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"Destiny is unstoppable. I've tried laughter, I've tried tears; but it always overpowers me. It doesn't care a thing about my fears. It takes my love and it devours me."
Pages: 50
Characters: Hiroshi Nakano, Maiko Shindou, Shuichi Shindou, Eiri Yuki
New Characters: Hiroshi Nakano, Maiko Shindou, Shuichi Shindou, Eiri Yuki
Notes: Shuichi's homeroom is 3B; the name of his high school is Touhoku High.

Summary: Destiny is unstoppable. I've tried laughter, I've tried tears; but it always overpowers me. It doesn't care a thing about my fears. It takes my love and it devours me. These are the lyrics to Shuichi Shindou's new love song, written for the school talent show in March. The talent show is in two days and Shuichi is doesn't have all of the songs written; the band doesn't even have a name yet. Hiro, the guitarist for the band, offers some encouragement and urges Shuichi to finish the songs before the talent show.

Maiko, Shuichi's younger sister, delivers a daily lunch to Shuichi. Hiro comments that Maiko is just as hyper as Shuichi always is, but Maiko disagrees and says she's nothing like her ditz of a brother. In fact, she thinks Shuichi is just trying to embarrass her because she's on the organization committee for the talent show.

Later in class, Shuichi tries to work on a few more songs, despite the fact Hiro warned him not to or he'd get in trouble. Fortune isn't shining on Shuichi today because there isn't time to get in trouble; while he tries to get his keyboard (how did he get that thing into the classroom unnoticed?) to sync up with his headset, he receives a dreaded "Warning: No play error" and he tries to fling himself out the window. Shuichi's scream of distraught echoes throughout the entire school and Maiko's classmates comment that Shuichi is a few riceballs short of a full lunchbox. After the incident, Hiro informs Maiko that he and shuichi won't be participating in the talent show after all since the data was deleted during Shuichi's Japanese class.

Once school is over, Shuichi needs some cheering up. Maiko decides to take up this role. Shuichi tries to convince Maiko as well as himself that there wasn't any reason for him to perform at the talent show; he has a gig next month as an opening act. Maiko ignores his little speech and instead asks Shuichi why he doesn't have a girlfriend. While she thinks Shuichi's passion for music is wonderful, she also thinks it's a waste for him to spend so much time staring at a computer screen. It turns out that this is all a roundabout way for Maiko to compliment Shuichi; she thinks of he sticks with his plan, he'll end up successful.

Shuichi goes to work that evening and is pleased to find out he's allowed to head home early. He decides to take this extra time to head to the park to get some inspiration. As he's walking, a gust of wind rushes by, causing him to sneeze and the lyrics he had been carrying to fly away in the wind. Shuichi cases after the paper but it doesn't get very far; a mysterious stranger who appears to be a foreigner catches the lyrics and reads them, his expression clearly unimpressed. He asks if Shuichi is the one who wrote the lyrics. Shuichi tells him that he is and the stranger mocks him, saying he writes like a third grader.

The two days pass and suddenly the talent show has arrived! Shuichi isn't interested in going at first, but Hiro manages to convince him to go. However, since Shuichi is manning a desk and taking filled-out forms, he needs someone to take his place. He gestures for two girls to come over and tells them that he and Hiro need a little alone time. Hiro even holds Shuichi in his arms like a possessive boyfriend and biting his ear. The girls squeal and agree to take Shuichi's place and both he and Hiro run off to see the talent show.

Hiro and Shuichi sit away from the crowd with their backs against the wall and Shuichi asks Hiro to set him up with a girl. Hiro jokes about how Shuichi apparently isn't getting any from a girl. He's also surprised Shuichi even wants a girlfriend since techno had always been his insatiable mistress. Shuichi tries to explain that he's lonely, not horny. (Meanwhile, Murakami, the author, namedrops herself as contestant #4 for the band competition.) Hiro gives Shuichi that boost of confidence he seems to need. Shuichi tries to tell Hiro what happened in the park the other day, but eventually the two get annoyed by the lame singing the guy is doing on stage and decide to storm the stage and take hold of a microphone and guitar. Since their songs were deleted, the duo decide to sing the school's alma mater while Maiko watches with a horrified expression.

After they're through singing, Maiko yells at the two for going up on stage when they weren't supposed to. She even punishes Shuichi by not making him any lunches for an entire month. Shuichi finally gets back onto the topic of the mysterious man he met in the park and tells Maiko and Hiro that the man saw the lyrics he'd written and how cold the man was. Maiko and Hiro are unimpressed and wonder why a random comment from some random stranger affects him so deeply. Shuichi assures his band mate and little sister that he's self-confident, just not stuck-up about it. He also tells them how his goal is to find the man and make him take back what he said about the lyrics.

Back at work, Shuichi asks his boss if he has seen the mystery man before. His boss apologizes and tells Shuichi that he hasn't and explains to him how the man had dissed his lyrics. His boss tells him to let it go; after all, Shuichi doesn't even know the man's name. However, Shuichi just can't seem to forget him or the cold way he put down his lyrics.

Apparently, Hiro did set Shuichi up with a girl. A few days later, Shuichi picks her up and they go out for lunch. Shuichi isn't as into his date as he thought he'd be; he even goes as far as calling it pretend romance. Eventually, the topic changes to Shuichi's music and he shows his date the same lyrics the mystery man had put down. She says she likes them; the lyrics have soul. Shuichi tells her how he used to think the same thing until the incident in the park.

Almost like fate, Shuichi looks out the window of the restaurant at just the right moment; he sees a familiar man in a red mercedes. Leaving his date behind and claiming he needs to use the restroom, Shuichi dashes out in the rain and jumps right in front of the car. It skids, nearly running him over. The man from the park gets out of the car, takes off his sunglasses and tells Shuichi he should commit suicide elsewhere.

About Gravitation Track 1: I wanted to create a story about troubled boys--that was my motive for developing GRAVITATION.

One of the difficulties of writing Track 1 was the fact I had absolutely no time to do everything I wanted to do, like establish Shuichi's character properly. Hiro was easy, since I set him up as the always smiling, too-much-of-a-nice-guy character. In my first attempt at giving Shuichi life, he turned out to be a conservative, creepy boy. I started him off in pain and ended the story with him failing. It was really quite depressing. Good thing I trashed that first draft, don't you think? He's more fun as a lovable lunkhead... But the more I draw out his klutzy side, the more he ends up being a fool, so that ends up being a problem too.

On the other hand, he's an extremely straight and narrow guy. I'll bet his DNA strands are straight, just like his hair. I'm sure in a previous life he was a tall fir tree.

It's fun for me to draw a normal, decent guy. I'd like him to continue living his life with integrity so he can simply grow up and enjoy life. You are our sunflower. You are the straight and sure path of my life. So with those feelings, I'm gonna make him do even more stupid stuff. Yeah!