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

I just said "Come on", but I didn't expect Xia Fan to be such a "fanatic fan". Could it be that he was...

"No, it's impossible... Besides, she's just a newly debuted idol, it's too early now, and the company won't allow it..."

Her eyes fell on the "Hanami Honmei" T-shirt inside Xia Fan's coat. Hoshina Hanami didn't know what she was thinking of. She suddenly raised her head and drank the juice in her hand. Her little face turned red as if she was drunk.

"Oh? It's pitch black, I can't take a clear picture. It's too dark to see clearly, will it be considered finished..."

Xia Fan watched several related videos and found that the most eye-catching thing was the dancing light of the fluorescent stick, while only a blurry figure of himself was left.

[You have fulfilled the oracle: Perform the "Izumo Sword Dance" in front of a thousand people, making them bow their heads in praise. The gods have granted you the festival song "Red Lotus Flower".]

It was only at this time that the news of the completion of the oracle finally arrived.

"'Red Lotus'? Another song from Earth. Could it be that this evil god restored it from my memories of my previous life?"

"Gurenge" is one of the theme songs of the popular Earth anime "Pillar Slayer: Yaiba".

Within two weeks of the anime airing, the song topped the charts of 38 stores, was ranked among the top five downloaded songs at the Gold Disc Awards that year, was the first anime single to top the weekly chart in Oricon history, and won the JASRAC Gold Award for two consecutive years.

"Gurenge" first became known due to the high popularity of the animation. With the unique rock style of the song and the core of "never give up", it was named "the most exciting divine song".

After that, the popularity of this song skyrocketed and even boosted the ratings of the animation for a second time. The original singer LISA even sang this song on the highest level stage "Red and White Songs Contest", which is a model of the mutual achievement of the song, animation, and singer.

"It's not easy to publish anime songs. I need to study them carefully..."

However, Xia Fan was not happy about having a new hit song. Instead, he frowned.

Anime songs and pop music are separate tracks with different audience segments and song release processes. In the absence of anime content support, it is difficult for the songs themselves to arouse emotional resonance.

If "Gurenhua" was released as a single song like "Sakura", without the blessing of the storyline, the effect would be much worse, and it might even bury a good song.

"I almost forgot...hiccup...please sign this authorization agreement, and the share of the network payment will be deposited into your card every month."

Before he could study it carefully, Higashino Yoshihide took out a crumpled piece of paper and handed it to him.

"Oh, okay."

Xia Fan didn't ask any questions, just picked up the pen and signed his name at the end.

"Hey, wait... For the song 'Sakura', the competition has already started, and you haven't received the official licensing agreement until now?"

"And Brother Xia Fan, you signed without even asking about the scope of authorized use and the profit-sharing ratio?"

This scene of "illegal operation" left Tachibana Ryoko dumbfounded.

The song copyright management in District 11 is very strict. Every time a song is used, whether it is a paid download from the Internet or a karaoke request, the corresponding fee must be paid to the copyright owner.

The copyright company under Bethesda claims to own the copyrights of more than 8000 songs. Even if it does nothing every year, the royalties alone can generate a considerable profit.

These two people in front of me don’t care about any of this?

Chapter 13 Songs Online

2024-07-13

"Uncle Higashino is the president of my agency. He should be responsible for the agreement and procedures."

Xia Fan looked as if it was a matter of course.

Yoshihide Higashino and his father have a life-and-death friendship, and he has watched him grow up since he was a child, so he has long been as trustworthy as a family member.

"Ahahahaha, this time it's all thanks to your song that saved my life. If Xingming wins first place in the grand prize this time, our future financial prospects will be limitless. How could your uncle let you suffer a loss?!"

Dongye carelessly stuffed the agreement into his trouser pocket, laughed wildly towards the sky, and habitually launched the "head-patting kill" on Xia Fan.

"What are you talking about, amateur president? It's not that easy to get first place..."

"In the Tokyo Newcomer Music Awards, live performance scores only account for 50% of the weight, so you can still rely on your professional level to win. But behind the 50% weight of the online song download rankings is a cruel capital game."

"As far as I know, most of Bethesda's promotional budget this time will be focused on Sakamoto Shuu, as he is the favorite to win the championship and the company has invested heavily in him. Other companies will naturally spend money to promote their top-ranked artists."

