[Get ready to google image a bunch of instruments]
Thinking about how perfect your plan was going, you bit the inside of your cheek to try not to smile. The day following your radio debut, people (both Japanese and American) would stop and congratulate you, thanking you for bringing music back to this stone world. It melted your heart and you'd blush, but at the same time, you wanted to giggle like a supervillain. You did once when you were working in your studio, you didn't notice Nikki come in then going back and closing the door as soon as she saw the dark energy emanating from you.
"Step one, dropping their guard: complete" you smirked.
Indeed: right now you've successfully established yourself as a musician, a musician and nothing more. Brody still had some doubts, you first knocked on his door as a diplomate after all, plus with the interest Xeno had in you, he must've had a feeling you were more than that. For that, you had to subtly bring up Xeno into one of your conversation.
The opportunity came up when one day, when you and Brody were in the storage room where all your instruments were to list off the ones that weren't complete yet, so that the craft team would finish them later on.
"Oh, and there's also the pipe organ in the back."
"It is finished."
"Huh?" you looked at him, then at the instrument, you could only see the different sets of keys and the control panels on the sides. "Where are the pipes then?"
"Xeno told me to put them inside the walls," your eyes widen at him explanation. "they go all the way outside. We don't have that much chimneys you know."
Your gaze wandered up, dumbfounded.
"Has...Has it been tested?"
"Nope."
Pipe organs were loud, that was a fact, if you played one you had to expect to be heard by many people. And with this one, given the size of the castle, the entire United States might hear you. For a brief moment, Brody noticed a faint look of horror on your face, and he couldn't understand why, probably because organs were scary...? You looked down.
"...To be honest, I still don't really understand why he would go through all this effort to make all those instruments for me." you lied, acting like you were sad but didn't want to show it. "Do you know?"
He shook his head after a few seconds.
"It was a breathe for him." he just said.
In your head, you thanked Gen for teaching you how to tell if someone was lying. And right now he was being honest. Made sense, Xeno was more reserved than Senku. Brody being just his colleague, he probably didn't share his 'soft-power' plan, or maybe, like Senku would do, he was simply waiting for the right time to be all dramatic about it. And by the way, this plan of his would only matter if they found another musician talented enough - because it's not like he intended on actually looking for you right? That'd be too much of a hassle. - so that'd be another reason for him to not bring it up in the first place. So, you could use the fact that you were penpals to your advantage, you could make Brody think you knew another side of Xeno, which...you used to think you did.
You smiled faintly and looked down.
"I... I like to think he did it because he was hoping I'd be revived, that we'd finally see each-other. I like to think that, in his crazy logical brain, he saw me as a friend, like I did."
Saying this made your heart twist. You'd actually hate for it to be the case, after everything he did. You sighed and changed the subject, Brody looked at you for a moment, you could see a certain empathy in his eyes. You mentally fist bumped yourself. Now that you put that sad factor in his perception of you, he might drop his guard too, we'll see.
Now, on to step two: when you'd do your show, you'd stay on a bit longer, you'd make your intros longer as well. Of course you were genuinely having fun and it was all delightful, and like you said, you had a knack to be liked by people, so nobody really complained, not even Brody. After all, what you were doing didn't have anything to do with the cold war-like situation that was happening right now. You were just doing your thing.
To the Americans, you were just a musician, acting for the sake of your craft. Which, to be fair, was true, but only partly.
'Was this how Senku felt when we were taking over Ishigami village?' you thought. 'Probably. Either way, I get it now!'
You sighed with a smile.
"Taking over the village, feels like so long ago. How nostalgic~." you chuckled. "Now, onto step three!"
You happily left your studio and went to see Brody.
"Can I perform live?" you asked him.
"Live as in on stage?" he raised an eyebrow.
"I'm not asking for a stage to be built - well not now at least." you mumbled that last part, scratching the back of your neck. "More like a test run, see if our equipment can work as live performance and as broadcast you know?" you looked down then glanced up at him.
"And you'd play by yourself?"
"I can be a one-man band if need be, with the right instruments."
He pretended to think for a moment, he'd be lying if he said he didn't want to see that. Then he nodded and your face lit up in excitement.
"Thanks Brody! You're cool!" you lightly hit him on the arm before skipping away.
He couldn't help but smile as he slowly shook his head.
"Guys that is it for this morning's broadcast." you said. "I'll leave you with this very special announcement: this afternoon, I will be performing live in the west courtyard at three. Now since this is more of a test run to see if the set up we have can make it work for radio, it will be free of any charges - I don't even think money has been recreated here in America. But yeah, I really hope to see you there. I haven't performed in months so I'll be sure to not be rusty. I'll do my best, see y'all there~!"
