shaman king - music

[lacewood]

For cynic_in_charge
Funbari no Uta spoilers/knowledge required.

-----

You could have heard the yell all over Tokyo.

"BOB RETIRED?!!!"

"Yes he did. Three years ago. Stop kicking up such a fuss about it, the world isn't going to end just because your favourite singer isn't singing anymore."

Curious, Hana peered into the kitchen to see his father (still trying to get used to idea of having one) gaping in undisguised horror at his mother while she, all cool indifference, read the morning paper.

"But... but... it's BOB! He can't retire! He just... can't!"

Mother looked up at the frying pan on the stove. "Breakfast is burning," she pointed out.

Father removed it without even turning to look at what he was doing, then stood there just holding it and looking like the world had ended. "But... but..."

"Even if he hadn't retired, he'll die sooner or later. Your father was listening to him when he was your age. Stop being an idiot," Mother said ruthlessly. "And hurry up with breakfast, I'm not waiting all morning. Hana, don't just stand there staring. Come in and sit down."

Hana jumped, then shuffled in to sit beside her. Watched as his father dumped a place of pancakes on the table, still looked shell shocked.

"... Who's Bob?" he ventured to ask his mother.

Father turned very, very slowly to stare at him. "You don't know who Bob is?"

Hana blinked. "I've never heard of him," he said.

Father turned to Mother. "Anna! How could he not know who Bob IS?"

"Hana was three years old when Bob retired," she pointed out. "Stop kicking up such a fuss and sit down - Yoh!"

"You can't NOT know who Bob is!" Before Hana knew what was happening, his father had him by the shirt and was dragging him out of the kitchen. "He's the best! I'll show you!"

He didn't let go of his bemused son until they were in the main bedroom, where he released the boy to frown and stare around him. "Wait, where are my old...?"

"In the left cupboard, on the top shelf." Mother stood in the door, eyeing them in the mixture of exasperation and resignation she so often wore when looking at Father.

Hana watched as he threw the door open with a bang and lifted a heavy box down from the shelf, setting it before the small boy with an almost ceremonious thump. Lifting the dusty lid, he drew an ancient pair of huge orange headphones from the box.

Blinked at it. Then, leaning over, he slung them about Hana's shoulders and grinned at him. "You can have them now," he said, and returned to rifling through the stack of CDs and MDs filling the box while Hana blinked and lifted the heavy headphones to stare at them.

Father piled a small stack of MDs so new they were still in their plastic wrappers on the floor and looked up.

"His last 3 albums," Mother said. "There were seven best-of compilations after that, but those were just cheap marketing gimmicks." She added with a disdainful sniff.

"Bob is never cheap!" But the grin he gave her was wide and dazzling in its brilliance anyway.

"Here, this one!" He got up to drag an old CD player out of the cupboard, then shoved the CD in and switched it on. "It's his best song!"

Chin propped on his knees, headphones hanging heavy (a comforting weight) around his neck, Hana stared at the CD player.

I'm Bob, I had a dream
One morning, at the usual crossroads

You and I
Far away in space
Becoming the rings of Saturn
Dance!

Dodge the meteorites
Be careful with your breath
Until we can breathe again

The one I fell in love with
Isn't you
I'm loving
Boblove
Say one thing for me
Boblove
Here is the Pure Land paradise
Boblove
After all, Boblove is excellent...

Hana eyed his father as the song came to a halt. "... It's a funny song..." he mumbled.

Father waved the CD wildly at him. "Of course it isn't! It's great! Come on, I'll play it again and you can sing along! I'll teach you the words!"

"Breakfast is getting cold," Mother pointed out but the song was playing again, and Father was singing, loudly and not always tunefully, as he beat time in the air with a CD. Hana found himself grinning too - the song was kind of catchy, he thought, even if the words were funny and weird to sing...

"Anna, you sing along too!"

She huffed at the invitation; stood, arms folded, and watched them sing together. Maybe she even smiled.

You and I
Far away in space
Becoming the rings of Saturn
Dance!

end

December 2003