Tokyo: The evil god doesn't want to be the top star

"After rehearsals... I'm cramming..."

"Do you think that kind of movement is the radio gymnastics for elementary school students?"

After these words were spoken, the teammates' expressions twitched and their voices became lower and lower until they fell into complete silence.

Difficult dance moves require local strengthening of muscles and joints through years of hard training. There is no quick way to achieve success.

"Arrogant bastard..."

"Never mind, let's use the rest of today's time to finish the group dance. The individual solo part will be replaced by movement for the time being, and I will practice it by myself tomorrow!"

Hirano Yuta stood up with an unhappy look on his face and signaled everyone to start training.

"If you want to make a fool of yourself, don't do it in a group situation. Just drag down your teammates..."

He knew very well that this kind of song selection and ranking was a deliberate arrangement made by the program team targeting Xia Fan's "shortcomings in dancing".

No matter how hard Xia Fan tried, it was good enough that he could practice the group dance well in these two days, and there was no way to blame him.

As for the second-ranked Hirano Yuta himself, he knew very well why he was drawn to this team...

Firstly, it is to create the illusion that "this team is very strong" in the popularity rankings, so that the audience will ignore the fact that the members' specialties and songs do not match at all.

Secondly, in order to avoid a situation where Hirano Yuta regains a huge lead in popularity after Xia Fan's defeat, the program team deliberately implemented this "popularity balance" strategy to shorten the gap between the trainees in the front row, increase the intensity of competition, and enhance the suspense later on.

As for An Ziyao, who was even worse at dancing than Xia Fan, he was simply added in as an "insurance" to ensure their team's defeat.

Therefore, the irritability and disappointment that Yuta Hirano showed since he drew "Oxygen Bomb" was not entirely because of Xia Fan, but more because of the program crew that treated him as a "sacrifice."

……

The performance was approaching and the rehearsal time was tight. No matter how different everyone's thoughts were, they started rehearsing the group dance against the clock.

The melody and rhythm of the song "Oxygen Bomb" are very simple, and each person's sung words are repetitive and monotonous. There is no difficulty in terms of vocal range and technique. It is basically at the level of "singing a few lines while dancing to the rhythm", so everyone quickly became proficient in the song.

But as for the dance part, just as Hirano Yuta said, the actual physical feeling of dancing is much more difficult than it looks to the eyes...

The dance has a large range of motion, and the overall sense of strength of the movements is very high. It is also filled with subtle control of small joints and small muscle groups. From time to time, large-scale collective wave movements are performed to the accompaniment of explosive rhythms...

"Huh...huh..."

"So, so tired..."

After only five repetitions, everyone in the practice room was like they were doing a set of high-intensity, non-stop TABATA...

The sounds of panting and sweat dripping onto the wooden floor gradually began to become loud enough to compete with the background music.

"No, no, let's take a break!"

"Legs, I can't feel my legs..."

"Water, give me water..."

Kishiyo and three other trainees "died heroically" one by one and collapsed on the sweaty floor.

The sight of it wriggling on the ground and breathing heavily reminds people of a fish that has become dehydrated and left the shore.

"These weaklings, they just finished rehearsing their movements and actions, and they're already failing before they even start rehearsing..."

"Forget it, take a break for ten minutes!"

This kind of "sword dance" would be an ineffective rehearsal without people, so Hirano Yuta had to stop and threw mineral water at several people in disappointment.

"These two guys..."

He unscrewed the bottle cap and gulped down the mineral water. He glanced at the other two teammates who were still standing with some surprise...

"Martin's dance foundation is quite good."

At this moment, Martin, who was only wearing a vest, had beads of sweat on his dark muscles, and his strong chest muscles rose and fell with his breathing...

But that was all; judging from his calm expression and casual posture, he clearly still had plenty of energy left.

"Martin came from a street dance talent show, so it's normal for him to have a solid foundation, but what's with that guy..."

But what really surprised Hirano Yuta was Xia Fan.

"By the way, hasn't Xia Fan ever practiced dancing? How come he looks like nothing happened..."

"He's not actually a robot. If he takes off his clothes, you can see the circuit board, right?"

"Before in the cafeteria, I heard the international trainees who had rehearsed with him talking about Xia Fan being a 'physical monster'. I thought it was a joke..."

At the same time, the three people lying on the ground were also stealing glances at Xia Fan who was drinking water in small sips with disbelief.

During the entire rehearsal process, Xia Fan's movements were standard, his rhythm was accurate, his positioning was orderly, and he even managed his facial expressions from beginning to end. It can be said that his movements were impeccable.

Looking back now, when practicing "Wave", Xia Fan seemed to be the only one who did not make any mistakes and grasped the rhythm accurately!

Hirano Yuta once made a short-term debut overseas. This kind of high-intensity training before the performance is commonplace. Under his handsome appearance, he actually has plenty of physical strength...

But the results of his rehearsal just now were not as good as Xia Fan's.

What's even more abnormal is that Xia Fan has only sweated a little bit so far, and his breathing is just a little faster, and he hasn't even gasped for breath...

This only shows that his physical fitness is more than one or two levels stronger than everyone in the practice room.

"Hey, Bro, this is just the beginning. The energy of Xia Fan Unit 1 may not even be used up to one tenth..."

"Do you know how long he took us to practice the simple dance of 'Prayer'?"

"That's like hell, a hundred times, a hundred times..."

Sensing what they were thinking, Martin squatted down beside them, grinning, and whispered something that made everyone even more incredulous.

"Come on, come on, I asked the production crew for some muscle relaxation tools..."

