A Step Toward the Other Side

Don't form a band for life, and what else is there to play for?

Author: A Red Leaf

Synopsis:

[There are major twists, but the emotional storyline remains the main focus.]

"If you're going to form a band, then come back only after you've prepared yourself for the resolve to 'form one for your entire life.'" Shiko, the girl keyboardist of Kessoku Band, made this declaration.

"D-Does it have to be that way?" Ryo Yamada broke out in a cold sweat.

"Isn't that what bands are like?" Ikuyo Kita didn't care in the slightest.

"Of course... Shiko already promised me..." Hitori Goto grinned foolishly.

"The members of Kessoku Band really have such a good relationship~" Kasumi Toyama couldn't help sighing in admiration.

"This is way past abnormal, okay!" Arisa Ichigaya's entire body broke out in goosebumps.

"Ehh~ Arisa, don't you want to do popipa for the rest of your life?"

In contrast to the commotion over there, Sayo Hikawa was quietly preparing for the upcoming performance. However, Hina kept bothering her from the side, leaving her no peace.

The entire RAISE A SUILEN had just finished performing and walked offstage. Next, it was Kessoku Band's turn.

Among those below the stage was Karen Aijo.

Shiko took a deep breath and placed both hands on the keyboard.

"The audience is waiting."

"Then, in the name of the stars—"

Her fingers fell.

For the eternity that began at this moment, she played the first note.

One Step Toward Each Other

She fell from a tall tower. The sun was obscured by dust, and fierce winds whipped grains of sand through the air.

Only the hollow sound of wind filled her ears. The light from above grew farther and farther away.

When would she reach the bottom?

Maybe the next moment. Maybe after a long time. Maybe there would never be a bottom.

A hand caught her.

Ten hands caught her.

A hundred hands caught her.

Those hands caught her, embraced her, and became her place of refuge in that dark abyss where she had nothing to hold on to.

She abruptly sat up, only to be defeated by the early-spring chill and hurriedly crawl back under the covers. Only then did she realize that her body could move again.

Her eyes could see once more. She was looking at the ceiling.

An unfamiliar ceiling.

Huh? Who am I? Where am I? What am I supposed to do?

Five minutes later, she stood before a full-length mirror, staring blankly at her reflection. She was a girl with long gray hair, egg-yolk-colored eyes, and delicate skin. Apart from her somewhat gloomy aura, she was, overall, quite cute.

But she definitely wasn't herself.

Had she transmigrated?

She pinched her cheek. It hurt.

She had transmigrated.

The doubt lasted only a second.

Then, tidal-wave-like joy and happiness proved everything to her. Like one of her ancestors, she sprang off the bed and shouted and rolled around the room for no reason. Rationality temporarily gave way to boiling emotions, and she let the excitement control her until she finally calmed down a little. Lying on the bed, she carefully examined her hands, the ceiling, the blankets, the floor, the bookcase, and everything around her.

She had transmigrated.

She had transmigrated.

She had started over.

She stood up.

The books around her were all filled with kana. This should be Japan. Since she had transmigrated here, that meant...

"(So this is the world of anime and manga...)" Her hand brushed over one cover after another before finally stopping on the metal bars by the window.

The sunlight was too dazzling, so she narrowed her eyes. Outside the window was a morning beneath a blue sky. Of course, it wasn't actually bluer than the real world, but there was a special feeling to it.

Could it really be just a little bluer?

Wow, that wasn't what I meant, but what a rare thought. Good thing I didn't say it out loud.

She turned around and scanned the room again and again, inspecting each item. As she did so, she gradually recalled some things about the original owner. The original owner lived simply. Her room wasn't large, only a little more spacious than a college dormitory. Apart from a picture of a wild wolf, it had almost no decorations. It didn't look like she had deliberately adopted a minimalist style; she simply wasn't interested in decorating. Several books lay scattered across the desk, accompanied by a schoolbag tossed onto the windowsill, creating the atmosphere of "I finally finished my exams, so I absolutely refuse to open a book again." Still, she picked one up and opened it. Three Chinese characters were written on the title page:

Shiko

So she was still Chinese, she thought. But the name was a little strange. Perhaps it was a product of combining the original naming style with local customs.

