"Yahallo!"
"Little Chiose, where did you learn that one?"
"Eh? What did Taki say? Hold on, let me adjust my hearing aid."
"Forget it… I mean! Yahallo!"
"Heh heh, Yahallo!"
Taki's mood always lifted a little the second she laid eyes on Chiose.
The tightness she'd been holding in her face broke apart all at once, like an iceberg giving way in spring.
She had, in fact, arrived at the rehearsal room far too early today, which left her stuck facing bandmates she didn't know all that well.
Wakaba Mutsumi, for instance, who came in second.
Neither of them said a word. Mutsumi watched the dull exhaust trailing behind the cars tearing past outside the window, while Taki sat typing out her daily essay-length message to Chiose on her phone.
That deadly silence held until Chiose appeared and shattered it with one sweet "Yahallo."
A little way off, Mutsumi turned her head and dipped her chin at Chiose in greeting.
Chiose copied her exactly, nodding back with a smile.
In the brief week they'd spent together, Chiose had gotten a good look at everyone's less-than-ordinary side.
She walked to the piano alone and sat down, running her fingers across the smooth keys the way one might trace a lover's face.
[Everyone here relates to each other so… intensely, don't they.]
Do you know what happens when two love-starved people get tangled up in each other?
Two love-starved people generate an enormous collision of feeling, an endless venting of it, dragging one another deeper into a whirlpool there's no coming back from.
[But do you know what's more horrifying than that…]
As the band filed in one by one, Chiose let out a slow sigh where no one could hear it.
[Worse is a whole pack of love-starved creatures tangled up together.]
Togawa Sakiko hid it well, but one glance was enough — she was that kind of kid. Either a father's love was missing or a mother's, or else the whole family kept each other at a chilly arm's length. Years of bullying girls had bought Chiose Noshiro that eye, and it was precious experience.
Wakaba Mutsumi… now there was someone you couldn't see through. Like a many-headed monster, complicated and dull-witted at the same time. Exactly the sort of victim you could absolutely get away with picking on.
Bully someone like that, and she wouldn't hit back or talk back.
Nagasaki Soyo and Takamatsu Tomori went without saying. Chiose Noshiro knew down to the last inch how starved for love those two were.
After all, she was the culprit who had once given them that love and then taken it away.
And last of all, Taki Shiina…
"All right, let's run it a few more times today — the live show is next week! I can't wait. I really want to see how our lovely audience reacts!"
Sakiko's good mood was written all over her face: that singular brand of romance the world hadn't gotten around to spoiling yet, cut with a faint streak of adolescent grandiosity and a very loud strain of idealism.
"Mm-hm!"
Chiose drifted back to Taki's side and scratched a fingertip against her palm, which set Taki blushing and glancing over again and again.
[Little Chiose, is something wrong?]
[Nothing. You're an idiot.]
[I am not an idiot! I'm very smart, actually.]
[It's fine. Even if you were an idiot, I'd still like you.]
Chiose winked — a playful critical hit, straight through Taki's guard.
A soft, delicate little hand reached behind her ear, and the hearing aid was ready in no time at all.
"Okay, let's begin! Although — Taki and Chiose really are close, aren't they."
"Heh heh, we're just good sisters."
…
"Deep breath. Don't be scared, don't be scared… it's all small stuff!"
In the blink of an eye, Crychic — a supernova of a band that hadn't existed two weeks ago — was standing behind the curtain.
Chiose's little finger brushed the black-and-red drape, and the fuzzy texture of it left her strangely adrift.
She felt like she'd been here before… no. She had absolutely been here before.
This place a year from now, three years from now, ten years from now — she had visited every one of them.
She had touched this same curtain over and over, countless times, across different times and different spaces.
Her bandmates hadn't.
Chiose tilted her head slightly, letting her gaze travel across her teammates.
Nervous, all of them. No surprise there — true rookies. Even Taki and Mutsumi, usually the two coolest heads in the room, looked cramped and restless.
So this was the charm of a performance. The moment you stepped onstage, every scrap of unease would drain away.
But right now… the adrenaline must be spiking through the roof, my children.
Chiose adjusted her hearing aid, and noticed that the help it gave her was receding. Not quickly. Very faintly. But unmistakably.
In three or four more years, maybe fewer, she probably wouldn't hear a single sound ever again.
Who knew. That was a problem for later.
"Up next, a band called Crychic — they've only just formed, everyone!"
The audience chattered and buzzed, the announcer's voice lilted and curled, the girls' breathing came heavy and rough — and the corners of Chiose's eyes narrowed to slits with amusement.
"Sakiko."
Chiose spoke to Togawa Sakiko beside her. Sakiko had been stamping her feet in small, unconscious motions where she stood, and Chiose's clear voice snapped her attention around instantly.
"What is it, Little Chiose?"
"How about we make a bet?"
"Eh? A bet on what?"
"Let's bet on how many fans the band picks up by the time tonight's over."
"That's not really something anyone can call…"
Chiose gave a careless little shrug, her voice carrying no urgency whatsoever — if anything, she sounded thoroughly at ease. "I'm betting we're a smash hit and the fan count shoots way up. I'm putting a matcha parfait on it. You in?"
"Eh? Fine — you're on!"
Once she understood Chiose was rallying morale, Togawa Sakiko stopped hesitating. She turned to face the rest of them.
"Everyone — we're going up!"
"Right!"
"Crychic was amazing! Everyone was amazing!"
The show ended almost before it began. Chiose looked over at Nagasaki Soyo, cheering and bouncing on her toes, and the last faint thread of tension in her chest slipped away into nothing.
Well. Playing music with a hearing aid in for the first time — that had been very cool.
At the celebration afterward everyone was happy in their own particular way, but Chiose didn't allow herself a moment's slack.
Someone here was missing.
The soul of the band was missing.
While she was still turning that over, Togawa Sakiko came back.
The joy of a successful performance had drained out of her face, and in its place sat a thread of some worry Chiose couldn't quite read, heavy in a way she could only sense.
Chiose Noshiro's one regret was that [Humble Devouring] couldn't be used on Sakiko. Such a pity.
It seemed a great deal of intelligence would have to be picked by hand.
"Sakiko," Chiose said, moving toward her where she lingered by the door, "come eat matcha parfait with us."
"Oh…" Sakiko was clearly somewhere else. She gave her head a small shake and produced the most strained smile imaginable.
"Eh? Are you all right?"
Chiose Noshiro pitched her voice so that only the two of them could hear it — and still spared a glance to check whether Taki Shiina had noticed anything over here.
Sure enough, Taki Shiina's eyes hadn't stopped sweeping this way for a single second.
So cute.
"I…" Togawa Sakiko stopped for a few seconds.
"I'm fine."
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