"Under this 'head effect', the download volume of the top few and the bottom ones will be more than ten times different, resulting in a huge gap in the ratings. Judging from the results of previous awards, it is common for songs to have low live performance scores and then make a comeback on the download charts."

Tachibana Ryoko, who has been in the entertainment industry for a long time, is obviously not as optimistic as Higashino.

The annual Tokyo Newcomer Music Awards brings together outstanding new singers and original songs cultivated by various entertainment companies, and determines the market direction in the next two to three years.

After all, only a small number of industry insiders, music critics and enthusiastic fans have time to pay attention to live performances. Most ordinary listeners choose songs "blindly" based on the real-time sales rankings on the Internet.

The ranking of online song downloads involves many "manipulable off-site factors" such as exposure, traffic, publicity, public opinion manipulation, fan base, and song audience, and can be regarded as a competition of the comprehensive commercial strength of performing arts companies.

In the brutal war of "traffic" without the smoke of gunpowder, the singer's strength and the level of song production are the least important.

"Anyway, after midnight tonight, the tracks for the Tokyo Newcomer Music Awards will be available for download online, and the rankings over the next two weeks will determine who will win the award."

"Mr. Xia, thanks to your song, Xiaohuajian will receive a small amount of promotional support from the company and should have a chance to make it into the top ten."

Tachibana Ryoko suddenly changed the subject and enthusiastically held Xia Fan's hand, winking coquettishly: "Tell me, how can I thank you?"

"How can you thank me... I'm short of money. If there is a part-time job like advertising shooting with a good salary, please introduce it to me."

Xia Fan thought about it and answered seriously.

……

As soon as midnight passed, the songs participating in the "Tokyo Newcomer Music Awards" were released online on time and available for paid download.

At this time of year every year, there will be a small number of music enthusiasts who stay up late waiting to be the first to listen to the songs online.

"I patrolled the night for a few days, but didn't find any 'toilet paper lady'. I only purified a few trapped earthbound spirits..."

In a small convenience store in Shinjuku district, the Jinguji shrine maiden sat in front of the floor-to-ceiling window and stretched.

Today, she was not wearing the red and white witch robe, but a black coat, looking like an office lady who had just finished overtime.

"Hmph, the results are out on time... Just like every year, there are fifty songs in total?"

She stuffed fried chicken nuggets into her mouth with one hand and fiddled with her phone with the other.

Her slender fingers swiped across the phone screen, and she generously downloaded all the 50 new songs that had just been released by the "Tokyo Newcomer Music Awards", the most expensive "ultra-clear master sound quality version", for a fee.

"Which song should I start listening to?"

Pushing his long hair behind his ears, Jinguji put on a pair of small silver earplugs.

If there are any music lovers here, they will definitely recognize that this is the AKG iron ring hybrid earphone specially made for "crazy music enthusiasts" and priced at more than 60,000 yen.

"This year, there doesn't seem to be any songs that catch people's eyes... If we look at Sakamoto Shu's song as an 'actor', maybe we can barely give him a good review."

After listening to a few songs casually, the interest in Jinguji's eyes faded a little.

"Can't a monster come to cheer us up?"

As a music enthusiast, for her, browsing new songs, of varying quality, is more about finding the pleasure of "Taobao".

Just as she was sighing, the music in her headphones had already automatically started playing the next song...

"I have been waiting for the day when I can meet you again, on the road where cherry blossoms are dancing, I will wave to you and call out your name."

"Because, no matter how painful it was, you always smiled like that, which made me feel that no matter what setbacks I encountered, I could continue to work hard."

The girl's clear and tender voice, like crying, contains reluctance and expectation, which seems to penetrate the soul.

"Oh?"

Jinguji turned up the volume slightly and closed his eyes.

"In the scenery illuminated by the sunset, I seem to be able to hear the song of that day. Cherry blossoms, cherry blossoms, blooming, right now. I understand my fleeting fate. "

"Goodbye, my friend. At the moment of separation, I will leave you my unchanging feelings. Now..."

"I don't know if I can say those unadorned words to you right now, the real words that pray for your bright future."

My mind drifted with the song, and I felt as if I was in a valley full of cherry blossoms, with my bare feet stepping on the rough stone steps.

