The meeting was adjourned, and as we filed out of Yamada-san's office, Fuji turned to face us and said "Izakaya." My stomach growled at just the thought, the tension taking my mind off of it fading into the background. Small grill houses were our favourite spots, where we could crowd all together in a far back corner, sit so close to each other that we had to be mindful of our elbow room, and share endless plates of food. It was the setting in which I was introduced to the whole of Guardian when Aki and I had first met, and the setting in which I had gotten to know them as my family.

"Are we all thinking the same thing, at the end of the day?" Fuji asked as we started passing around plates. "We came all this way and maybe our lives would have been less interrupted if we stayed in Kamakura on a small label?"

"Big label life has been fun. It's been easier being in Tokyo without having to commute every day." Kota offered.

Aki leaned an elbow on the table, rest his chin in his hand. "If we go back to Kamakura in the end, We need to push for more publicity. More record store appearances, more signings, more fan interaction. More live shows, no matter how small the venue. We need to really live like rockstars."

"It sounds really appealing, actually." Kota agreed with him.

"Are you really going to consider that solo offer?" Hiro asked.

Aki shook his head, his expression conveying that his answer should have been clearly obvious. "No. I don't know what they want with me, but I think if I can find out, I can use it to my advantage. It's information I can bring to another label."

Something had been on my mind, Fuji's remark about staying in Kamakura, and I couldn't contain my curiosity anymore. "Does going back to Kamakura mean going to a smaller label again?" I asked. "Doesn't that make it look like you couldn't handle a major label?"

I could tell by the silence that followed, that my question had made them all think hard about the decision they were making. I knew they hadn't seriously considered the options, and were throwing out ideas as makeshift plans one after the other. They cared about making music and sharing it with the world, and if they had a label that made that possible for them, that was the only thing that mattered. They didn't think about their reputation, they didn't think about how it would affect their popularity, and in turn, how it would affect their ability to continue to make music and share it. That was only one thing I had come to love about the four of them. They fiercely cared about only one thing, and they did it with so much passion that it over shone everything else that was important.

"We have time during the winter to rehearse and lay low." Aki said. His expression was distant, like he was formulating the thoughts at the same time he was speaking them. "We should take advantage of the time and schedule demos with different labels for the spring. We can rent a place to stay all together on the beach or something, somewhere central."

It felt like a pivotal moment in Guardian's history, even more than the move to Tokyo, even more than signing to a major label. They were taking control of where their future ended up, concisely and definitively.

"We should look at Tokyo still, since all the major labels are stationed here, but also Osaka, Yokohama, Kamakura, Sendai even." Aki continued, and the others nodded along slowly, as if they were formulating pictures in their mind's eyes. "We could stay in Yokohama. A week, maybe two. Rent a house near the port."

I could tell that Aki's thoughts were running away with him, and he was beginning to daydream. He lead a free life, and whatever he wanted to do, where ever he wanted to let his music lead him, he could go. He didn't have anything holding him down, no limitations, and I would have followed him to the edge of the earth if he wanted to go.

"Christmas." Fuji said, breaking the conversation. He put his palm down on the table in between the plates of food to assert his point. "Are we staying at your house? It's coming up."

Aki nodded definitively. "I think we should stay here to use the studio time until the 23rd. We can stay at my place until the second."

"As far as I'm concerned, that's all I need to hear." Fuij concluded. "Meeting adjourned. See you guys tomorrow. We'll pick the setlist."

He got up and passed a few bills to Aki to pay for his share of the food. I thought it was out of character of him to leave first without the rest of the group, but the action seemed to serve as a cue for us to finish eating, pack up the leftovers, and pay the bill. Aki and I lived in opposite directions from Kota and Hiro, and we said goodbye to them at the restaurant entrance before walking into the night.

Aki was quiet, but the expression on his face was content. He held my hand, and the take out bag of food in the other. "You're already thinking about the set list for the demos, aren't you?" I asked him.

He smiled without breaking his gaze forward, and nodded timidly like he had been caught. "I'm kind of excited about this." He admitted. "I know it looks like an unfavourable situation for us, but it gives us a lot of control over our future and our success. We're not afraid to work hard, and that gives us the ability to be as successful as we can be without relying on a label acting like a middle-man and bottle-necking us."

"Have you already been thinking about this before the conversation at Kota's place?" His response had come without hesitation, and it made me wonder if there was much more on his mind that he hadn't shared with me or spoken aloud.

"I've been thinking about it since we signed." His smile remained, but he seemed embarrassed. "After the tour, it just became something that I felt like was an elaborate scheme to exploit me specifically for popularity. And I got confirmation that's all it actually was, because they asked me to do a solo project."

Aki was rarely suspicious of people, assuming the best at all times, and I knew when he couldn't contain his suspicion, it must have been validated. He knew the industry well, and he knew when the people in it were handing out opportunities fishing for something else.

"Don't get me wrong, we worked hard to get signed to a major label." He continued. "But considering we got signed to a label that doesn't specialize in metal, actually they specialize in the opposite thing, there was a reason for that beyond our skill."

"They wanted you?"

He chuckled under his breath. "You make it sound like they were hunting me."

"They might have been."

"True. I don't know how long they were watching us." He was quiet for a while, and I let him sort his thoughts. "I'm going to check out what they have in mind for me, maybe use them a little while they're using me. But let me make one thing clear." He removed his hand from my grip to wrap his arm around my shoulders. "I only have eyes for you."

It was a sentimental, very Aki thing to say, but it almost sounded like a threat, a warning. He knew something he wasn't telling me, and he was reassuring me for whatever it was that was coming.