While everyone in the South squad was hyped and happy for you. Senku smirked like a supervillain.
"Kukukuku~! Great job (Y/n)!"
"What do you mean?" Kohaku asked.
"Do you really think she'd perform *just* for the sake of performing? In these conditions?"
"Well...yeah." Chrome frowned in confusion. "This is (Y/n) we're talking about."
"Ahaha~! Ye of little faith!" Ryusui snapped his finger. "She is an intelligent woman! She knows what she's doing!"
Senku, Tsukasa and Gen nodded.
"It's all part of her plan," Gen explained. "she's expanding her brand by going back to do what she does best and disguising it as her just wanting to perform her art." he giggled. "Still thinking like a CEO."
"As she should!" Ryusui exclaimed, Tsukasa nodding at his words.
"Going through with her plan by doing what she loves, balancing trickery and honesty?" Kohaku looked at Senku and smiled. "Reminds me of someone."
"Heh." he smiled and picked his ear. "She got it from me."
'I ship it!!!' Chelsea screamed on the inside, but still squealed.
Of course, you were expecting people to show up, at least all your Japanese folks, they haven't seen you play in ever since you first embarked on the Perceus after all (beside the treasure island bit). But you weren't expecting the Americans to show up as well, not all of them.
"Oh damn." you said to yourself, your eyes widening a bit as you saw the crowd gathered in the west courtyard.
You walked up to a spot everyone could see, Brody following behind you. He was carrying the equipment while you had your instruments: an acoustic guitar, a didgeridoo, Timbetan tingshas, a hand pan drum and little bells attached to a long wristband. Oh, and a stool.
"Hey guys." you said once everybody noticed you.
Seeing all the soldiers, you were pretty nervous, some of them looked intrigued to see what you'll do, other looked like they were still doubting, if you were to fuck up, it'd be over before Senku could say the name of his favorite chemical element. You gulped, feeling a slightly twisting feeling in your stomach. But then you looked at your friends smiling at you and you felt more comfortable. While Brody was setting up the mics, the radio and the speakers, you set up your instruments. You wrapped the wristband around your ankle, put your didgeridoo on your left, your hand pan drum on your right. Since one of the mics was above you, you attached one of the tiny cymbals to it so that the other one would be accessible. Finally, you placed your guitar on your lap, facing up. It was then a part of the crowd raised an eyebrow.
A short while later, everything was ready and after a quick mic check (bit of an echo will be heard but that's bearable) Brody gave you a thumb up and handed you headphones, he was also wearing a pair. You put them on, took a deep breath and nodded, he started the broadcast.
"Hiya everyone!" you smiled widely. "I didn't expect so many people to come, I'm really thankful. Thank you~." you bowed your head, your friends cheering you on. "Now, I'll be playing a recreated piece and if that works then I'll just uh, improvise maybe." you adjusted yourself on your seat. "Brody the tech guy, will be the judge of that. Thank you Brody~." you smiled at him. "This piece was made by French musician Waagal. It's got a real stone world vibe to it, and for a first radio performance like that, I didn't want anything too modern in case it gets too much or something..." you prepared your hands and cleared your throat. "It's called 'Sirius', enjoy."
[WAAGAL - "Sirius"]
Now this piece was a bit more lowkey and chill so some were a bit disappointed, still the one man band aspect was a hit. Though you were focusing on playing, and you couldn't hear anything but the music thanks to the headphones, you knew people were in awe. And indeed they were, moving their head to the beat and whispering to each-other wondering how the hell you were managing to do all of that. Seeing the look of focus on your face, it was then most of them concluded that music really meant a lot to you, probably more than whatever war was going on right now.
It was then that Brody really got in your pocket, along with the Americans. After all, it's hard to trust someone when you can't see their face. Performing in front of them secured your place as 'the best musician around', 'the friendly and energetic radio host' and also the only source of entertainment in the continent. You already won them all over as soon as Brody accepted this 'test run'.
"I don't know how to sing."
"Mmh?" you turned to him.
You and him were back in your studio after your performance (a total hit, everybody loved it but who's surprised at this point?) and you were in the middle of putting the instruments and equipment back when he mumbled something.
"What was that?" you tilted your head.
"...I don't know how to sing." he repeated, averting your eyes.
It took you a second to realize he was referring to that time you asked him to get behind the mic at some point. You smiled.