Shiko had taught herself Japanese, which made her subsequent investigation much easier. More fragments of memory gradually surfaced. The original owner seemed to have moved here not long ago and was about to enter high school. She had no particular talents, passable grades, and was considered an ordinary person. She didn't know whether her parents were around, but according to the usual conventions of transmigration novels, that generally didn't need to be considered. Her finances were not something she needed to worry about for now. In her memories, what the original owner was most worried about was the upcoming start of school.

She didn't want to meet new classmates.

She didn't want to socialize.

Ahaha, same here. Shiko gave a wry smile, suddenly feeling a strange sense of closeness toward the original owner.

But the high school she was going to was called... Shuka High School? It sounded familiar—ah! It was Bocchi-chan's school!

Shuka High School, the school in Bocchi the Rock!, was also where the protagonist, Hitori Goto—nicknamed Bocchi-chan—attended.

She hurriedly found the computer, turned it on, and searched online. After spending some time learning and getting used to the input method, she laboriously found the "Guitar Hero" account run by Bocchi-chan.

She opened a video and immediately saw the familiar guitar and pink hair. It definitely wasn't cosplay. The superb guitar technique in the video was genuine, at a level no ordinary imitation could ever reach.

"It really is her..."

She wondered whether she would meet her...

Shiko's face unconsciously drew closer and closer to the screen.

She clenched her fists. "I want to meet her!" She didn't just want to meet Bocchi-chan; she also wanted to meet the other members of Kessoku Band!

"Then let's start over and learn music!" She wanted to learn not only an instrument, but also composition. She didn't want to be like the protagonists of ordinary transmigration novels and plagiarize songs from her old world. She wanted to compose her own music.

As an idol otaku, she naturally wanted to buy an instrument like the one played by the girl in her favorite band. After checking her current savings, she searched her memories and slowly typed the name on the keyboard.

A few minutes later, she stared at the online shopping site and cried out, "So expensive!"

And so, amid music textbooks, coffee, and takeout boxes, the brief spring vacation passed.

Spring arrived, all things revived, and it was time to hand in... ah, no, time to start school.

"So there was even this on the way..." Shiko obediently wore her uniform and looked around the train station like a country girl who had just come to the city. She had been transmigrated for so long, yet she had never come here before.

The train doors closed behind her. It was her first time riding a train in her life.

Actually, it was nothing special. It was similar to the subway, only a little more troublesome.

After getting off and walking for a while, she arrived at the gates of Shuka High School.

High school.

Like the start of any ordinary high school term, there were spacious gates, signs welcoming new students, and students noisily rushing inside.

Falling cherry blossoms, pleasant sunlight, the gentleness and vitality unique to spring—it was enough to put anyone in a good mood... or so it should have been!

High school. High school! That nightmarish term made her shudder. She shook her head, drove memories of endless exam papers from her mind, and walked toward the crowd. There seemed to be a bulletin board over there. "The class assignments... should be over there..."

The class assignment list was already surrounded by a noisy crowd of students, forming an invisible barrier that kept Shiko outside. But if she stood in the back, she couldn't see anything. Shiko could only resist the pressure and edge a little closer to the outermost layer of the crowd.

"Excuse me, excuse me..." Speaking in a language she still wasn't familiar with, Shiko stopped behind the others and rose onto her tiptoes, barely searching for her name through the gaps between them. "Shiko, Shiko... Ah, here it is. Then, my classmates..." Shiko's heart suddenly began pounding. According to the usual plot, she should be in the same class as Bocchi-chan—

She saw a name.

