I am currently sitting at a concierge office for the Shinkansen first class ticket, enjoying my coffee and some biscuits while reading the news. that's not a whole lot going in the world right about now. There are a few mentions of my apps and their effects in the world and on social media. Nothing noteworthy could make any waves while I'm off to Tokyo.

I'm more interested in the pride of the Japanese trains.

The shinkansen in all its majesty. Alex could never understand why some Japanese people are so obsessed with the train otaku culture, the Shinkansen. Well, technically it's not an ordinary train. It's a bullet train. The Shinkansen is colloquially known in English as the Bullet train, a network of high-speed railway lines in Japan. Initially, it was built to connect to Tokyo, and said its development and growth of the world, but..as for long distance, travel goes, Perhaps it's an achievement towards their technological prowess in travel.

The train he's about to board is called the Hayabusa from the Shin-Hakodate-Hokuto Station line. It will take approximately four hours to Tokyo, with plenty of room to stretch about. Perhaps he could even write a new series on the Hayabusa. a Manga about trains that talk about trains? 

"No, that's too meta. I wouldn't want the world to punish me for the laws of causality again"

the joke of the "yo dawg, I heard you like trains, so I add more trains and waifu your trains so you could train your trains" will literally kill me in this world. Damn you, Xzibit. Damn you and your yo-dawg jokes.

 

"The Hokaido Shinkansen Hayabusa 11 bound for Shin -Hakodate-Hokuto Tokyo-"

 

"Hurry up Alex! the train is here!"

There she is then. still munching on some ice cream and some Hokuriku Oishi tart she bought, it's a whole bag. and that plus the cream puff bags she kept dragging on her wrist as the plastic bag we bought on the way to the train station, so much junk food, so very much of it. Alex wondered where she put all that junk food she ate. And here he thought that girls don't like to snack on too much stuff, must be that Asian hyper metabolism thing he always heard about. Some girls just can't get fat no matter how much they ate?

"Perhaps Ueno-san is like that huh?"

"Yeah, I'm coming...just packing up some of these magazines for some ideas on the train to sketch about"

The Hayabusa arrives an stopped with its engine still blaring, it's quite loud.

"After leaving the station, this train will only stop at 5 stations, Omiya, Sendai, Morioka, Shin Aomori, Shin Hakodate Hokuto-"

the announcement has started to blare on the teleprompter to announce its passenger. of its travel time and retinue. By the way, did you know that the word "Hayabusa" means falcon? The Falcon Bullet train. 

"I wonder if they would sell any bento on the train? Now that i saw Ueno ate all that junk food, I'm getting hungry"

............................

 

We arrive at our seat, looks kinda like an airplane set. the chair is especially stylish with a 2+1 seater. amazingly comfortable. Ueno got first to pick beside the window as I sat beside her.

"Ladies and gentlemen, welcome aboard on the Tohoku  Shinkansen, this is the Hayabusa Super Granclass express from the -

I drown myself out from that announcement as I listen to Ueno talk about something rather interesting,

" Hey Alex, those ideas you said, is it about a game? is that why we are heading there? the only reason you brought me is that..you need my voice and talent isn't it?"

Alex could only smile as he thought about it, it's rather obvious, isn't it? It's not like he's hiding it.

"Yeah, that's pretty much it, but there's more too..wanna know something else?"

"Oh? what else is there other than borrowing my voice for voice acting?"

Alex contemplate it for a few minutes enjoying the scenery of the shinkansen as he thought hard how to convey what he's gonna do.

" I was...going to use your voice as a prototype module for a voice modular bank, If they have a studio, i want to compile a voice bank of all your ranges"

Ueno gave Alex a quizzical look that she doesn't understand a single thing.

"You...wanted to store my voice? a voicebank? huh? what for? will that do anything?"

Alex thought to himself for a few seconds and decided to spill the beans

"Ever thought of Idols? What about Digital Idols? now imagine yourself as that Idol, what if I could digitize your voice and sell it to the world for millions..."

the mention of the word millions got her eyes stared at Alex in wonderment, 

"Will you sell it for me?"

Ueno tried to think for a moment and swiftly said

"No, I don't think I want that, that's my voice. I wouldn't want to sell it for someone else"

"Fine, for free then, what if your voice could help thousands ..no, millions of aspiring music artists without the voice talent to make music? what about that then?"

"Eh? free? no..wait, I wouldn't say I wouldn't like the money...Muuu! you're bullying me again!"

I took out my headset and put it on her

"Too slow, here.. listen for a sample I did copying some of your voice lines when we were practicing on the school rooftop before our summer holidays"

"Ahhh!! You were recording?! how sly! I told you not to record that!"

"Just listen, will you? Here, listen to the music"

Alex put on the headset and force her to wear it when she listen in to some really catchy music with her voice on it. She wonders how Alex did it, it was catchy and poppy. a very interesting song with the use of synthethisers.

"wait! Alex! eh? eh?! that's my voice? but..I didn't say these words back then...how? oh? Did I sound that good? EH? how did you do this?! I'm rapping?! This is Amazing!"

" I call it the Vocaloid project, since I only have your voice and some of my sister's voice bank for some samples, I could only do two songs. This is the only one under your voice, The song is called " Just be Friends" Do you like it?"

"Just be friends! lalalala- Just be friends!"

she's not listening at all, to absorb in listening to the song he created from her own voice, Alex can't help but smile looking at her childhood friend closing her eyes and humming the song so childlike with innocence. By the time she's done listening, she said this with a furious undershirt under her face. She was really angry...so angry, that Alex wondered if she has ever seen her this mad before.

Why? he doesn't know. But there's one thing he knows. Today? he totally fucked up. somehow? it's gonna be his fault always.

