Toranosuke Shirakawa 

"Toranosuke Shirakawa"... There wasn't a soul in this town who didn't know that name. In this world, it was said that he who controls sound controls everything, and so "musician" became a dream job for ambitious youth.

All on their own, one could make the world their own... With that dream, the youth played in the streets and flaunted their own power every night at live houses.

Toranosuke was one such youth. He had drifted to this town, where he lit up the live house crowd with his overwhelming sound.

His tickets sold out immediately. An employee at the long-standing live house had this to say:

"I haven't heard anything like this since Varnish was in an indie band."

Today, too, Toranosuke shouted to his enthusiastic fans, "All riiight! Bow down before my guitar! I'm the god of sound... Toranosuka Shirakawa!"

One day, when he looked up at a TV on the street, Toranosuke saw an announcement of an ultra-popular hard rock band's world tour.

Hmph! Varnish, huh? Buncha losers in this world, satisfied with such a weak sound.

As he thought to himself while he walked, a group of men called out to him.

"...Toranosuke-san, would you show off your incredible technique at our live house?"

Toranosuke didn't mind the manager praising his skill, but it all changed when he heard the venue's name.

"Huh? You think a puny little box like that can fit my power!? If you wanna satisfy me, get me a worthy gig... Hmm, like S-Age, at least."

"What!? Isn't that the live house where Varnish debuted!?"

"Hah! Varnish? I guess he's kinda popular right now...but he's nothing special."

"Cut the crap, kid!"

The hot-blooded men were clearly angered by Toranosuke's arrogance, and pounced on him. But...

"Heh heh heh... Oh yeah? I've got a requiem just for you!"

The men learned just how powerless they were to Toranosuke's overwhelming melodies, and ended up kissing the ground.

Heh heh heh... One day it's gonna be Varnish bowing down at my feet like this!

Toranosuke was starving. He had already eaten up the whole town, and there was nothing else he wanted.

...Maybe I better find some new turf.

One day, as he thought about that, he received a letter of invitation.

"Huh...? 'Welcome to the KOB'...?"

When he read the invitation, written on a dark card in blood-red letters, Toranosuke thought, KOB... King of Band! I heard rumors they're gathering skilled band members from all over the world so they can show off their technique to each other... It's a competition to decide the world's strongest musician!

Musicians with illustrious careers in the public sphere and musicians who used all their power behind the scenes would fight on equal footing in a survival festival where they threw everything they had at one another. It was the perfect festival for Toranosuke to make sure the whole world knew he was the strongest.

Clutching the card that invited him to fight, a fiendish smile rose to his face.

"Heh heh heh... I've been waiting. It's time for the world to kneel before me, drowning in my sound!"

Toranosuke had one question. Since he lived from town to town, pinpointing his whereabouts was difficult. So who in the world sent that invitation?

"The sender is... G? ...No clue. But who cares! I'm gonna show all those idiots in the KOB that I'm the strongest!"

He was in high spirits when he participated in KOB...but the participants were all superhuman musicians that far surpassed Toranosuke's imagination. There were fierce battles with no time to breathe, merciless exchanges of sound...and losers who met a miserable end. KOB was a festival from hell itself that buried the world's brightest musicians one by one, devised by a dark music producer trying to make his own band the strongest.

Toranosuke was watching the participants who lost their battles and became no more than seaweed.

Ugh... But I can't lose here! I'm the world's strongest!

All he had left to prop him up was his own pride as the strongest. However...even that pride was blown away as easily as paper by the techniques of the dark producer, who wouldn't let others near his level.

"Gah!?"

"Heh heh heh... I thought your way of using sound was somewhat useful... But in the end, before my control of sound, you were no different than a lowly worm."

Toranosuke sensed his own death when the dark producer unleashed his Genocide Beat.

Damn it! Am I done for!?

But he was saved by someone unexpected.

"Hey! You okay!?"

"Wha—!? I-Is that you...Varnish!?"