And so, the new students witnessed a rare sight—

Shiko, both hands raised high, leaped through the air together with the falling cherry blossoms. (Note 1)

"Woohoo—"

Although no one turned around, she somehow felt that everyone was staring at her. Feeling heat rush to her cheeks, she ran to an empty corner. The moment she arrived, she began venting her excitement.

"Woo—woo—Bocchi-chan—woo—" She spun in place, waved her fists, and cheered repeatedly for no reason.

"Huh?"

Shiko turned around in surprise and saw a pink-haired girl in pink athletic clothes, carrying a guitar case, staring blankly at her.

It was Bocchi-chan.

Shiko's mind went blank for a moment.

Turn around.

Run away.

Another dark chapter had been added to the record of her past. Congratulations.

The first class of her high school life ended.

The classrooms and environment of high school were much like those of middle school, and the atmosphere was similar too... Hitori Goto tried hard to remember everyone's names during the introductions, but failed. As for her own introduction, it would probably be best to forget it as soon as possible. Still, she remembered the name of the person sitting beside her—Shiko. Since she was an international student, she naturally attracted more attention.

During the break, Hitori secretly glanced at Shiko. It was only the first day of school, yet quite a few people in the class were already chatting familiarly. Who knew how they had gotten to know each other so quickly? Only she and the person beside her were lying facedown on their desks without interacting with anyone. Hitori, meanwhile, had taken out a music magazine and casually flipped through it, half naturally and half deliberately displaying its cover.

"(Will someone talk to me...?)" She thought about that, but couldn't absorb a single word of the magazine.

After a while, she secretly glanced over again. "(I feel like I've seen her before. Where was it...?)"

Shiko secretly glanced to the side. "(She really is cute, Bocchi-chan... No, I can't help it... Just one more look...)"

Suddenly, she sensed something and turned her head, meeting Bocchi-chan's timid gaze.

The two quickly turned their heads away.

Neither of them looked at the other again that morning.

Lunchtime.

"Hey, do you want to eat lunch together?"

"Sure, sure."

The students had already begun forming little circles. The speed at which the socially adept made friends was always unbelievable.

Shiko naturally—took two sandwiches from her schoolbag and left the classroom.

She had heard that eating alone in the classroom would get you bullied. Although random passersby in an anime world were probably kinder, she still decided to find a corner without drawing anyone's attention.

At a time when the spring sunlight was so bright, finding an empty corner was surprisingly difficult—not to mention competing with someone extremely experienced at eating alone.

"Ah." "Ah."

At the corner of the stairs, she ran into a mass of pink hair.

"Sorry." Shiko bowed deeply and hurried away. However, the next second, her head poked back out from around the corner. She didn't dare look directly at Hitori, but she didn't dare look elsewhere either, so she could only sway awkwardly from side to side. "Th-That..."

"P-Please, go ahead..." Hitori had already imagined the entire scenario. Could she have unknowingly occupied some club's activity area? Would it be better to leave immediately...?

Shiko finally gathered her courage and blurted out, "Are you... Guitar Hero?!"

"Huh, huh?"

Sh-She-she-she said what?

Hitori nearly dropped her lunch container. She barely managed to catch it. "I-I, um, no, that's not it, I mean... ah, aah..."

I can't believe a fan recognized me. Am I really that famous? Years of practice have finally paid off. I'm about to reach the pinnacle of life, become a rock superstar, and marry into wealth...

"Um... Bo... Gotou-san..."

No, no, I've always maintained a socially adept persona online. If she finds out that "Guitar Hero" is actually such a gloomy person, will she be disappointed and unfollow me? Then the news might spread from one person to ten, and I might get flamed. Everything would be over...

Shiko witnessed firsthand how freely a person's facial features could move. The previous moment, Hitori's entire face had been filled with pride; the next, she looked as if she had completely lost hope in life. Frightened, Shiko hurriedly dropped the sandwich she had somehow already crushed flat, rushed forward, grabbed her, and began shaking her desperately.