"Next up — the blazing-hot Shiina Taki and her partner, Yoshiiro Chiose!"
"Yes! It's Shiina Taki — I'm her biggest fan!"
"Same, same — I've been following her for ten years."
"But didn't Shiina Taki only release her first song like a few days ago?"
The same venue. The same music festival. The only difference was that last time, no one had cheered for them like this before they'd even set foot on stage.
Taki felt tiny flames flickering through her bloodstream. That roaring applause — all of it was for her.
Behind her, out of sight, Yoshiiro Chiose was leaning against the wall with her eyes closed, her face drained of colour.
[Two days without food and barely any sleep, and I'm already running on empty? I suppose that's what a Chosen Trait this powerful costs you.]
"Come on, Chiose! It's our turn!"
"I know. Let me just check my bass one more time."
When the curtain was drawn back, Taki bounded onto the stage, barely able to contain herself.
Chiose watched her from the wings — this Shiina Taki she had raised with her own two hands. How brilliantly that girl shone. It really had been worth it, all that patient guidance and steady companionship.
Enjoy this, Taki.
Drink it in. Savour every last drop of it. Because once this is over, I am going to hurt you.
The hands Chiose had wrapped around her bass were trembling, wringing a silent cry from the instrument.
All that suffering, all that effort — it was always going to bear fruit. Taki would get everything she ever wanted. And she — Yoshiiro Chiose — would get everything she wanted too.
The two of them took their positions on stage.
Taki turned and held Chiose's gaze for a long, quiet moment.
The look lasted only a heartbeat, but both of them understood exactly what the other meant.
[Are we starting?]
[Let's start.]
Chiose began to play. Weeks and months of day-and-night practice had made the bass an extension of herself — second nature, effortless.
The easy, low-toned bass line settled over the stage like the amber glow of the festival lights, and the whole world seemed to exhale.
The intro drew to a close. Taki opened her mouth, and her voice came out sure and steady.
"Hey, it feels like I left something behind somewhere —
"One thing, then another, drifting back up to the surface.
"Hey — let's make sure we pick them up properly,"
The two girls' eyes found each other across the stage.
Taki knew that a performer's gaze was supposed to sweep the crowd — that was where her attention should belong. But Taki couldn't manage it.
Every moment, her eyes were drawn back to Yoshiiro Chiose.
"Before they scatter and slip away into forgetting —
"The future of that girl and me, spinning and spinning —"
Slender fingers kept a steady rhythm on the bass strings. Crimson eyes met violet ones. Chiose and Taki alike felt the something extra woven into the music — a feeling that didn't belong to the song alone.
The audience had fallen silent. Every single person wanted to cheer, wanted to scream — but by some unspoken agreement, they held themselves still, drinking the performance in.
"If only we could stop somewhere and start all over —
"That spinning girl and I are both just victims of it,"
Is this the song you wanted to hear, Yoshiiro Chiose?
From the moment Taki had caught Chiose's eyes, she hadn't been able to look away.
She was looking at Chiose, and yet she was seeing something beyond Chiose too.
Ever since they had met, months ago, this girl standing in front of her had never stopped helping her. And she had gone around saying things like —
[I fell for you at first sight.]
What a shameless thing to say. Could a girl really say something like that to another girl?
"If only I could wander somewhere like this again —
"Turu-ruru, turu-ruru, turu-ru."
The singing and the playing carried a faint undercurrent of melancholy — like two young, reckless people falling headlong into love without counting the cost, only to arrive, in the end, at the very same place.
And that was exactly what Yoshiiro Chiose had wanted to say.
In the pauses between phrases, Chiose's lips trembled, mouthing something silently.
She didn't know whether Shiina Taki could make out what she was trying to say.
But it didn't matter anymore.
[Shiina Taki. I hope you find happiness.]
Though it was a pity — because none of this was real. A simulation is only a simulation. Ah, a simulation is only ever a simulation.
Chiose was the first to turn away, letting the audience's energy wash over her. Following her lead, Taki looked out at the crowd as well.
In the front rows she could see her parents and her teachers, and her classmates from school. Every face was lit with pride and excitement, shining for her — for Taki's performance.
But where was her sister? Ah — she'd be backstage getting ready, probably. No time to watch her little sister's set. That was normal enough.
The corner of Taki's mouth gave a small, uncertain tremor. She told herself she wasn't that disappointed.
But then she looked further — toward the back doors — and there was her sister, waving both hands at her, fingers laced together like a megaphone, cheering her on.
The last shadow of doubt vanished from Taki's heart in an instant.
[This performance — it's actually earned Sister's recognition. And everyone else's. Not just words. The look in their eyes — that look doesn't lie!]
She'd done it. She had really, truly done it.
The performance was going beautifully. Here and there in the crowd, a few girls who felt things a little too deeply had already started crying quietly.
Which was only natural, honestly.
This song was everything Taki had ever felt for Yoshiiro Chiose, pressed into music.
Every memory was inside it. Everything from the day they met up to now — Taki had poured her whole self into a single song.
This was a song that neither Chiose nor she would ever be disappointed by.
"Riding along on the current of the age —
"We'll go on living in love, unchanged.
"When we have scattered to the winds, what remains —
"Will surely be that song of love that never changes."
The final phrase was a wordless sound — a vocal flourish to close it all out.
Chiose had called it the sound of the sun blowing bubbles and bursting them.
The turu-ruru passage was sung by both of them together. Taki noticed Chiose's voice growing fainter and fainter — but she didn't let herself dwell on it.
Because the applause from below the stage was simply too enormous. The music hadn't even ended, and the audience was already showering them in wholehearted, unstinting cheers.
"Hah… hah…" Taki was breathing hard. She felt like she had sung everything out of herself.
"Chiose! Look — everyone is cheering for us! I did it! I —"
"Yeah, Taki. You did it…"
I have always been so proud of you, Shiina Taki.
Yoshiiro Chiose smiled — and then, without any warning, her arms still cradling her expensive bass, she fell straight backward.
Thud.
"Chiose!"
____
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