Chapter Text
It was a chill day today
The sun was setting, the lights were blazing, the usual car honking, kids playing around and people discussing. It was a normal day in Tokyo.
Right down the street were two girls walking the street, one noticeably having brown hair with brown eyes and the other having yellow brownish hair both of which were noticeably film students who graduated from their university. The same university they graduated from.
They now collect audio of music and similar things as a shared mutual hobby that they do together.
Their respective names are Takayama Ayaka and Hatono Makiko.
If there is one thing to note about them is that they seem to be fans of indie music, especially obscure ones.
They seem to be heading to their nearby music store they often frequent, wondering if they can collect any new music.
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They entered the store together which was mostly empty as usual, the manager took notice of them immediately and got on the counter immediately.
“Ah! Welcome! Here for the usual, right?”
Ayaka nodded with a smile on her face.
“Got any new music that you think we might like?”
“Yeah! I wanna listen to some new ones!”
Makiko added up with a smile on her face.
Their lives seem to be doing all well and all, the Manager thought.
“Ah, I'm sorry to disappoint you but we don't have anything that you might like.”
Their faces frowned a little bit, a little disappointing but nevertheless, they can still go to the other music store in the other parts of the town.
“That's completely fine! See you tomorrow!”
“See you tomorrow!”
Ayaka and Makiko waved at them and then turned around and went for the doo-
“WAIT!”
Ayaka and Makiko were flummoxed by the sudden loud call of wait, usually the manager doesn't even do that…nor did they even hear him being loud until now.
“Did he just scream?”
“I.. I've never heard him scream until now.”
They both turned to the Manager who had in his hand what seems to be some sort of…tape? A cassette tape?
“Eh? What's this all about?”
Ayaka questioned as she took the cassette tape.
“My cousin from a while ago recorded a 58 second snippet of the song that played on the local radio station he was listening to and he gave it to me for me to figure out what song it was…but I couldn't find anything that could really match this song..plus the tape is damaged so it didn't help me.”
“Have you looked hard enough? This store must have had a thousand pieces of music available in its existence!”
Makiko questioned, it's definitely a possibility that the cassette tape might have been one of them
The Manager answered hastily.
“Well I've tried, trust me..I really tried and besides.. I'm looking to get rid of this anyways so I want you to take this.”
Oh so you just wanna get rid of this?
Not wanting to be rude, Ayaka nodded with a smile on her face and then said the following words as enthusiastically as possible.
“We’ll try to find the song on this tape! Thank you very much!”
Makiko looked like she was about to object but then she was dragged away by Ayaka with Ayaka waving goodbye at the manager and Makiko just perplexed by what her friend had just done.
And now they are finally at Ayaka’s apartment
The Cassette tape was now on the table and both of them were staring at it for a little while.
It looked pretty normal and what was written on it was “???? - ????”
This might be the most obscure piece of music they may have picked up yet.
“Let's play it.”
Makiko said, finally breaking down the silence that had been there ever since they set down the cassette tape on the table.
Ayaka looked at her and nodded as they finally inserted the Cassette tape down and then it began playing.
They listened to the tape recorder up straight from the start to finish.
The intro was rather sudden as if a song was already playing, The song emphasised off beat, the drums seemed the most driving with the drums and bass being more connected and there was a great guitar riff that happened. The vocals smashed really well into the music.
In the tape they noticed there were some tape hissing and some sonic artefacts and due to its damaged nature, the quality sounded a little bad and some part definitely sounded more clearer than the others.
The vocals are clean but they aren't clean enough to figure out exactly the type of lyrics that was being said which could leave up to interpretations.
And the tape ended at a rather horrible time, it seems that the song they were listening to had more to offer and then it just abruptly ended similarly to how it just abruptly started.
However, for the personal opinion of the song so far…
It's rather delightful to hear, let alone play; it was a goosebump-inducing, emotionally intense song that rips a heart out. The entire song so far feels nostalgic and it sure does trigger a memory of your own life even if that memory didn't happen at all.
The progression is rather simple and could tug at a listener’s heartstrings. It could easily touch the heart and soul of a listener.
It's a breathless enthralling beauty when played and listened to.
It was something different, far different than what was expected out of obscurity and granted that the band’s quality wasn't certainly the best.
But it was something unique and that's what Ayaka thought so
And so does Makiko.
“I could see why the manager’s cousin wanted to find the song, this is nothing but amazing!” Makiko comments which surprised Ayaka who turned to look at her.
"I know, right?” Ayaka replied, it really surprised her to see Makiko comment so loudly on that. It's unusual that she does it and she only does it for things that she really likes
And by “really likes” SHE really likes it.
“Sorry it just came out of nowhere haha…I just really liked the song.” Makiko said, finally turning towards her friend.
“I wonder what song this is.” Makiko asked.
Ayaka took out the Cassette tape and they both looked at the “????--????” That was written down on the tape.
They looked at each other then at the tape, then at each other and then the tape and repeated for a few more times before Ayaka got an idea.
“Right! We should search it up on google!” Ayaka suggested rhapsodically, they were really REALLY interested in this and Makiko only nodded in response.
Makiko pulled out her phone and went on Google and then pressed on the “Search for Song” button.
Ayaka inserts the cassette tape again and it plays with Makiko keeping it nearby, trying to identify it and….
A song popped up!
“Soul of Energy” by “Hypersonic Hooligans.”
They took a listen to it and
Despite it sounding similar, it was definitely not them. Not at all.
“Maybe we can just search up the lyrics?” Makiko asked.
“Great idea!” Ayaka responded.
She typed out the lyrics on google and.
“Pain of Fire” by Tsuno-Spaiku
She searched up “Pain of Fire” by Tsuno-Spaiku on the internet and still…
The song did not sound anything like the one inside the Cassette tape.
And thus began a painstaking hour upon hour of searching.
No matter what we search or do anything, we could not find the song that matched exactly the type of song on the tape until Makiko’s suggestion.
“Have you tried asking on WatZatSong? The Website?"
“Eh?”
Ayaka turned to look at Makiko since she had no idea about a website like that, let alone even think that a website like that exists at all.
“The Manager’s cousin has been trying to search up the song and so does the Manager, he asked us for help and since we can't find the song…we should ask for help from that website.”
Ayaka gave it some thoughts and…
“Well we can try, We just have to upload a sample and upload it.”
“Yeah…and people may identify it…Great Idea!” Makiko responded as she started making an account for the website.
But then a doubt rose up in Ayaka’s mind…
What if…What if the Song is lost? What if nobody could find it?
Ayaka has to bring this up.
“What if nobody could find it?”
“Then it would be lostwave.”
“What's that?”
“Lostwave is an internet phenomena, It is a term for music with little to no information available about their origins, including song titles, names of associated musicians, and recording and release dates. It sprouted off the search for the Most Mysterious Song.”
“The one we listened to? Like the Wind?”
“Exactly.”
“Ooh, I've never noticed that this thing has been happening…great work on you Makiko-chan!”
“It's no problem of mine..but thanks to you…In case it's truly lost.. I'll add every information we know.”
In a long process, Makiko retrieved a recording of the tape and converted it into a sample and wrote down everything about the tape and then finally uploaded it to the website in hopes that someone may find the song for them.
And thus the search for the song has begun.