It was in fact Varnish who saved Toranosuke from that desperate predicament.

Toranosuke was deeply shaken by Varnish's sudden appearance.

"Varnish!? Why'd you help— Oh, I know! Your arch rival dropping dead wouldn't sit right, huh?"

"Huh? Rival? What're you talking about? We only just met today, right?"

"Wha—!?"

Toranosuke and Varnish had once been in a battle of the bands. But as the undisputed champion of the music world, Varnish didn't remember him at all.

Varnish left the shocked, battle-worn Toranosuke behind and finished off the dark producer. Then, after protecting Toranosuke from the luxury cruise ship exploding in flames and making it safely back to the ground, he said one more thing.

"...I dunno who the hell you are, but you're way too reckless, joining KOB with those skills."

That was how Toranosuke's disgrace began. His pride shattered and his heart torn apart by Varnish, it was impossible to produce the same cutting sound as before. His fans left, and he was the perfect object of ridicule for the bands and live houses he once looked down on.

"Toranosuke ain't shit anymore. It's Varnish's era now."

"Oh, but this 'Purgatory Man' has been pretty hot lately. His tickets sell out right away."

The voices around town, his envy and hatred, and his deep attachment to music shook Toranosuke's heart.

Shit! God dammit! Varnish! I should be aiming higher!

Toranosuke's music had plummeted. He was once flooded with requests to appear at live houses, but now they turned him down, calling him annoying and driving him off the street whenever he played guitar there. He had nowhere to belong in town. He roamed around like a living corpse.

One day, Toranosuke wandered through a back alley.

"...Why won't anyone acknowledge my sound!? This is all Varnish's fault!"

All that spurred him on was his inexhaustible hatred for Varnish.

That was when he noticed the black shadow swaying behind him.

"...Toranosuke, is it?"

The man was shrouded in a deep, inky blackness, his eyes redder than fire itself. Yes...it was as if he was from purgatory.

"Toranosuke, if you desire it, I will grant you further power. Power to play magnificent music like no one ever has before."

"...Is that even possible!?"

"It is. But I require compensation. The five human senses, no more and no less. Sight, sound, touch, taste, smell... If you pay these senses, I will bestow power unto you. ...Well?"

"Further power... If only I had that, then Varnish would be... Yeah! Gimme power!"

Toranosuke took the man's devilish deal without a moment's hesitation.

When he made his deal with the purgatory man, Toranosuke felt his body fill with power. He felt a satisfaction he never had before as his lost glory returned to him.

"Hah... There it is. My new power!"

The man had vanished before he knew it. But, drunk on power, Toranosuke didn't care.

"...Huh? Ol' has-been Toranosuke? What're you still doing in this town?"

Some of the town's youth came poking their noses into his business.

But they were clearly mistaken. Now, Toranosuke was a carnivore on the brink of starvation.

"...Perfect. Help me get tuned."

He laid waste to the youths who looked down on him in the blink of an eye, and roared, victorious.

"Ha, hahahahahaha! Yes! This is my power! I'm stronger than anyone!"

Toranosuke's name spread in a flash. His sound was completely different from before, and he could play each and every instrument flawlessly. His playstyle captivated many, but struck fear at the same time.

"That's not the sound of a human playing. It's more like a demon."

But he didn't care what other people said. All he wanted to do was defeat Varnish.

Indeed, in exchange for great power, his senses gradually weakened, but even so, Toranosuke was happy.

"Heh, heheh, hah, ahaha! Now...I can make Varnish kneel to me!"

Despite losing his sense of touch, a shiver ran down his spine just imagining that moment.

Suddenly, Toranosuke heard an outrageous piece of news. Varnish had vanished mysteriously in the middle of his world tour. Toranosuke couldn't sit still when he heard about it, and went to the dressing room where his band was performing. He had nearly lost his sight, and he couldn't hear well either, but he made it to the dressing room on nothing but pure obsession with him.

It wasn't Varnish awaiting him there, but a mysterious man.

