BEAT UP. The biggest injury you’ve sustained so far.
Tora: I haven’t had any major injuries yet, I don’t think.*
Hiroto: When I think of beat-up, I think of Tora’s feet. Tora: I’m always barefoot during lives, so yeah, they get all scraped up. The soles of my feet have gotten really tough lately, I didn’t even feel it when I stepped on some broken glass at home.
Hiroto: They’ve lost their sensitivity, huh.
Nao: Isn’t that just being insensitive? (laugh)
Saga: When I was in a youth baseball league, I threw the balls so hard over time I got like ‘baseball elbow.’ My bones stuck out so much I looked like an alien. Oh, but I got a story you’ve never heard, it’ll move you. There was one time, I was in a lot of pain but stuck it out as the pitcher, and we ended up winning the match!
Nao: Weren’t you just a fill-in? (laugh)
MOREShou: I was at the crosswalk leaving school one day, and I got hit by some truck carrying apples from Aomori. The moment I heard the ‘BAM!’ I was looking up at the blue sky, fell over and just kinda laid there dazed. I got a compound fracture.
Nao: When you get hit by a car, you never know what’s hit you, do ya.
Shou: Not at all, not at all!
Nao: I’ve been hit by a car too, but I was all ‘Huh? Did I just get hit?’ I was in the middle of a blizzard, and I had my hood up covering my face and kinda crab-walking (against the storm). The traffic lights changed, and all of the sudden I saw something white…that was the sky, though.
Hiroto: Found yourself a target, huh?
Nao: I had no idea what had happened.
Shou: You’re in shock so you don’t feel any pain.
Nao: At the time I thought I was okay, but a few hours later the pain hit me (laugh) Yeah I’ve had that happen, but, I think what hurts the most is the pain in my heart…
Hiroto: One time when I was 5, I was at the park playing with friends jumping over rocks. A girl I knew called out to me from far away and I slipped and smashed the middle of my face (right between the eyes) on the corner of a rock. I needed 4 stitches! When I came to, I was laying on the ground and my face was all bloody, and my friends were all screaming ‘HIROTO-KUN’S DEAD!’ and I really thought, ‘I just died’…
(NUMBER SIX/BLUE PLANET lyrics keyword interview, 11/2006)*Translator’s note: this interview was given over a year before Tora’s neck injury.