At that moment, Hitori Goto stepped inside.
That light was still shining in Kita's eyes.
Hitori Goto's Sky
After Kita suddenly ran off, Ichiri also left the shade of the tree and chased after her. But Kita was already nowhere to be seen.
Kita's final words still echoed in her ears: "Don't you have any thoughts about those lyrics, Gotou-san?"
"My... thoughts..." Ichiri stared blankly toward the direction of the noise in the distance.
To be honest, she had also been incredibly embarrassed when she first finished reading the lyrics to If We Could Become Constellations. After all, no matter how she looked at it, the song was a love song. If she hadn't trusted Shiko, she would have suspected that Shiko had done it on purpose.
Had the version of herself from another world line written lyrics like that for Kita? After learning the background of the song from Shiko, she became even more confused.
But Shiko had told her that although she was a loyal Bocchi-Kita shipper whose greatest wish in life was to see Bocchi and Kita get married, she respected Ichiri's own choice. "You are yourself. The you from another world line and the you here are ultimately two different people. You might not be able to write the lyrics she would write, and she might not be able to write the lyrics you can write."
Ichiri selectively ignored the expression on Shiko's face that seemed to say, There's no hope in this life.
So she chose to treat it as an ordinary cover song and tried not to think about what kind of feelings her other self had for Kita.
But Kita clearly thought completely differently from her.
She became painfully aware of that when Kita suddenly pinned her beneath her. Ichiri had noticed long ago that something was wrong with Kita. But only now, when she and Kita faced each other, did she realize how twisted it was.
Ichiri's footsteps grew hesitant. Even if she saw Kita now, what should she say? How should she respond to these feelings? At some point, Kita had become someone special to her. But she had no idea why. She knew nothing about what Kita was feeling inside. Could someone like her really go see Kita?
Before she knew it, she was walking toward the direction where the noise in the distance had come from.
The noise over there had already stopped. But Ichiri continued walking. On a path that had just been marked out, she heard two voices. They belonged to Shiko and Nijika. They seemed to be chatting about something.
Shiko had just finished today's training and was returning with Nijika. On the way, she accidentally switched personalities again. "Miss Marina said yesterday..." The two of them were walking along when Nijika suddenly stopped and pulled Shiko behind her. "Little Shiko, stay quiet." Hanging upside down from the tree before them was a half-human-sized spider covered in slime. Nijika frowned and pulled a blade from her pocket, crouching down. At that moment, several streams of water flew over, wrapped around the spider, and rapidly froze it into an ice sculpture. Ichiri walked out from behind it. Nijika let out a long breath and put away the blade. "Thanks, Bocchi."
The danger had passed. However, Ichiri did not look well. "It's Ichiri." A gentle, unfamiliar voice came from behind Nijika. She turned around. Shiko smiled gracefully at Ichiri and formed her fingers into the shape of glasses around her left eye. "You've walked into my fate again."
She lowered her hand and returned to her normal voice. "Hehe, just kidding. Are you troubled by something? You can tell me anytime."
She was playing the role of Shizuku Minori, a big sister who listened to people's troubles.
Nijika glanced sideways at Shiko. Here she goes again. Still, she did not seem to be fooling around. Little Bocchi really did look like something was troubling her.
Seeing that Little Bocchi was still hesitant, Nijika took her hand. "Come on, tell us. We're friends, aren't we?"
So, beneath the shade of the tree, Ichiri slowly began to recount what had happened.
"Now that you mention it, Little Kita seems like the type to take things too far!" After hearing Ichiri's account, Nijika panicked and jumped to her feet. "I'll go find Little Kita first. You two take your time..." She ran off into the distance, leaving Ichiri and Shiko alone.
Nijika's interruption had made the atmosphere considerably more relaxed.
"Looks like I shouldn't have dressed up as Shizuku. I should have dressed up as Yukina..." Shiko muttered to herself. But she immediately composed her expression and began to think.
"What kind of feelings does Ichiri have for Kita?" she asked first.
"..." Facing only Shiko, Ichiri relaxed slightly. "Kita is... an important person to me. She's as important as Shiko."
