself a room for the next few hours. Once I'm in, I plug in the barebones song I've made, and I let it play in the background as I sit on one of the couches, a pen in hand and a notebook on my thighs.

Here's the thing: The song itself is fairly upbeat. I wasn't sure what tone I wanted to set for my song at first, and so I listened to an array of Vocaloid songs to get my gears running. I settled with a fairly upbeat melody in the end, though the lyrics themselves don't have to be.

I hum, tapping my pen against the notebook as the melody plays in the back. I just don't know what to put in.

Inevitably, I turn to Aiko's memories. Of the isolation following her parents' passing, of the betrayal she felt at her extended family for taking what her parents left for her, of her pain as she kneels before her depression pills and the angersorrowregretexhaustion-

I pull myself back with a bated breath. It never does me any good to dive too deep into the memories Aiko left behind.

But I've seen enough. The seed of an idea has been planted, and now it's my turn to help it grow.

"This is for you, Aiko-chan." The first words are written. A tired smile is given. "I'll do my best."

Before her parents' passing, Aiko wanted to be an idol. She knew of the harsh world she would be stepping into. But with the recent rise of Streamers who've become idols, and idols who spend their downtime streaming, it felt like a new avenue was being opened.

Before I grew old enough to understand anything, I wanted to be a singer. I've heard songs being played on our old rackety radio. Even with the static, I would hear the brilliant melodies being played, and I wanted my voice to be able to do the same.

Aiko can no longer achieve her dream.

I should've been the same. But that's not what happened. Aiko's body is now mine. Her memories are given to me. 

"It's not fair." I whisper. More ink is written into the pages.

The next few hours are spent in silence, with only my song droning from the speakers. The empty page is slowly filled with words. The lyrics are…muted, but the story it tells is gruesome. It starts slow, but the pain becomes more visceral the longer the song goes. And by the end of it, it almost sounds like the lyrics themselves are being poisoned, choppy and bated.

And when I lean back to read it through, it feels weird. Maybe it's just a difference in cultures, but I doubt the past me would've been able to sympathize with a song like this. This hatred to myself, brought on by the cruelties of others-

I grew up being taught to despise the world. "This world ain't fair." My uncle taught me. "So fight bac'. If the world puts ye' down, stand up and walk even farther." Those words had kept me going through my adult years.

But now that I have Aiko's memories in me, I think I understand it a little more.

"That's the lyrics done." I do a quick stretch. "What time is it-, oh." My smile becomes awkward. It's 4 in the afternoon. I haven't eaten breakfast or lunch, nor have I drank anything. I grimace as I cough. No wonder my throat feels so terrible.

I take a picture of the finished lyrics, and I bid the kind lady farewell as I leave. I then make my way to the ramen place I like to go to these days. I greet the old man, order my favored miso ramen, and I busy myself with reading the lyrics as I wait for my meal to cook.

The ramen comes soon enough. "Here." The old man goes as he places the bowl of steaming ramen before me. "Enjoy."

I grin back. "Thank you, Boss."

The old man—who I affectionately call 'Boss'—huffs as he turns away. "Yeah, yeah. Don't spill anything, girl."

The ramen is amazing, as usual. The savory, almost buttery taste just can't be beat. And because I'm not a heretic, I drink the bowl empty before I pay for the meal. 

By the time I get back to my apartment, it's almost five in the afternoon. I still have five more hours before my stream starts, and I spend no time dallying before I'm sitting behind my desk once more, ready to make some bass to round-out my somewhat barebones melody.

And it's much easier compared to the melody. Partly because I now have experience, and partly because I have my lyrics to scaffold from. It takes just about four hours to make something acceptable.

Still, it's not done. Not by a long shot. Once I've recorded my vocals, I'll go back to this and tweak everything. Sand out the little notches and make it the best song it can be.

But I'll leave this for later. I'll start preparing for my stream now.

…

A week has gone by since then. And I feel like I'm going insane.

Past me considered the song 'almost done'. I would pay a million Yen to travel back in time and sock her in the face.

Because the song is not done. Once I went back to it, I realized just how many dissonant notes there are in the melody. Once I've done that, I then realized certain points where my lyrics would literally be impossible to sing. After I tweaked it, the bass sounded a little off. And then the melody wouldn't fit quite right with the new bass.

Rinse, repeat. Over and over.

But it's done! After a week of mental torture, it's finally done…!

Or, well, almost done. Only vocals stand as the final barrier between me and the finish line.

And that means renting a recording studio. There's no recording studio anywhere close to my apartment complex though. I'll need to travel about an hour using the trains to reach the closest studio I can rent.

It's fine. I don't mind, and it's another excuse I can use to spend time exploring.

It's 6 a.m. right now. I've already rented out a space today. 

I take a deep breath as I sling a bag over my shoulder. I have a USB drive with my song inside, just in case I can't download it from my online cloud for some reason. My notebook is in there too. And my coin purse.

I open the door. And I lock it as I leave.

…

But little did I know that this recording session would be my first step towards stardom.