"Ahh! I love this song! but I really hate the lyrics! Muuu!..Just be friends? JUST BE FRIENDS?! Is that what you think of me?! You Jerk! I hate you!"

"eh?"

"It seems I somehow angered her with a bunch of powderkegs. No, powderkeg is an understatement, I seem to have blown the whole TNT cargo"

"W..wait, it's just a song..there's no hidden meaning-"

"Waaaa!!!! Do you really hate me?! I'm just gonna be just your friend? B..but..I..."

"oh boy..."

" I chained you?! is that how you really feel! waa!!!!"

"Oh boy..oh boy...I'm dead"

...........................................

 

1 hour later...

Still crying and bawling, Alex couldn't do anything to rectify that, he wondered if it was even the right choice to choose that song? but it was a really popular song back in his timeline, and this world doesn't have Vocaloids, he checked and there isn't anything similar to this, and yet..why is this happening? Isn't the cliche story usually go like..boy meets girl, the boy makes girl music, girl falls in love? nope..it backfired splendidly. Why did he ever choose that song?

Only for one reason. It's catchy. He didn't think anything else was wrong, he didn't think that the lyrics or the tone was that dark either...then again, there are a lot of things Alex doesn't know like... How much does Ueno-san like Alex for example? That's how badly he fucked up. And perhaps the girl might overthink this..then again, these are simple teenagers.

and thus...the event shall continue-

"B..but you said Just be friends!! one..of the lyrics it said..you screamed yourself like broken chains...is that what you really think of me? Sniff*

"Wait...like I said, the lyrics don't mean anything-

"How could it not mean anything?! How could someone write something so beautiful and dark at the same time when you don't mean it! 

"W..wait, I can explain the lyrics..it wasn't-"

"You meanie! Jerk! I really thought we had something special, I thought I was your best friend...but this is too sad...*sniff*

"Oh boi..I messed up real bad huh.."

"Okay..okay..wait, wait, I have a backup song..listen to this one..but it isn't completed yet..alright? This one might make up for it..probably...I just..please stop crying"

"Meanie...sniff*"

"Alright..my bad, I'm a meanie...i thought it was rather dark and sentimental music..nothing more, I mean, I am the author of Kyoto Ghoul, did you really think I wouldn't write dark and edgy stuff? isn't that...what sells these days? Sorry...my bad, next time? I'll make a song according to whatever you want.."

"Promise? the next song will be something...cheerful alright?"

"Sure, whatever song you want"

"hehe! Okay! It's okay..you don't have to change anything, it's an amazing song, I still can't believe you actually made this, I didn't think you could make music Alex"

"Finally she smile, Alex thought she wouldn't ever stop bawling and crying like that, getting interrupted trying to explain is useless, note to self Alex, next time a woman bawls? just admit it's your wrong and be done with it. Note to self. Women are odd creatures that men couldn't help to understand."

At least at that time, Alex thought to himself, but as always, everyone always overthinks things. Who cares if he's a 30-year-old transmigrator? He's a bachelor 30-year-old otaku that doesn't go out much and doesn't mingle much with people or make any friends, even back in the old world he is socially inept, He might be able to talk the talk and walk the walk, but deep down? He's still very much an introvert.

"Right...alright, I promise, anyway..cheer up. this song will probably do..but uhh..it's just a testing loop, although you might find it catchy"

Its the leek song from the original Hatsune Miku, Alex's classmate brought this song to me back in the previous life, it still gets stuck in his head after all these years, and Can't help but sing along even though it annoys me so much, but yeah, this amuses Alex so he can't help it. The original song was made using the Polka Loituma levan song.

"Hahaha! I'm speaking polish! and singing this so funnily! hahaha! what kind of song is this?!"

" Levan Polka..told you it was pretty catchy, I call it the Leek song"

At least she's back to her cheerful self again. Never again, Alex thought...

The rest of the journey was spent with him sketching out the next series he wanted to do. A series that's close to his heart, a superhero manga although not really a superhero comic, for now, it's just in the process of sketching it, getting a feel of the new

art style, bolder, far more traditional brush strokes and lines. Alex tried to create a few characters and it pique Ueno-sans interest again after seeing many character designs with a similar theme, all of them wore superhero outfits, some of the characters has flames coming out of their eyes, and some of them have ice coming out from the hands, one of the girl characters looks like a frog motif..it was certainly, different from Alex's usual Kyoto Ghoul highly tonalitic and rough.

This one was more..bold and traditional and yet, some of the lines show conviction, power, and glory of the heroic nature of the characters. Some of the villains are portrayed using dark shadows and obscure line art..something very different than Kyoto Ghoul but at the same time, very stylistic in its own way.

"What are you drawing Alex? Is this one of the newer series?"

Alex kept sketching and just nodded as he said

"Yeah, it's about superheroes and stuff, just sketching..it's nothing set in stone, I still haven't finished up the other series I'm currently doing, This is just some practice in shifting my art style later on"

Alex kept sketching as he focus on his art, Ueno kept looking at it, as he drew it as fast as the eye can see, one thing she notices was that..Alex has some superhuman speed in sketching and drawing, she had never seen hands and fingers move that fast before, it's almost not human.

"Alex..your hands..."

Alex notices her stare and kept smiling

" It's my technique, I've been getting faster, I could go faster if I wanted to...Just think of it as my superpowers"

Ueno san just nodded and said

" I can see why you wanted to create a superhero manga, but..I don't think I've ever read a superhero manga in japan, Aren't those very popular in the west like DC and Marvel but, I don't think our Japanese readers would like this very much"

 

"Well, Who knows? maybe I'll change that trend.."