"That's okay, I can teach you! Granted I'm not an expert myself but I got an idol as my vocal coach back in Japan."
"Really?"
"Yeah, Diva VX. We revived her when my vocal range couldn't reach certain songs." you chuckled.
"Wait, *the* Diva VX?"
You gasped. A fellow fan!
"Yes!"
The conversation than shifted to the idol and other things you were fan of. He talked about this guy called Alan Kahn and the stuff he did sounded super rad.
Eventually, as time passed, your show developed and of course it became *The* hot shit. You now had your own set up in the communication room instead of just borrowing whatever you needed. Oh boy was it great! You'd play a recreated song plus short tracks you've made on the side, an excuse to make your run-time even longer (before it was around five to ten minutes, now it was about an hour long), but again no one was complaining. In between, you'd talk podcast-style, and to spice it up, you'd sometimes have guests (your friends). Like right now there was Yo and Minami. Her experience as a journalist was a blessing for your show: asking questions she knew would only made the audience grow more sympathetic towards you (and you didn't even had to ask her!).
'Wow, she really knows what she's doing.' you thought. 'So that's what being a professional is like!'
"You said at some point that you would open requests so that people could listen to their favorite songs from the modern world." she said. "What are you going to do when one of those songs is from another culture, which *will* happen eventually? Are you still going to recreate it even if it would be, by modern day standards, insensitive?"
"Mmh, I'm actually putting those on the side right now." you said. "Like, I could record the lyrics since I know them by heart, but I know it's not my place to do that. So I'll just wait until someone that is...for lack of a better term, 'fit' to sing the songs shows up and I'll teach them. - I actually talked about this to Brody." you pointed at him with your thumb. "I told him 'yo when we get to rap, you're gonna have to sing' he was like 'why?' And I was like 'Because we don't know where Megan is'," you and Minami laughed.
"Megan Thee Stallion? Really?" Yo raised an eyebrow.
"Yeah, bruh come on." you smiled. "I saw that XXL Freshmen Cypher video and I fell in love with her."
"Yeah I remember seeing it, but DaBaby clearly crushed everyone-"
"Dude no! Listen!"
"Woah!" Yo exclaimed before bursting out laughing.
"(Y/n) suddenly got close to Yo." Minami described the scene to the audience as you went on a tangent.
"That's not fair, like don't get me wrong, both of them were amazing. But DaBaby sang for *half* of the video!"
"Lots of hand gestures happening." she quietly said as Yo kept laughing at how into it you got.
"My girl Megan had to go after Lil Mozey who woke up like the man or whatever!" you and Yo laughed, knowing what you were talking about. "And she turned up the party in less than thirty seconds! Her flow was *flawless*, like no pauses, she came, spat fire, and boom she's gone! Like a spark dude!" you paused. "Like come on!"
Yo kept giggling.
"That was really intense (Y/n)," Minami spoke. "be careful to keep your cool when Miss Megan gets revived."
"I...make no promises."
"Woke up like the man or whatever." Yo finally managed to say, making you both laugh.
"It was so bad y'all!" you said, leaning back in your seat. "So bad the DJ actually put ad-libs to help him!" you wheezed.
"Wait! Really?!" Yo wheezed, leaning back too. "I didn't even notice!"
"It was that bad?" Minami asked.
"Oh my god yes - (Y/n)!" without looking, he pointed at you. "Take it away!"
You laughed. To be honest, the reason why Yo came on the show was because no one else was available and he's been begging to be a guest since your debut. But at it turns out, he wasn't that bad. Needless to say, people loved it.
"Kukukuku~!" Senku snickered to himself as he and the others listened to your radio show, an evil-looking smirk on his face. "She's making a lot of progress, so fast it's almost scary~!"
"Wh-What is he doing?" Luna asked, a bit disturbed by the dark energy coming from her crush and he mumbled to himself.
"Oh he's just being lovestruck," Gen waved his hand with a smile. "don't mind him."
"Lovestruck...? Is it her musical abilities?" she asked.
'I can learn how to play guitar!' she thought, determined.
Gen's smile widen.
"...Not entirely no."
Senku noticed Xeno looking at the radio and his smirk widen.
"She told you she'd do it!" he exclaimed with a smug look. "She got your little subjects wrapped around her pinky! In only a month of doing radio!" he finished with a cackle.
"Heh. I expected nothing less from her." he calmly smiled. "When I'm back, I'll be sure to let her keep her show."
"Kukuku, assuming you'll win!"
They smiled at each-other.