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Juri breathes in deep. His eyes scan the currently empty venue that's to be their debut stage.
They were finally here. They had made it.
He can already envision it in his mind's eye; the raucous crowd of excited people, the energy like live wire, buzzing.
Electrifying.
It feels like every waking moment of their life the past few years was leading up to this. And it probably was.
This was their announcement. Tomorrow, they would announce to Japan that they were here.
That the view they had from the sidelines had changed, and they were the view this time. Now, they were the people they, themselves, had admired; eyes shining, heart pounding, face split with huge grins.
Their expressions likely haven't changed, even if their vantage point has.
Screams and cheers would reverberate in the space around them. Chants of "SixTONES" overlap with calls of their names.
They weren't strangers to the stage, but this felt like a whole new thing. This stage signaled both the fulfillment of their dreams, and the appearance of nightmares like those they hadn't seen yet.
Being an official unit, finally debuting as SixTONES, standing in the same life position all of their predecessors had stood before them, spoke to them of triumph. Of the warmth of achievement that bubbles up within.
And, it spoke of uncertainty, of fear. Would they be enough? Was who they were, what they had to offer at this moment, enough?
Being under one of, if not the, biggest entertainment agencies in Japan was good, because everyone had heard of Johnny's Entertainment. The company coming out with another artist was almost routine; people expected it, and looked forward to it. Plenty of the groups produced out of Johnny's were well-loved, and well-remembered. Their agency knew how to market.
That saved them a lot. SixTONES wouldn't be some unknown band of six men trying to make their dreams come true. Even before they had plans to debut, their names were already known, like all the Juniors along with them.
The group SixTONES wouldn't be unseen or unheard.
But this same renown that worked in their favor, also carried with it a weight they didn't think they could carry.
The weight of expectation was gargantuan. This awful fear of failure, of not meeting those expectations, was nearly crippling.
And yet, they wouldn't give it up for the world.
Not just because this was their dream, but because they had each other, and as god-awfully cheesy as that was, it was true.
It was their dream. They weren't going it alone. The six of them were taking on the realization of their dream, and everything that came with it.
They would take on the highs: when entire stadiums sang their songs, when their events sold out and people recognized them. They would stand underneath the kingdom lights that shone just for them; the kings of the world they had fought for.
And they would take on the lows: the people who wanted to tear them down, the cutting words, slashing insults. The pretenders, the cynics, who scream their outrage because their minds are too closed, their vision too small, to realize the world belonged to everyone.
As they moved mountains together, so would they fight the dragons that threatened them, together.
And maybe often, the mountains wouldn't budge. Maybe the beasts get the best of them, and they're left battered and bruised.
But let it be known that they would keep getting up and pushing on. Because they each carried not one, not two, but six people's dreams. This fight wasn't individual; it was communal. They were going off to war and everybody was on the front lines.
They intended to blast through whatever blockade rose up against them, even if that took slowly, carefully, chipping at the obstacles.
They rode the high that comes with achieving what you've worked so hard for, and nothing and no one was going to tear them down from heaven's Ninth Cloud.
And if someday, somehow, something managed to rudely yank them back to earth, or attempted to drag them into hell, they would fight. They would make their dreams come true, naysayers and their own insecurities be damned.
But more than anything, they would fight to cement their existence into the fabric of the world. They would make sure their presence was known, and never forgotten. The world might not have been ready for the advent of SixTONES, but they were going to have to get ready.
They were making this stage, this name, this band, theirs. And who knows? Maybe someday, the world too.
Matsumura Hokuto, Lewis Jesse, Morimoto Shintaro, Tanaka Juri, Kouchi Yugo, and Kyomoto Taiga are SixTONES.
It didn’t matter how long it would take, how difficult it would be, how unrealistic their ideals were, they would not be forgotten. And even if the world didn’t remember, as long as the people who mattered, did. Even if, at the end of it all, they, themselves, are the only ones who remember, then they would hold these memories close to their hearts, carve it in their souls.
One day, we will be remembered.