Gravitation: Track 19

Hey everyone! Welcome back to Yaoi Zowee! Today we'll be looking at Track 19. The chapter opens with Seguchi talking to Sakano about his plans to reform Nittle Grasper (Oh God, I know I said I wasn't going to say anything about the band name but now that they're reforming it's going to come up a lot more often now and I CAN'T STAND THE NAME IT'S SO DUMB) while ASK is on hiatus (because of Seguchi committing MURDER) and Sakano thinks it's a smart move. This whole thing was apparently Ryuichi's idea. He proposed it to Seguchi after the whole live television appearance thing that happened a few chapters ago. Seguchi reminds Sakano that he's not Sakano's boss anymore. They are both producers and Seguchi promises that he'll be working his hardest to make Nittle Grasper number one in Japan again. He advises Sakano to do the same with Bad Luck. Oh geez. So not only is Nittle Grasper reforming but now they're going to be direct rivals to Bad Luck. This could get very messy. I'm extremely wary of Seguchi now after what happened last chapter. Everything he does, says, and proposes makes me wonder what his true motives are.

The scene shifts then to K waking Shuichi up.

                                          And I thought getting woken up by my parents was bad.

Shuichi and K get into a fight/argument until Yuki gets completely fed up and runs inside Shuichi's room to yell at them. Of course this is the first time Yuki has actually met K who promptly introduces himself. Yuki asks him where he came from and K tells him not to worry about it. Before K can drag Shuichi off, Yuki asks him when he's going to be back and that he'll wait to eat if Shuichi wants him to. Shuichi is touched by this gesture and before things can get sweet and cute and wonderful, K drags Shuichi away. They talk for a bit and it eventually comes out that Shuichi and Yuki are lovers. The news shocks him so much he rear ends a truck and Shuichi claims that, as an American, he should be more understanding. You don't know a lot about America do you Shuichi? Anyway, Shuichi asks him why he decided to be his manager and K bribes him with an appearance on a TV show called "Hit Stage".

Shuichi immediately introduces K as their new manager as soon as he gets to the recording studio. Hiro is skeptical and Shuichi goes about trying to convince him with his usual theatrics. They're looking at 30 minutes of air time here which is nothing to sneeze at. While Shuichi shouts and jumps around Hiro quietly introduces himself to K before Noriko comes in and drops a bit of a bomb on them: They're opening for Nittle Grasper on Hit Stage. K explodes, telling Noriko that the deal was that Bad Luck would be the big guest. K suspects that Seguchi had something to do with this, but Ryuichi arrives at this point to say that it was his idea.

                                       ...What's with the bunny?

Shuichi thinks this is a malicious attack on Ryuichi's part because of what happened during the live show. Shuichi runs off in tears and Hiro asks if Ryuichi hates Shuichi. Ryuichi assure them that he does not. He just wanted to be able to sing with Shuichi. Miserable and upset, Shuichi runs through the halls of the record studio, lamenting that this is the end before it even began and ends up crashing into a young boy in the hall, knocking him clean over.  Shuichi apologizes and it turns out the boy is older than he looks (though how much older is not specified but he is still in school) and when he recognizes Shuichi he introduces himself as Suguru Fujisaki. Shuichi is confused and only gets more confused when Suguru asks to be introduced to the other members of the team. Shuichi finally asks him what he's doing here and Suguru tells him that he's the new keyboardist for Bad Luck.

                              Suguru Fujisaki: Continuing the tradition of incredibly cute men in this manga.

Shuichi talks about his problems with Yuki and they have a little playful banter before Yuki moves in for the kiss. Yuki tells him to have faith in the people who he's working with now and they make out a little before Shuichi asks Yuki if anything is wrong. Yuki tell shim he was comforting him because he asked to be comforted and is insulted that Shuichi would imply he's in a bad mood. They have a minor argument before making up with a round of sex that lasts about three panels and is very coy with its imagery. The chapter ends at a hospital with us finding out that Taki actually survived getting hit by a car (and with nary a bruise on his pretty face, shock shock) and that, of all people, Suguru is visiting him, telling him to leave well enough alone.

Okay, so, my biggest question is how do Suguru and Taki know each other? I'm glad Taki didn't die since I didn't think it was necessary for that kind of turn. It's bad enough that we have GANG RAPE to worry about, we didn't need cold blooded murder. I'm still wary of Seguchi. I also have this feeling that Taki could be redeemed in the manga and I really hope the author doesn't go that route. There are certain lines that characters cannot cross and be redeemed. Orchestrating GANG RAPE is one of those lines. The best I can hope for is Taki to give up and quietly leave the scene, wiser, never to be seen again. He can't even be a good villain anymore. Shuichi stood up to him, Yuki kicked his ass, and Seguchi nearly killed him. He's not a credible threat after all that. I guess I'll just have to keep on reading to find out!

Tune in tomorrow for Gravitation: Track 20! See you then.