Searching For Precious Metal

[Lawther*]

[Daisuke Nagazawa debut]

The sounds of noisy teenagers chatting and the heavy footsteps of adults echoed throughout the first floor as Daisuke Nagazawa meandered about the halls. It was rare for the boy to have an afternoon to himself between working in his uncle Hiroshi's flower shop, practice with Jin-sensei, or studying, and on the few occasions when the stars aligned to allow him such liberties, Daisuke liked to indulge in his taste for Metal. Ordinarily he tried to plan a day off so that he could catch a local show in the evening, but today his free time was caused by a slow day in the shop. His uncle was kind enough (or smart enough, since he probably didn't want to pay his nephew just to stand around) to let Daisuke off early for the day, and with nothing better to do at home, Daisuke decided to go shopping for a few new Metal albums.

As the camo-jacket clad young man sauntered towards one of the many maps stationed throughout the mall, he sighed at the thought of him acting just like hundreds of others that crowded the mall, packing the halls like sheeple just to pass the time, but if there were better music stores in this town, he'd never found them in the short year he had lived there. Standing in front of the sign he desired to read was a large 30 something woman in red sweatpants, sandals, and a red and white striped shirt who was hogging the map as her two children ran circles around her. Great, he thought to himself as he tapped his feet impatiently, Please move your bulbous ass, you fucking waste of space. Almost a minute passed as the woman tried find the store she was looking for while trying to keep her kids in line, but just as Daisuke was about to give up and find another map, the woman finally placated her children with a promiced trip to the toystore and left.

Daisuke quickly scanned the list of stores and found 2 possible places to find some good music: FYE and Hot Topic. If he got really desperate, he could check Sears as well, but the likelihood of them carrying the particular brand of music that he enjoyed was rather slim. Between the two choices, Hot Topic seemed to be the better bet. Not only would there likely be a good selection of Metal to chose from, there would probably be less of a crowd there as well.

Hot Topic was at least an oasis away from the scampering little children that somehow always managed to clutter the halls of the mall. There were a few teens with their parents in tow that stared in contempt at some of the shirts as their teens shopped around, as well as a few high-schoolers doing a bit of window shopping. The sound of a screamo band playing in the background drowned out most of the cacophony of the halls and made the store feel much more intimate to him. The clerk behind the counter acknowledged Daisuke's arrival in the store with nothing more than an indifferent nod, which Daisuke reciprocated in turn before heading towards the music rack. It was small, and though it was nearly eclipsed by the large shelves of T-shirts, it was filled with artists like Amon Amarth, Meshuggah, and Opeth standing proudly at the front of the rack. A true feast for the ears stood directly in front of him, filled with CDs most other stores wouldn't have even bothered stocking. Having found a rack of music worth listening to, Daisuke began to scour it for albums by his favorite bands and interesting newcomers alike. What better way was there to pass the time than to spend his hard-earned cash supporting the music he loved?