"LunariaCelestia band: because the keyboardist and the bassist fell in love, and the drummer barged straight in between them, the bassist put both the drummer and the keyboardist to the blade with her own hands. The performance is tomorrow, so we are now in urgent need of an experienced keyboardist and a mentally stable drummer."
"AuroraVeil band: the drummer jumped off a building because of her mental problems; while trying to save her, the keyboardist and the guitarist got swept up in her emotions and jumped right along with her. There is a show at the school festival — we now urgently need a guitarist, a keyboardist, and a drummer with no history of mental illness."
"StellaRise band: during a joint gig with another band, our bassist suddenly had a psychotic episode and swung her bass at the drummer, who happens to be a mental patient with bipolar disorder; the two of them were later detained for brawling. Now recruiting one drummer and one bassist. A keyboardist would also do."
"???"
Chiose Noshiro stared, stunned, at the band recruitment postings on the bulletin board.
She kept swallowing, her legs going weak beneath her.
The great girl-band era... it really was a strange thing, wasn't it.
Standing at Taki Shiina's side, she twisted her lips into a wry grin, marveling all over again at how bizarre this era was.
Romance, murder, suicide, mental illness, boxing matches... so rock and roll, right?
Was being in a band some high-mortality, high-insanity extreme sport?
"Ahem, ahem..." Barely keeping a straight face, Taki Shiina launched a tactical cough.
[Don't be scared, Little Chiose. These are just isolated cases — that's why they've been posted so long and still nobody's joined their bands. Let's take a look at the ones over here.]
Were they really just isolated cases?
Chiose tilted her head, her smile a little awkward.
If she remembered right, that band called Crychic wasn't much better off, either.
And then there was the very first band of that friend she knew in real life, Umiri Yahata — the whole lineup had flaked out and bailed. Real classy.
The great girl-band era really was just too dangerous.
Setting aside those three thoroughly dangerous, eerie posters, the ones on the other side were far gentler.
"Taki! This one... maybe... works?"
The one Chiose pointed to was perfectly normal — in short, the band's drummer and bassist had fallen ill, and they needed substitutes to help them rehearse.
And a keyboard could, in a pinch, stand in for a bass, which made Chiose think it was doable.
"Sure. Want me to take you over to check out that band?"
She ruffled Chiose's head on reflex, and only when Taki registered what she'd done did it dawn on her that Chiose hadn't shied away from her at all.
Chiose Noshiro looked at Taki with a smile, letting those small hands run wild all over her head.
"Ahem. Let's go."
Cheeks flushing, Taki took Chiose by the hand and led her toward the rehearsal room.
[My heart is racing so fast... how can this be. It's almost — about to smash straight through the walls of my chest...]
"This is Senior Shiina! And this is Senior Noshiro!"
"Eh! Hello, Seniors — thank you both so much for today! You only have to help us rehearse for one day! Our drummer and bassist will be back tomorrow!"
"Right, right — even though it's just this once, it really matters! After all, our lead vocalist really needs the practice!"
"? Hey, don't go grumbling about me under your breath."
The band girls in front of her were noisy and rowdy, and Chiose — who so rarely wore her hearing aid — found their voices a touch grating.
So she simply set the hearing aid to mute, letting the world sink back into silence.
With Taki guiding her anyway, all she needed to do was watch Taki's cues. There was no need to keep the hearing aid on all the time.
After greeting these little first-year junior-high underclassmen, Taki helped Chiose over to her electric keyboard.
[This is the sheet music. Watch my hand signals in a bit, okay?]
"Okaaay~"
Chiose's soft, gooey reply was a stimulant to Taki's dull little life.
She wanted to fake a cough to cover the ripples running through her, but on second thought she realized she'd already faked far too many coughs today.
Taki the drummer collected her thoughts, gripped her drumsticks, and started turning over something else in her mind.
"Senior! We can start now!"
"Mm-hm!"
Taki Shiina wanted to know what that "burning" Chiose spoke of actually felt like.
Burning while you played... how fantastical, and not very real, either.
Could it be a sensation only Chiose was able to experience?
Or had Chiose's description simply led her astray?
"3! 2! 1!"
Boom—
"Hah... hah... Little Chiose, are you feeling okay?"
"Mm... mm!"
Chiose smoothed down her heaving chest, and just thinking of how she'd played, she couldn't fight the urge to lick her lips.
Honestly, she'd worn her hearing aid while playing — it hadn't helped much, but it let Chiose keep in sync with everyone a little better.
So this run had gone quite well. Mm! If only the opening had been a touch smoother — she'd been too tense back then, a little stiff and wooden.
The script may have been one Chiose herself performed, but the multiple Simulations — adding up to over thirty years of playing every kind of instrument — had given Chiose an extraordinary wealth of experience.
She'd once studied bass and guitar day and night, and now she'd spent more than a decade on the piano... music had long been bound up with her fate, granting her feelings that ordinary people could never comprehend.
Perhaps this fervent love of music wasn't fake after all.
"Little Chiose? Little Chiose? Are you okay? Why'd you go quiet?"
Taki stared at the hearing aid flickering in and out of sight among Chiose's strands of hair, worrying for a moment whether Chiose still had the stamina left.
"Good... I'm very good..."
Chiose Noshiro gingerly ran her fingers over the hearing aid, and just before she was about to mute the world again, she hesitated.
"I'm so happy — thank you, Taki, for bringing me here..."
The band that had hired them had already finished up and left, and Chiose hooked both hands over Taki's, cheeks damp with sweat yet her smile as heart-piercing as ever.
"So happy — Taki's drums are amazing, so happy I got to play a whole song together with Taki... such a wonderful feeling... music is wonderful... I love the rhythm so much, too..."
"Eh! I—"
Taki felt like Chiose was confessing to her, and once that thought was born she couldn't stop herself from spiraling off into fantasy.
And now, Taki Shiina was off daydreaming again.
Let the record show: she, Taki Shiina, really just liked being good friends with Chiose, nothing more.
She'd merely begun imagining herself together with Chiose — imagining the two of them playing music for a lifetime, Chiose being cared for by her for a lifetime, the two of them raising lots of little crows, and living happily ever after.
Let the record show once more: they really were just the closest of friends.
"Little Chiose, take it off now, won't you? Didn't you say... it'd hurt your hearing?"
"Ah... but Taki, I really want to hear you talk a little more — your voice is so nice! It's a bit muffled... but I love it so much... love it so much! I want to hear the voice of my very best friend..."
"I... don't say things like that, I'll really get embarrassed."
Taki Shiina was already completely under Chiose Noshiro's control.
Even as she tickled the inside of Taki's palm, Chiose gave her body a small spin and settled, with practiced ease, right into Taki's lap.
"I'm tired... Taki, my very best friend! Can you hold me for a little while?"
Who exactly are you putting to the test here?!
"Okay!"
Taki Shiina could barely catch her breath.
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