"...It's been some time."

"...Who the fuck are you?"

"Hmph. I see... You've lost your sense of sight."

"Wait, don't tell me... You're from back then!?"

It was the purgatory man who once gave him power...

"It seems you've used your new power well...but if you've appeared here, then you came to challenge Varnish?"

"Obviously! I only live to make him submit!"

"Heh... You will never reach Varnish."

"...What!?"

Toranosuke was enraged at his words.

Incensed by the purgatory man's words, Toranosuke attacked with sounds of hatred. However, the man simply drowned out that blade of sound with his guitar.

"N-No way... How's my sound losing!? Shit! I-I'm...the strongest. I'm the strongest man there is, and I'm gonna defeat Varnish! H-How...!"

Gripped by despair, Toranosuke wailed, tears falling from his sightless eyes. The man pushed him further.

"...Didn't I tell you? As you are now, you cannot reach Varnish."

"Damn it...! More power! I need more! ...Hey, you! Gimme power like before! If I can't reach Varnish as I am now, then...! Give me power to make him submit!"

"...But you have already lost your five senses. You have nothing else to pay the cost."

"Take money, or my life, or whatever! I'll give you anything! Give me power! Power that won't lose to anyone!"

The man's crimson eyes flickered at Toranosuke's screams.

"...Anything, you say? Then...how about your soul?"

"My...soul?"

"Yes. That will mean you stop being human...and become something monstrous."

"...I don't care. If it means surpassing Varnish...I'll gladly sell my soul!"

"Then the contract is settled."

With a sinister smile, as if concealing all the world's darkness, the man took Toranosuke's hand.

The moment he took the man's hand, Toranosuke felt the sensation of each and every one of his cells boiling.

"I-It's...!"

A richly colored spectrum of light filled his lost vision, and an emotional melody resounded in his ears that shouldn't have been able to hear. A torrent of pleasure flooded his despair-emptied heart and an overwhelming scale poured into him, drowning out his ordinary life.

"Haaahhhhhh! Without a doubt, I'm the strongest! With this almighty power equal to God, I...am... G.O.D!"

Little by little, chaos encroached on Toranosuke's mind. As his senses awakened throughout his body, something important fell away... Music that he would one day have played quietly and tenderly, before it could be written, slipped away from the staff in its own expression of sorrow. Like a vivid nightmare, pain consumed him... The dread of becoming something other than himself...the frustration...

But Toranosuke felt truly fulfilled.

"Ahahahahahahahaha! Varnish! Varnish! Now I'll make you kneel! Just you wait! Doesn't matter if it's hell or purgatory, I'll find you and erode you with my sound! Hee, hah, heehee, hahhhahahaha!"

Laughing until the end, Toranosuke watched as his own world was engulfed in madness...

The awakened Toranosuke was no longer who he once was. His mind was dominated by chaos, and he remembered nothing from before. Without his emotions, he felt neither joy nor sorrow... He had lost even his ambitious heart.

Now, there was just one word Toranosuke uttered.

"...Varnish."

He was no longer human. He was irreparably changed into a ghost, wandering around in pursuit of Varnish.

With a satisfied smile, the man asked him a question. "Heh heh heh... To the one who was once Toranosuke... Would you like to meet Varnish?"

"...Varnish."

"Very well... Then descend those steps."

A stairway that wasn't there before had appeared in the dressing room. The stairs went deep, enshrouded in darkness. At the man's urging, Toranosuke shuffled unsteadily into the darkness, from which a miasma emanated that an ordinary person would not even dare approach. Madly seeking nothing but the sight of the man he believed he would meet in the depths of the earth, though he knew not when he would arrive...

"...Varnish."

His eyes held a dark flame, as if from purgatory.

The final three chapter titles are written using katakana instead of hiragana, giving it distinct, unnatural feel. (Some of the lyrics in Toranosuke's song as officially written this way as well!) I went with red text here to get a similar effect across.