CHAPTER 3-THE EAST
The orchestra of the East is totally not the same as the West. All the instruments are really Chinese style and are totally the different design than the West’s. There wasn’t an electric guitar, to start with, and the keyboard was like a piano with only strings but no keys (by the way, in Chinese, it’s called a qin) and the only Western instrument available there was a cello. Aside from that, it’s all Chinese, Chinese and more Chinese instruments.
The conductor for the East anime team was no other than Cho Hakkai, the little ol’ good-natured cutie. Adjusting his glasses, he said with a smile (as always) and said, “Hait, hait (OK, OK). Places, everyone, and pick an instrument. Dozo, dozo (please, please)!”
Everyone did as they were told, chattering loudly. Goku and Gojyo fought for the Chinese drum, resulting into a loud, painful thwack from Genjo Sanzo’s famous fan. Sakuragi and Rukawa fought for the Chinese trumpet, resulting to hard bashes on the head by our famous ‘gorilla’ Akagi. Tamahome and Tasuki fought for the chimes and had to be pacified by both the calm and collected Chichiri and the tough guy Nuriko. In fact everyone was fighting for an instrument and was pacified by another person that the whole orchestra room was pretty much a warzone for a full 10 minutes before they finally settled down on an instrument they could agree on. Hakkai and his faithful shoulder companion Hakryu the dragon couldn’t help but let out a sweat drop.
“Alright, everybody. Got your instruments? Now let us begin.”
Unlike the West, the East animes knew immediately what they wanted to play: their own theme song. But then another problem arose—neither anime wanted their theme song to be played last. The argument started all over again, from Vandread to Fushigi Yuugi to Doraemon to You’re Under Arrest to Akazukin Cha Cha to Ranma ½ to Gundam, etc, etc…Even Genjo Sanzo’s famous Spirit Ascending Gun couldn’t shut them up; it made things even worse.
Suddenly the whole orchestra team was set alight for a moment there. There was a blinding flash, a scorching heat for a split second and then a thick layer of silence. Everyone was burned as black as soot but the instruments were untouched. The silence lasted for a full 2 minutes before the team turned slowly towards the ever smiling Hakkai with a very bright aura glowing on his left hand and Hakryu letting out a dragon laugh.
“Now that I have your attention…” Hakkai said as he dug out a piece of blank paper and a pencil. “It seems that if you carry on like this, we’ll never make it for the orchestra duel, so I’ve come up with a fair and square plan. Now I will write numbers in sequence and put them in this box here, and one person from each of their show will come up and draw. Simple enough? Fair enough?”
Everyone nodded, too dumbstruck to talk after being burnt into a crisp toast. Hakkai counted all the anime shows mentally and wrote the numbers in the paper. He then dropped the numbers one by one into the spectacle box he put his glasses in, gave it a shake and opened it again for the members to take it. One by one a representative from each show came to take a number. Some cheered when they got a favourable number and some groaned. It was expected, but they accepted it just the same. None of them wanted to argue; they didn’t want to become a human charcoal.
Soon, everyone was back in their places with their instruments in their hands. Hakkai tapped the board with his conducting stick and counted “1, 2, 3” before waving it, conducting his orchestra team into playing their songs right. The songs started out quite bland and out of practice but slowly they kinda got the hang of it.
Finally, after they played their songs for a few times, Hakkai saw the watch on his hand showing that it was time for quits. He tapped the board, signaling everyone to stop. They put down their instruments, looking quite buffed out by the practices.
“Hait, everybody. We’ll call it quits for now,” Hakkai said with his usual smile on his face. “Do whatever you want, but come back later tonight. We need to practice some more. There are some songs that you need to tighten a little.”
“What?? Come back again?! I don’t wanna!!” Goku protested.
“Yeah! Why do we have to come back and practice?” someone from Gundam yelled in the background.
“Well, I don’t know…” Hakkai smiled even wider as his hand started to glow again. Immediately, everyone punched the Gundam wise guy and agreed to come back tonight. Hakkai smiled and said, “That’s good. We have to work hard to defeat those West cartoons, you know. Practice makes perfect. Besides, we agreed to do this, didn’t we?”
Everyone mumbled in reply as they left the orchestra room one by one. Like the West, some of them stayed back to play the instruments and test it out to either pass their time (‘coz they don’t have a show) or just for fun. Goku immediately ran towards Sanzo and grabbed his arm, begging him to take him to the cafeteria.
“Harahate-ne (hungry), Sanzo~!” Goku whined lovingly. He had always loved this demented monk to the core and was always with him even when there wasn’t a show going on. Gojyo saw them and huffed, walking away to a gorgeous chick from the You’re Under Arrest show. He was used to them.
“Urusai (Shut up),” Sanzo said as he gave a whack on the little monkey’s head with his famous holy fan. Goku was unperturbed.
“Harahate-ne~!! I wanna eat sushi, tempura, ramen, sashimi…”
“Go away before I blow your brains out,” Sanzo’s gun was on his forehead now, but Goku was used to his threats. He looked at his beloved monk with those watery puppy eyes and smiled forlornly.
“Aishiteru-ne (I love you)~”
The safety pin on the gun was released.
“Aishiteru, Sanzo~! Harahate~!!”
Sanzo stared at the suicidal Goku for a few moments before sighing and wrapped his arm around Goku’s waist as he and the little monkey walked out of the building towards a genuine Japanese restaurant. That was one of his weaknesses: he eventually wouldn’t be able to resist Goku’s temptation.
Besides this loving (occasionally getting at each other’s throats) couple, there had been other couples trying to spend their free time sucking up on each other, like Ranma and Akane practicing their instrument together, Ayashi and Toru walking towards the cafeteria with their baby in a pram, Nobita and Shizuka practicing their lines for the show, Tamahome and Miaka going out on a double date with Chichiri and Tasuki (yes, these two are couples as well) and Reka and Shal (Strange Dawn casts) trying to help Berey to ask Yuko out so that they, too, could go out on a double date.
But, as promised, that night the anime casts came back one by one to practice their music until late in the night.
“Are you really, really sure this duel is going to work?” Pak Cik Din asked skeptically as they peered into the orchestra room to check out how the East was doing.
“Yeah, Misbun,” Mat Gempak agreed worriedly. “What if they don’t kiss and make up? What if something goes wrong, like the humans taking sides and one of the team has to be eliminated…?”
“They will make peace,” Misbun replied, smiling mysteriously. “Trust me on this one.”
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