"Thank you all!"
Hearing Kita Ikuyo's response, Gotoh Hitori also let out a sigh of relief: "Now I can finally relax."
Kita Ikuyo kindly reminded and suggested: "So from now on, please everyone, the seniors should probably give up on the madman band route, right? You all go crazy dancing every night as a group, don't you!"
Ijichi Nijika's surprised ahoge twitched: "What? Where did you hear that from?"
(She actually believed it ( ' - ' * ))
"So Kita Ikuyo, from now on let's all do our best together!"
Kita Ikuyo: "Mm!"
Ijichi Nijika: "As long as you work hard, there will definitely be results."
Kita Ikuyo: "Mm!"
Yamada Ryo: "You also have to do part-time work."
Kita Ikuyo: "Mm!"
Yamada Ryo: "And help me with chores so I can rest properly."
Kita Ikuyo: "Mm!"
[Something weird just got mixed in there!]
Ijichi Nijika: "You have to do the work yourself!"
Yamada Ryo lowered her head and said regretfully: "Sigh, what a hassle!"
"Haha!"
While everyone was immersed in laughter and cheerful voices, Saiki looked at Kita Ikuyo and finally asked the question he'd been most curious about today.
[Kita-san, I remember you were supposed to be practicing guitar, right? So why are you carrying a bass?]
"Huh?"
"Bass?"
Kita Ikuyo shook the instrument on her back: "You mean this? This is a guitar!"
Saiki reached out to refute: "No, this is a bass."
"How could that be? Even though my skills are bad and I can only make really low thumping sounds."
Gotoh Hitori: "That's the sound a bass makes!"
Kita Ikuyo set it down while opening the case and grumbled: "Saiki-kun, seriously. I've been practicing with this for so long. I can still tell the difference between a guitar and a bass. A bass has four strings, right!"
She opened the case, and everyone leaned in to look. The instrument indeed had six strings.
Kita Ikuyo kept smiling: "See? There are six strings, right!"
After looking, everyone's expressions stayed in a state of confusion.
(Yare yare, someone please come teach her how to play guitar on a six-string bass.)
Gotoh Hitori kindly reminded her: "Um… basses can have six strings too."
Yamada Ryo, who specializes in bass, offered her insight: "This is a multi-string bass!"
Kita Ikuyo's maintained smile turned into a puzzled face as she made eye contact with the others to confirm, then looked back at the instrument she'd been playing as Kita.
╭(°A°`)╮
Kita Ikuyo shed tears of regret and lay peacefully on the ground: "I asked my dad to advance two years' worth of allowance and New Year's money to buy this."
Ijichi Nijika: "Kita!!"
Gotoh Hitori helped Kita Ikuyo up: "Kita-san, are you okay!"
[Her soul is leaking out, hurry and put it back.]
"Uwaa~"
Yamada Ryo sighed: "I'll buy this bass."
Kita Ikuyo: "Thank you, Ryo-senpai."
Ijichi Nijika (=°Д°=): "Ryo, are you sure about this? Do you even have the money?"
Yamada Ryo: "No problem."
"The 'no problem' you usually say… sigh, whatever. But how much does this bass cost?"
Ijichi Nijika glanced sideways at Saiki, feeling like he would know: "Kusuo-kun, do you know?"
[Well…]
Saiki glanced at the six-string bass from the corner of his eye while searching nearby music stores in his mind.
[Yeah, probably around 120,000 yen.]
"120,000…"
Yamada Ryo's face darkened, her legs went a bit weak, and she took a few steps back.
"Ryo-senpai, are you okay?"
Kita Ikuyo immediately stepped forward to support her.
Yamada Ryo's expression didn't change, but you could see her face gradually darkening: "I'm fine. It's just that starting next month, I'll have to live off grass."
Gotoh Hitori ꒰꒪꒫꒪⌯꒱
Kita Ikuyo ┌(.Д.)┐: "Ryo-senpai… you're joking, right?"
(She doesn't look like the type to joke about this.)
[Yare yare…]
...
Kita Ikuyo adjusted her mood: "But Saiki-kun, how did you know this was a bass? I didn't even open it today!"
"Right, Kusuo-kun, you…"
Seeing everyone's puzzled stares and gazes, Saiki broke out in a few cold sweats.
(I can't exactly say I saw through it with x-ray vision.)
After one second of thinking, Saiki gave his answer.
[Actually, you can tell just from the guitar case she's carrying. It's an Ibanez IBB541 model case, and the neck part is longer than Gotoh's.
In reality, bass cases are nearly 20 cm longer than guitar cases. When you put the two types side by side, the bass case is visibly slimmer, so anyone paying even a little attention would spot the issue right away… yeah, that's it.]
(((o(ﾟ▽ﾟ)o)))
Yamada Ryo: "Mm, yeah, if you observe carefully it's actually pretty reasonable to notice."
"R-Really?"
"Saiki is seriously mysterious!"
"True, only Kusuo-kun and Ryo would notice something like that. Definitely not a normal high schooler."
[No, I am a normal ordinary high school student!]
Yamada Ryo ( ˝ᗢ̈˝ ): "I'm not that impressive."
Ijichi Nijika: "So what exactly are you hearing? I'm complimenting you!"
A little interlude comes to an end. Congratulations, congratulations, cola cola.
...
Weekend.
After breakfast, Saiki was enjoying his coffee jelly when his phone suddenly rang.
"Silent prisoner, captive body, secret society, the shadow of Dark Reunion…"
This is a really good song, I recommend everyone check it out, but a lot of people don't know what it's called. Let me see how many can figure it out.
"Beep"
(Dangerous phone call!)
Saiki set down his coffee jelly, picked up the phone, answered it, and immediately went with the basics.
[Moshi moshi.]
An anxious voice came from the other side.
"Saiki-shishou!! Saiki-shishou!!! Something huge happened, something huge, it's urgent, you gotta…"
"Click—"
Saiki hung up, put the phone down, and casually continued eating his coffee jelly as if nothing happened.
"Um… Saiki-kun, is it really okay to just hang up like that?"