Useless Notes: AU. A series of short one-shots based on the scenes in Diggy-Mo's Stay Beautiful, Bleach's newest ending song. The title Shining Velocity is from a line in the song's English translation.

Rukia and her friends are ecstatic to find out Inoue's been slated to perform with the popular Dyno-Cats, a singing diva group on the rise.

Disclaimer: Bleach doesn't belong to me and neither does the song Stay Beautiful. They belong to Kubo Tite and Diggy-Mo.

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Shining Velocity

1. It's showtime!

Rukia walked on the sidewalk, a happy, upbeat tune floating out her mouth as she passed. She was the perfect picture of happiness and while most anyone would think she had a boy on her mind, they were wrong. It was quite the opposite, in fact. The reason for Kuchiki Rukia's happiness was not a boy, but a girl.

Yep, a girl. A girl named Inoue Orihime, to be exact. Recently, something had happened, which made Inoue happy, along with Rukia and their other friends. And no, you perv, it wasn't an engagement.

Inoue was well-known among her friends as a talented singer and well-known to everyone else as just a beautiful girl blessed with an unearthly cleavage. But see, that was the problem. Beyond just being a pretty girl, she was known for nothing else. Or so she thought.

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The Dyno-Cats was a young singing diva group on the rise. Originally, the Cats were composed of three members, until one of them left the group to pursue a solo career. The two remaining Cats, Matsumoto Rangiku and Shihouin Yoruichi, had a hard time finding another member to complete their line-up, but without success. For a while, it seemed they were doomed to do the act all by their twosomes. That was until they found Inoue.

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The two Cats found themselves in a bar run by an old friend, Tia Harribell, discussing their future. Both women were already considering an early retirement, but paused when they heard Inoue Orihime take the stage. Needless to say, she left them floored.

A brief exchange of contact details after and a few days later, Yoruichi called Inoue and asked if she could do a test run with them if she wasn't too busy ("We'll take care of the food," she added). Inoue agreed and went over to sing a few songs with them, until it was decided that she be the third member of the newly-reformed Dyno-Cats.

To say they were ecstatic didn't even begin to cover it. Rukia and the others knew how much it meant to Inoue to finally sing and make it big on stage, so they all promised to make it in time for her debut, no matter what came up. The only problem was that most of them didn't even have enough money to buy themselves a ticket to the show. But of course, being the good friends that they were, they didn't tell Inoue about it, making sure not to worry her.

Of course, Rukia didn't have any problem with getting the needed money, as she only had to ask her rich brother for it. She offered to get the rest of them their money, but their pride had kept them from taking her offer, reasoning that they'd still have to pay her back after (although it really was "very kind of her to propose such a thing," Ishida had remarked).

She snorted at the memory and continued skipping along the sidewalk, her ticket already in her pocket. The group had only less than thirty minutes left before the show started, and it seemed only Rukia had made it this early.

Fortunately, she was mistaken, for as soon as she entered the bar where Inoue was set to perform, she saw her four other friends talking and laughing with each other at a table. One of them, the one with orange hair, looked up suddenly and noticed Rukia. "Oi! You're late!"

"Am not!" She rushed over to them and greeted her other friends, all of whom were visibly excited to hear Inoue perform. "Geez, Ichigo, I thought you guys were going to come in late." Ichigo grinned in reply and took a sip of his drink.

"…Of course, it ain't just Inoue I'm here t'see," the tall, red-haired man suddenly announced. "'Sides, I heard the other two cats are extra-sexy too, eh Ishida?"

He snorted and adjusted his glasses. "Whatever you say, Abarai-san." Beside him, the huge, tanned man frowned slightly at Renji.

"Ah shaddap, will ya," he grunted. "You too, Chad!"

"You haven't changed at all, haven't you, Renji?" Rukia punched his shoulder lightly. Just as Renji opened his mouth to argue with her further, Ichigo snapped his fingers and pointed to the stage.

"Quiet you guys, it's starting."

The stage dimmed, and one solitary light beamed down to the center, focusing on a smiling man in a green hat. "G'evening, everyone. I'm your host and also your humble bar-owner Urahara Kisuke," he grinned and paused. "Tonight, we're here to see the reformation of a not-so-old singing group, the Dyno-Cats perform for the first time in-"

"Jeez, just start the show already!" Renji shouted from his corner, much to Rukia and Ishida's embarrassment. Ichigo laughed out loud and gave him a high-five, while Chad merely sipped on his drink.

For a moment, Urahara looked completely surprised at the interruption, but once the other audience members started laughing, he smiled again and resumed smoothly. "Hai, hai."

The curtains drew back and the band started to play.

"Ladies and gentlemen, it's showtime."

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A/N: Just to clarify things here, the earlier part wasn't supposed to be romantic. And yes, I'm well aware that Dyno-Cats is a lousy name. Nevertheless, I hope this chapter gets you pumped up enough for the next ones.