The stone steps stretch down the mountain, passing through one vermilion torii gate after another, seemingly endless.

Under the farthest torii, there was a vague figure in a red and white miko costume, waving in his direction...

"Mother……"

It wasn't until the song in his headphones finished playing and switched to the next one that Jinguji came back to his senses.

"You clearly said you would come back... liar!"

She wiped away the tears from her eyes and fiddled with her phone.

"The song just now was called 'Sakura'?"

"The singer is Hoshina Hanami... a newcomer I haven't heard of. An idol, maybe? His singing skills are a little immature, and his voice is good, but he sings with great devotion and can be given full marks for his emotional expression..."

"What's really amazing is the song itself... Lyrics, composer, composer... I've never heard of this stage name..."

Jinguji opened 2CH, the largest online forum in District , entered the pop music section, and searched for the name "Xiafan", but there were no results.

"Hoshina Hanami-san is so cute, and her live performance is so romantic, I recommend it for first sight!"

"The song is available for download. The studio version is different. It doesn't have the outgoing emotions as the live version, but more of a restrained sadness. Listen to it now!"

"Hanami-chan sings well, but the real highlight is the quality of this song. Any mature singer can sing it and it won't be bad."

"The lyrics and music of this song are both called 'Xia Fan', does anyone know who this person is?"

"Looking at the name, he seems to be a newcomer, but can such a down-to-earth and mature commercial work really be produced by a newcomer? Could he be a pseudonym of some music mogul?"

On the contrary, someone raised the same question as her in the discussion thread about "Sakura".

Chapter 14 Victim

2024-07-13

"He wrote the lyrics and composed the music all by himself, and produced a song like this. If this 'Xia Fan' is really a newcomer, then he is really an incredible monster."

"If there are no more decent works later, this song should have a chance to enter the top three this year."

Remembering the name "Xiafan", Jinguji picked up the unfinished fried chicken and stood up silently.

In the past two days, in order to investigate the series of "abnormal deaths in the toilet", she has stepped up her "paranormal investigation".

After resting for a while at the convenience store, it’s time to continue the night patrol.

At the same time, on the sidewalk outside the French window, a tall young man, huddled in a black coat, hurried past.

"Ok?"

When I walked to Jinguji outside the convenience store, I seemed to realize something.

She looked vigilantly in the direction where the young man came from, with a blue light surging in her eyes.

A few seconds later, a slender figure with long hair covering her face and a fluttering white skirt appeared from the end of the sidewalk.

"I was saying, I seem to sense foul air, it's really an evil spirit..."

Faced with the figure that seemed real and unreal, Jinguji felt as if he was facing a formidable enemy and reached his hand inside his coat.

All things have spirits, and there are gods everywhere.

Normally, after a creature dies, its soul will dissipate in a short period of time. But if the obsession is too strong and it absorbs the foul air between heaven and earth, an evil spirit will be born.

"Use the light of Amaterasu to burn all the evil in the world!"

Jinguji picked up the triangular folded talisman paper with his fingertips and spun it out like a dart, hitting the evil spirit in the face with a burning flame!

The seemingly intense flames were only enough to lift up the other person's long, jet-black hair, revealing a face that looked as if it had been patched countless times.

"Want... want paper?"

Being attacked by surprise on the way, the evil spirit gave Jinguji an eerie smile, and the broken flesh and skin rolled across his face like waves, and his twisted arms held up a roll of bloodstained toilet paper.

The long black hair hung down to the ground, covering the sky like a tide.

"Finally found you, toilet paper girl..."

After hearing this question, Jinguji had the answer in his heart.

"The foul aura is so dense that it is already turning into a 'wild god'. I guess in addition to reaping human lives, those 'urban legends' on the Internet also helped a lot."

Looking at the gray mixed in with the black "filthy air" on the evil spirit, she frowned slightly.

It has been said since ancient times that evil spirits are the gathering of obsessions and can become stronger by killing people. In essence, this is to rob people of their extreme fear before death and strengthen their own obsession.

The fear that "ghost stories" spread on the Internet and by word of mouth cause in readers will also be fed back to the evil spirits.

These "fears" to some extent possess a power comparable to that of faith, and can transform evil spirits into powerful beings called "wild gods".