"..." Shiko selectively ignored certain words. "Then, do you want to make up with her?"
"Yeah!"
Shiko held onto Ichiri's arm and gently suggested, "Then just go and tell her directly. Tell her everything you're thinking."
"But..." Ichiri said. "I don't know... how to respond to her feelings..."
"Then tell her about your feelings."
"Tell her?"
"That's right." Shiko smiled faintly. "She told you her feelings directly, so you need to give her an equally direct response."
Ichiri seemed to calm down and stood up together with Shiko.
"Th... thank you..." Ichiri sincerely thanked Shiko.
The two of them walked over to Nijika. Nijika pointed Ichiri toward the inside of the tent. Ichiri nodded to them both and went in. Nijika was relieved to see that her gaze had become much more resolute.
Only then did Shiko begin complaining to Nijika. "Is there still hope for Bocchi and Kita?"
"You really were thinking about that..." Nijika said helplessly.
Shiko looked at her pitifully. "Well, actually, I'm also a Ryo-Nijika shipper. Could you two maybe..."
"...Is that something a normal person would say?" Nijika's eyes turned cold.
Inside the tent, Kita and Ichiri sat facing each other.
"A-about what happened earlier, I want to talk." Though hesitant, Ichiri was the first to speak.
"...You don't need to worry about it, Gotou-san. I was just acting strange earlier." But Kita turned her gaze away.
Ichiri grabbed Kita's hand, just as Shiko had grabbed hers earlier, startling Kita.
"We have to talk! I-I care about you a lot, Kita. I don't want to lose you!" Her words were filled with determination.
"Care about me..." Kita lowered her head. "As what?"
"Huh?"
"Do you care about me as a friend? Or as a bandmate?"
"Or..." Kita swallowed the rest of her words.
"To me, Gotou-san is like a star. Ever since the day you brought me into the band, you've guided me and given me the motivation to keep going."
"I can only move forward when I'm with you."
"But after I did something like that, Gotou-san probably won't want to stay with me anymore..." Kita smiled, her expression mixed with regret, pain, and longing.
Ichiri placed both hands on Kita.
"I will." Ichiri's voice held no hesitation. Kita's pupils trembled.
"Kita is an important friend and partner to me. I would never dislike my partner. I don't understand your feelings, but if you want to, then as long as you don't go too far, you can do whatever you want!"
Kita's lips moved faintly. "Will you... still teach me guitar?"
"I will!" Ichiri answered immediately.
"Even if my skill is already good enough, can you keep teaching me guitar?"
"Yes!"
"Then, even if we aren't practicing guitar, can I spend time alone with you sometimes?" Kita tremblingly voiced her most avaricious plea.
"..." Ichiri did not reply.
"Gotou-san?" Fear welled up inside Kita.
"Why do you have to ask for something like that in advance?" Ichiri's voice trembled, but it was exceptionally gentle.
Tears finally spilled from Kita's eyes, and she threw herself into Ichiri's arms. "Gotou-san... Gotou-san..."
"Gotou-san, I... someday, I'll become your star..."
Ichiri gently stroked Kita's back. "I believe you."
"Until then... please keep being my star... okay?"
"Okay." Ichiri made the promise beside Kita's ear.
"Someday... I want to call you 'Little Ichiri'..."
"I'll be waiting."
Outside, Shiko anxiously paced in circles.
"What on earth is happening in there... I can't peek, I can't peek... But this is Bocchi and Kita, Bocchi and Kita... I can't peek..."
"Contain yourself... contain yourself..." Nijika waved a hand in front of Shiko.
Shiko suddenly jumped up. "I've got inspiration!"
"Inspiration?"
"That's right! A new song!" Onstage, Kita announced the final song. "Please listen to If We Could Become Constellations!"
"The clock will soon strike six."
"Has Kita been staring at Ichiri the whole time?" Lisa noticed from below the stage.
"And the emotion in this song is especially intense." Yukina noticed something else.
"Is this rock too?" Ako somehow felt that a lead singer who never looked at the audience was rather cool.
