Kita-san's senior...
What would she be like?
Ishikawa Hayato waited in STARRY for the performance to begin. After sitting there for quite a while, he only saw Ryo arrive.
She came down the stairs at an unhurried pace. Having gone home, she had changed into casual clothes and seemed rather eager for the show as well.
"Where's Nijika?"
Hayato had a pretty good idea, but he still asked.
"She went to find a guitarist to replace Kita."
Looking bored, Ryo sat down beside Hayato as she spoke.
"This feels like it's going to be a disaster."
Hayato stated it with certainty.
"Yeah."
Ryo nodded.
After a little while, Seika-manager came over. She looked around but did not see her younger sister, so she asked the two of them.
"Where's Nijika?"
"She ran away."
Hayato, who never lied, said so.
"Huh?"
Seika-manager, who could tell at once that it was a lie, fixed him with the wild, vicious glare of a former band girl.
With an embarrassed smile, Hayato awkwardly waved his hand.
"She went to find a guitarist," Ryo answered Seika's question.
"Now?"
Seika looked astonished, as if asking whether Ryo was trying to mess with her too. But after seeing Ryo nod, she pressed a hand to her head in frustration.
"Tell Nijika to practice properly until the show starts! Honestly, that idiot little sister."
Seika complained irritably as she headed outside.
"The manager's angry."
"Nijika's in trouble."
The two sighed together.
Time slowly passed. Just as even Hayato began worrying whether something had gone wrong, Nijika's cheerful voice rang out.
"Good morning."
He snapped back to attention.
For someone gloomy and dark, it really did make sense to greet people with "good morning" at dusk.
He looked toward the entrance.
Behind Nijika followed a timid girl with long pink hair, wearing a pink tracksuit top and a pleated skirt.
The two came down the stairs, and Nijika introduced the girl to the shop.
Hayato said nothing and simply watched them.
Ryo pushed back her chair, stood up, and walked toward them, greeting Nijika at the same time.
"You're finally back."
"Ryo~"
Nijika called out to Ryo with a smile, then introduced the person she had brought along.
"This is Gotou Hitori-chan. She's the guitarist Kita-chan asked to come help us."
Watching from nearby, Hayato saw that Gotou Hitori was clearly frightened by Ryo's expressionless face. Her own expression was beginning to malfunction.
Then Nijika held out a hand to introduce Ryo to Gotou Hitori.
But before she could even finish one sentence, Gotou Hitori immediately bowed and shouted.
"I'm Gotou Hitori! I'm very sorry!"
With an awkward expression, Nijika tried to smooth over the increasingly strange atmosphere, then looked around for help.
Hayato knew it was his turn.
Using the uncanny ability to appear and disappear unique to perverts, he flashed to Nijika and Gotou Hitori's side.
He placed his hands on their shoulders.
"Ladies, did you lose something?"
"Hayato-kun!"
Startled by Hayato, Nijika instantly turned around. Then she stomped her foot in irritation. It was not that she minded Hayato touching her like that.
Rather, she knew exactly how timid the girl beside her was. If Hayato startled her like that, she might run away.
He was usually so considerate of boundaries. Why was he suddenly acting like this?
"Ah, Ishikawa-san..."
Gotou Hitori looked in surprise at Hayato's hand on her shoulder.
She had not expected Ishikawa Hayato to be here too. Seeing someone she knew put her a little more at ease.
She even felt an uncontrollable surge of delight.
Could the band she had joined at the last minute be Ishikawa-san's!?
Hayato glanced at Gotou Hitori. Suddenly possessed by theatrical fervor, he somehow produced a handkerchief, wiped away tears, and said pitifully.
"Sniff, sniff... Gotou-san hates me, doesn't she? When someone else invites her, she comes right away, but when I invite her, she ignores me."
"E-E-Eh? No, no, that's not it!"
Gotou Hitori frantically waved her hands in denial.
"You two know each other?" Nijika blinked in surprise.
Returning to normal, Hayato smiled.
"Yeah. Gotou-san is the guitarist I'd wanted to recruit for a while."
"I see."
Nijika let out a long breath of relief.
Sure enough, even though Hayato-kun always liked doing strange things, he was still someone who knew his limits.
At that moment, Ryo remembered what Seika had told her to pass on to Nijika.
"By the way, the manager said to practice until the show starts. She complained angrily about Nijika going out, then left to buy some things."
Nijika looked at Ryo in alarm, even clenching her small hands in fear by the end.
Apparently, her angry older sister was still very intimidating to her.
"No way!"
She hurriedly urged the others along, pushing Ryo forward.
"Let's get to the rehearsal room before she comes back."
The rehearsal room, where only three people usually practiced, had one more girl in it today.
And the change it brought was...
Nijika pushed Ryo into the rehearsal room, then ruthlessly abandoned her and took their performance plan and sheet music from beneath a cabinet.
She glanced at Hayato. Seeing that he did not move, she handed the several sheets of paper to Gotou Hitori herself.
"These are today's schedule and the sheet music."
Gotou Hitori accepted the music and checked the band members.
The one who had brought her here was Ijichi Nijika. Nijika had said on the way that she was the drummer, while Yamada Ryo was the bassist.
Ishikawa-san was... Gotou Hitori saw Hayato walk over to the set-up synthesizer. He was the keyboardist, and with Kita Ikuyo, who had previously said she could not play guitar...
Wasn't this almost a full lineup?
Come to think of it, where was the vocalist?
"Um, the band members are..."
"Everyone performing tonight is here. This time, we're doing an instrumental performance."
As Nijika spoke, she helped turn on the amplifier, then patted it. "Hitori, use this."
"Ah... okay."
Gotou Hitori nodded uneasily, then noticed Hayato looking at her from beside her.
When she looked toward Hayato, he gave her an encouraging thumbs-up with a sparkling smile before starting to test the keyboard's sound.
She hurriedly checked the sheet music too.
No problem.
She could easily play songs of this level, but without a singer, the performance would require even more effort.
Besides, this was a chance to show Ishikawa-san what she could do.
Seeing the confident smile on Hitori's face, Nijika relaxed a little.
Even she knew that finding a guitarist only two hours before a show was absurd.
And if the performance went terribly, her sister would kill her when she got home tonight.
Keeping an eye on Gotou Hitori's expression, she said.
"Then without further delay, let's run through it from the beginning."
"Well, let's take it slow at first. We can get used to it bit by bit afterward."
Worried that she was being too impatient again and overlooking someone else's feelings, she checked Gotou Hitori's expression. After tuning her guitar, Hitori wore a small smile, looking like she wanted to show off.
Then she said.
"Let's begin."
She set the rhythm with a strike of her drumsticks.
A few minutes later.
Bzzz~
The song ended, and the lingering sound of electronic instruments echoed through the rehearsal room.
Hayato sighed. Even though he had met Gotou Hitori beforehand and helped her get somewhat used to interacting with others, it had not changed much.
"Super terrible."
Because the difference between before and after was so huge, Nijika was so shocked that she said the opposite of what she meant, mixing up the words in her mouth with the ones in her heart.
She had somehow kept the line, "That was pretty good," inside.
"Pfft."
Only after hearing Ryo's suppressed laugh did she realize she had gotten it wrong.
She hurriedly tried to explain.
"No, no, ah, um..."
Amid everyone's confusion, Hayato adjusted the glasses he had somehow put on.
"Looks like we need to change the battlefield."
Before you continue