X NO SEI TO SHI: STEP 1
3. Tour Saki de hide wa Nandomo Kireta
[At the Beginning of a Tour, hide Would Get Angry]

When X started during nationwide, there were many things that we discovered. We woke up. Among those things, I want to tell you one that really left an impression on me.

It happened when the bands Jun Sky Walkers and ZIGGY were around. They and a few other bands that they knew had a joint open-air concert that X also performed in.

All of the bands that were performing were staying in the same hotel, and one night, I and the bassist of ZIGGY were sitting in the hotel lounge having a drink.

Suddenly I saw hide come into the lounge. He was having a drink with M, ZIGGY'S vocalist.

This guy M was usually a really nice guy, but when he started drinking, he would change completely. So when I saw that he was drinking with hide, I thought to myself, "this isn't good."

Sure enough, they two of them began to quarrel. Because hide was also a person who, once something was started, couldn't let go, I saw that the situation was turning into one just as if oil had been poured on a fire.

The quarrel turned into a huge argument, and no one was able to pacify hide, who shook off the restraining hand of a staff member. Grabbing a nearby fire extinguisher, he sprayed it through the entire lounge.

That was really amazing. It goes without saying that the inside of the lounge was entirely wrecked. It was obvious that this was the reason that, from the following year on, X was the only band that stayed in a separate hotel.

Things like this would happen. We were in Hokkaido for a tour.

I was sleeping in the hotel, and in the middle of the night around 2 or 3 AM, I woke up because I could hear an almost yakuza-like fight going on downstairs. It got so loud that I got up, and when I went to see what was going on, I saw that someone was arguing with the people at the front desk in the lobby.

It was a dead-drunk hide.

I remember that it hide was shouting with a feeling of "Bastards! I'll kill you!"

This went on till hide finally held up his fists.

I thought hide was going to punch them, and then he thrust his index finger and middle finger outwards and stuck them up the nostrils of the two front desk people.

The only thing I could do was think in shock, "What the hell?" and almost died laughing. Wasn't he thinking about punching them, and then right when he was on the verge to do so, didn't he change his mind and stick his fingers up their noses instead?

Even doing this, deciding in a split second to stick his fingers up their noses, is harder than just punching someone. The people at the front desk did nothing but plead, "Please stop! Please stop!" Finally, I was able to restrain hide, and he took his fingers out of their noses and it was over, but even now I have no idea what caused this scene to happen.

I don't have a strong sense of duty towards other people, but even so, hide, who got angry so easily, was not affected by it, and the two of us never fought.

hide would want to fight with me, but I could never do that with him, so I would always give up. He would pull me in and assume the pose of someone about to punch me, and then I would say, "Maa, maa, wait just a second. Hold on! Let's drink!"

I wouldn't get provoked and I wouldn't get angry, and so hide would get bored and stop.

Wasn't it just perhaps that hide wanted me to get angry at him?

Even so, in our "3 person alliance" of me, hide, and Yoshiki, we would never be angry at the same time. When I was angry, hide would calm me down, when hide was angry, I would calm him down, and when Yoshiki was angry, it was either me or hide who would calm him down.

But there was a match for hide's uncontrollable temper.

It was a cockroach. Though hide really hated all bugs, out of them all, he especially hated cockroaches, and he would run away when he saw one.

Though we would be rehearsing in the studio, we would have to go on break when we received clear proof of his absence.