"Hmm..." Listening to the lyrics, Lisa seemed to sense something, but decided it would be better not to say anything.
"Gotou-san—" After the performance, Kita excitedly threw herself onto Ichiri.
"Waaah..." Although Ichiri had been the one to promise that Kita could do whatever she wanted, she still found it difficult to adapt to Kita's overly enthusiastic greeting. Besides, wasn't there a little too much physical contact?
Ryo turned around and looked at the two of them clinging to each other onstage. She could not help commenting, "Do we have too many members with heavy-girlfriend tendencies in our band?"
Beside her, Shiko agreed. "Originally, Ichiri should have been the only one who was even a little bit heavy."
"Do you realize that you're included among the heavy-girlfriend types I mentioned?"
"Huh?"
Shiko decided to end the topic. She quickly carried the keyboard offstage and put it back in the tent. The keyboard she and Rinko usually used was not the same one. After putting it away, she hurried outside. Roselia's performance was about to begin. The setlist this time consisted entirely of songs they had written before crossing over, and she would never miss it. In the darkness, she bumped into something. Something fell over, and several sheets of paper dropped to the ground.
"Sorry..." Although there was no one around, she instinctively said it anyway. She picked up one of the sheets and, by the light of the stars, read the words on it. It was Yukina's schedule. Out of curiosity, she examined it carefully. But gradually, her face began to twitch.
"Why are there so many live shows?"
There was practically a live show every few days. Although each one was marked "pending discussion," wasn't Yukina being a little too outrageous?
I'm Going to Hold a Live Show↗Wuh↘
"A new challenge gradually takes shape."
The live show was over. She had already lost count of how many this was. Ever since their first joint live show, the two bands had held several more. Of course, for Shiko's brain cells' sake, they had left out all the lighting effects.
"Wuh—Ako's drumming was amaaazing this time!" Ako cheered while holding up her drumsticks.
Yukina also gave her rare praise. "Yes. Ako, you performed well this time."
"Minato-san's technique is also more polished than last time," Sayo said.
"Of course!" Lisa nudged Yukina in the waist. "Yukina spent twice as much time practicing, didn't she?"
"..."
Every time they stopped the ship, everyone could see Yukina slip into the small tent to practice alone. Apart from necessary appearances, such as riding the ship, and band practice, she almost never appeared in front of the others.
"Working hard is a good thing," Sayo reminded her, "but we can't focus only on music anymore."
"I know that," Yukina said.
Meanwhile, Kessoku Band also began reviewing this live show. Shiko was in her normal state this time. Although she had gradually begun participating in band activities and could occasionally be seen during live shows, this was the first time she had taken part in one from beginning to end.
"By the way, haven't the live shows been a little too frequent lately?" Shiko complained. There was basically a live show every few days. Their band life consisted of either performing live or preparing for a live show. Moreover, every live-show plan had been proposed by Yukina, exactly matching the schedule Shiko had happened to see last time.
"Live show. I want to hold one." The day after their first live show, that was what she had said.
"Live show." The day after their second live show, that was what she had said.
"Live show." The day after their third live show, that was what she had said.
It had basically become a regular performance. Now, whenever Shiko saw Yukina, she wanted to feed her a matcha parfait.
The key problem was that Shiko had no memory of Yukina having such an addiction to live shows. If it had been Kasumi from the neighboring band, she could have understood. Precisely because Yukina was acting so abnormally now, everyone had also tended to indulge her.
"This setlist is already repeating the previous one." Kita resentfully stared at the record sheet listing the details of their several live shows.
With live shows happening this frequently, Roselia, which had a large stockpile of original songs, could manage. But for a new band like Kessoku Band, it was genuinely difficult. During their first live show, they had performed every original song they knew. To add something new to the second show's setlist, Shiko had relied on her memories and brought out the original Kessoku Band's If We Could Become Constellations. Before the third live show, Ryo, Ichiri, and Shiko had each written a new song: New Rainbow After Rain and Crystal Butterfly and Sunlight.
Before you continue