What to have for dinner.
[How about okonomiyaki? Do you like it?]
Taki didn't know the sign for okonomiyaki, so she wrote the words out on paper for Chiose to read.
She had to admit, the ways she and Chiose communicated had reached a certain level of complexity.
Text messages, handwriting, sign language, spoken words—the two of them would often pick two of these four at random and launch into some elaborate exchange.
Sometimes they even communicated through their eyes, and in those moments purple pupils would meet the pinkish-purple rings of Taki's.
As if their hearts beat in tune, no matter how complicated the method, they always understood exactly what the other wanted to convey.
"Okonomiyaki?"
Chewing softly on the word, Chiose tilted her head and hopped down off Taki.
Her soft pink toes met the floor, quickly leaving a little trail of prints.
"I... don't mind either way."
"But it's not often that Taki comes to my place... let's not go out to eat, okay?"
As she spoke, Chiose looked at her with those pitiful eyes Taki could never refuse, and Taki melted right there.
[Okay! We'll eat at home. What does Little Chiose want to eat?]
[I want... to eat... let's have something simple, it's getting late.]
Neither of them spoke aloud anymore, communicating quietly in sign language.
Chiose blinked, then slipped on her hearing aid.
"Taki... have you ever seen The Solitary Gourmet?"
"I have. Can you hear me clearly when I talk right now?"
"I can hear you. Some syllables just come out a little blurry," Chiose shrugged. "It's just how it is, nothing to be done."
"But, Taki, did you read the book, or watch the TV drama?"
"Eh? There's a book too?"
"There is, there is!" Chiose bounced along, tugging Taki up to the second-floor study, and pulled a small book with a rough, straw-paper cover from a stack of heavily worn volumes.
"Murakami Roo... pfft, Roo... Ryu! Mm! It's a work by Murakami Ryu!"
Chiose corrected her pronunciation several times to make sure she'd gotten it right, then spread open to the book's first page and pointed at the portrait of a somewhat plump man.
"He's one of the two Murakamis, alongside Murakami Haruki—Murakami Roo..."
"It's Murakami Ryu."
"Right, right, right! I... I told you my pronunciation has problems!"
Faced with Taki's correction, Chiose's eyes flickered with embarrassment, but she quickly steered the topic back.
"Forget the book. Yeah! In the drama, there's this Miracle Tonkatsu! Taki, do you remember it?"
"Eh? It rings a bell, I guess."
Right now, all Taki Shiina wanted was for Chiose Noshiro to take off the hearing aid as soon as possible.
She was afraid the "worsening hearing loss" Chiose had mentioned would truly come to pass.
Then she'd have to carry this regret for the rest of her life all over again.
"I... really like this dish, so let's have it tonight? Will Little Taki like it?"
The bubbling joy in Chiose's voice swept Taki along—how could she ever say no to her silver-haired girl?
[Sure. What a coincidence—this happens to be my favorite dish of all.]
A little white lie didn't matter; either way, Taki swore that from today on her favorite food would be the Miracle Tonkatsu Chiose made.
"Heh heh."
The ingredients were all on hand.
In the kitchen, Chiose pounded the pork loin tender, marinated it with cooking wine, salt, and black pepper for a good ten minutes, then coated it in breadcrumbs and fried it golden.
Barely twenty-odd minutes had passed from discussing the drama to cooking the dish, but Chiose's efficiency was honestly frightening.
"All done."
Chiose Noshiro's voice was drowned out by the range hood, but Taki could make out what she was saying.
"Finally... paired with shredded cabbage and Japanese tonkatsu sauce, it really captures the flavor from the show... Little Taki, have a taste!"
"Mmm."
With it right at her lips, how could she not eat?
One bite—crispy on the outside, bursting with juices inside—and just as she'd been captured by Chiose's music, Taki was now captured by Chiose's cooking too.
A bright orange pendant lamp hung over the table, the mood of dining together warm and comfortable. Over the past week, Taki Shiina had already shared dinner with Chiose Noshiro countless times.
It was always her treat, but she was happy to do it!
Little Chiose, are you planning to start a band someday?
Chatting with her little deaf girl over dinner was a bit difficult, but Taki managed it all the same.
"Mm?" Swallowing the food in her mouth, Chiose blinked with adorable cluelessness.
"Me? Can I really do it too?"
"Of course. Didn't I tell you before? I'll be right there with you—I'll play the drums! Little Chiose just has to keep her eyes on me and follow my movements, and nothing will ever go wrong."
She absolutely couldn't wear the hearing aid for long stretches.
But Taki felt that since Chiose loved music so much, she shouldn't be buried away in obscurity!
This was the great girl-band era, after all—an age when every girl had the chance to step onto a stage and show her talent! Chiose Noshiro was meant to be a dazzling pearl of this era, and if she were buried away...
[Then it would be the whole world's sin!]
Then it would be... Taki Shiina's sin.
If only to ease her own guilt a little, Taki hoped she could help Chiose with her music.
"Really? Will... will Taki be with me?"
[Yeah, you and me... let me think.]
Taki went to Ring often, and she knew a way to form a band even with just two people.
And so, Taki Shiina slapped the table!
[Let's become band mercenaries.]
"That's... what?"
Taki had kept her in suspense just to catch a glimpse of Chiose's puzzled little expression, and now that she'd succeeded, she stopped holding back.
[It means we'll join different bands—any day there might be a new one that needs our support... and we get to take the stage together! Helping out other bands, getting paid, and performing all at once. Interested?]
There was a lot Taki didn't know how to sign, so she simply set down her bowl and chopsticks, found paper and pen, and explained half in writing, half in sign language.
"Eh!"
Like a little country bumpkin who'd just come to the city, Chiose's wide-eyed inexperience made Taki think of all sorts of things.
She thought that if not for her, Taki Shiina... Chiose would surely have been an all-knowing, sunny, radiant girl blessed with beauty.
"Okay! It's me and... Taki together? As long as I'm with Taki, I'm so happy."
Chiose Noshiro's smile came straight from the heart. She loved these flashes of inspiration from Taki Shiina—far less trouble than her own carefully laid-out scripts.
Forming a band-mercenary team, joining Crychic, and finally, when everything came to light, deepening their bond further.
Chiose and Taki bumped fists over the table, and together they let out a soft cheer.
Only, Taki didn't know.
That in the future she would surely come to regret what she had done—weeping bitterly, unable to sleep for entire nights.
That's just how it was.
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