"If we let the lactic acid accumulate now, we won't be able to perform well on stage, not to mention the rehearsals over the next two days."

As if to confirm Martin's words, Xia Fan had no intention of resting after drinking the water. He actually went to the corridor outside and brought in a bunch of strange massage equipment.

"What's that big thing you're holding? A gun? A stick?!"

"This fascia gun is a little big, you have to bear with it."

"Wait uhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!"

"Don't move, just bear with it for three minutes, Martin, help me hold him down!"

"No, no, I will..."

Looking at Xia Fan, who was holding an XXXXL-sized fascia gun and enthusiastically helping the three people on the floor who had no power to resist to relax their muscles together with Martin, Hirano Yuta's eyes gradually became complicated...

"This guy, I've said so many harsh words to him from the beginning till now, but he doesn't seem to care at all..."

"Could it be that from the very beginning, you didn't consider us as your equal opponents?"

The feeling of powerlessness and being ignored ignited the unwillingness to admit defeat in Hirano Yuta's heart.

Chapter 281 Eight-Character Horse

2024-07-13

"Okay, resting for too long won't help. Your muscles will get cold..."

"We must finish the dance before fatigue catches up with us!"

Yuta Hirano poured the water in the bottle on his head, calmed his anxiety, and shouted for everyone to gather.

"Ah, damn, these are the shortest ten minutes of my life..."

"Since you've been eliminated, you have plenty of time to rest. Just grit your teeth and keep practicing."

"No, I was scammed in the red-light district last time and owed the agency a large sum of money. If I'm eliminated here, I might have to take a break forever..."

"What……"

A group of people wailed as they lined up in the practice room and began rehearsing again.

……

Five hours later.

The "Idol Birth Festival" recording studio building was still filled with music, singing, and the noise of shoes rubbing against the floor.

"Very good. Just now, when singing and dancing in this place, don't forget to control your facial expressions..."

Xia Fan's team is still dancing tirelessly.

Compared to a few hours ago, the effect of their performance has changed dramatically.

The formation was neat, the movements were coordinated, and the rhythm was accurate. Apart from the occasional deformation of movements due to fatigue, they had already taken shape as they were ready to perform on stage.

"Hurry up and get out of the way, feel the oxygen bomb!"

"Hurry up and get out of the way, feel the oxygen bomb!"

"I am the most dazzling existence!"

"I am the most dazzling presence on this stage!"

In fact, everyone has already sung along to the strong rhythm and simple repetitive lyrics while dancing together.

"Huh...huh...huh..."

After finishing another round of rehearsal, everyone replayed the rehearsal results on the camera during the break.

"Well, the last two times I watched it, I could barely watch it..."

Looking at the neat wave of people in the picture as if cut by a knife, Yuta Hirano, who is very strict with himself, couldn't help but nod in approval.

The trainees who remained after being eliminated in the first round of survival battles, even Kishiyo Kishi who claimed that he was "not good at dancing", still had some basic dance skills and stage experience compared to his vocal skills.

But to be able to practice such a difficult group dance as "Oxygen Bomb" in just a few hours, it must be said that this is the result of everyone working together and burning their lives to practice.

"Well, why don't we just stop here today?"

Xia Fan suggested softly.

"Oh? You, a physical monster, finally can't hold on any longer?"

Hearing him say this, Hirano Yuta smiled like a winner.

In the following hours, everyone deeply understood the meaning of Martin's words "one fifth of the energy is not consumed."

After rehearsing intensively until now, the others' bodies were shaking when they did freeze-frame movements, and they couldn't help but breathe heavily during their singing...

Although Xia Fan's clothes were completely soaked with sweat, even in the last time, his breathing was still stable and his movements did not deform at all.

The rich emotions in the singing even had the effect of a "war drum halo", inspiring everyone to grit their teeth and endure the pain to complete the rehearsal.

"Well, since you have sincerely asked for it, let's stop here today."

Even if Xia Fan didn't mention it, Hirano Yuta, whose limbs were shaking, was ready to propose ending the rehearsal, just in time to get down the hill.

"I don't mind practicing it a few more times, but..."

"Someone seems to have fallen asleep."

Xia Fan smiled bitterly and pointed to the ground.

"This frail fellow..."

Only then did Hirano Yuta notice that his childhood friend Kishi Sho had already fallen on the floor and was sleeping more soundly than a corpse while everyone was watching the replay.

"The average dancing ability of the opponent team is much stronger than ours, so there is absolutely no way they can be 'out of sync' when dancing together."

"So, we have only caught up with our opponents in the group dance. If we want to decide the winner, we still have to watch the solo in the climax..."

"Everyone, when you go back to rest, hurry up and think about your individual dance moves."

While trying to kick Kishi Sho awake with his foot, Hirano Yuta reminded everyone.

Today we only practiced the group dance at the beginning, and the climax individual performances at the end were replaced by movement.

However, the original group dance was already at a very high level in terms of choreography and movements, and it was unlikely that either team would make any adaptations.

Even if everyone dances in unison, it can only be considered homogeneous competition, and it is difficult to create a gap in the audience's perception...

The most likely thing to be "cheated" through adaptation, what also creates differences and determines victory or defeat, naturally falls on the dance moves that are like "personal show time" at the climax.

"Xia Fan, especially your finishing moves, don't mess up."

Having said that, Hirano Yuta looked at Xia Fan seriously.

After rehearsals up to now, including Yuta Hirano, no one would doubt that Xia Fan was not capable of the position of "dancer", at least in the group dance part.