Kessoku Band

"Quite surprising." Nana put away her smile, her eyes utterly devoid of emotion. She was completely different from just now. "You weren't thinking of doing anything dangerous, were you?"

Shiko should have told a lie to brush it off, but her brain had completely seized up, and she couldn't come up with a single excuse. "Of course not, ahahaha..."

Nana didn't pursue it. "That's good." Then she left.

Shiko's back was already drenched in cold sweat. Nana was also one of her favorites, but facing her in person inevitably put some pressure on her.

A notice reading [Shuka Drama Club–Seisho Music Academy Joint Performance] was posted at the entrance to the drama club.

Nana entered the clubroom. "Banana, you're back," someone greeted her.

She nodded, then walked over to a familiar student in the Shuka Drama Club. "Hanashu-san, is this student in the drama club?" She took out her phone, which displayed a photograph. It was Shiko.

"This... She seems to be a first-year international student? No, she isn't here. She probably hasn't joined any clubs either."

Nana looked slightly disappointed. "I see. I saw her perform a good play earlier... She really does have the talent to become a Stage Girl."

"Come to think of it, isn't the drama club still recruiting? Why not try looking for her?" Nana's suggestion sounded casual.

In all the previous revues, she had never encountered that girl. Concerned about this, she had followed her for a while, and it seemed she had discovered something extraordinary. Was that the figure she had seen at the end of the previous revue? Probably not. Although both had long hair, their temperaments were different. Still, that girl was certainly suspicious.

But regardless, no one could interrupt my revue.

No one.

Shiko returned home.

"Ah~ I wanted to leave a better impression on everyone at Seisho..." Shiko sat in a chair with one hand supporting her cheek and muttered to herself, thoroughly depressed.

She took several deep breaths while facing the picture of the wild wolf on the wall. After recovering, Shiko continued studying music.

Although there had been a few twists and turns, everything had gotten back on track.

Kessoku Band had been formed.

Roselia's live performance was only a few days away.

Then there was Seisho KyuKyu Group's audition, as well as Poppin'Party's live performance.

Kessoku Band would hold its first live during summer vacation, and next semester there would be the Bang Dream competition...

There were so many wonderful stories and so many sparkling dreams. She had to get as close to them as possible so she could cheer them on!

As long as she worked hard to enter their world...

That night, she stayed up until dawn again before finally falling asleep.

She had a dream.

In the dream, Kessoku Band achieved great success after debuting, everyone in Bang Dream made it to the Budokan, everyone from Revue Starlight became rising stars in the theater world, and she herself remained right beside them as their supporter...

A cold wind woke her.

An endless wasteland.

The sun rose brilliantly from the horizon, illuminating the infinitely tall spires in the distance, along with the shadows of wolves atop them.

There was no sign of humanity.

This place was the wilderness.

Chapter Four: Kessoku Band

"Where... is this?"

The vibrations coming from behind helped her regain consciousness.

A colossal creature gradually emerged from the dust behind her. Its main body was a rib cage lying flat on the ground, with a bloodstained hemp rope hanging from one of the bones, held together by a little flesh. The rope was tied to a pale head hanging upside down, its lifeless eyes locked firmly onto her. Beneath the skeleton, indescribable limbs grew wildly. The commotion just now had been caused by this lump of a thing moving.

Shiko woke up completely and immediately ran.

The city had vanished. There was nothing here but gravel. Whenever the wind blew, it raised a desolate howl. Not a single living person could be seen.

At last, she grew tired of running. There seemed to be no movement behind her, so Shiko stopped and supported herself on her knees, panting.

"Tch." She wiped away her sweat.

What kind of place was this? The Main God Space? The Lord of the Six Paths Reincarnation? The plot had already gone on for this long, and now it suddenly launched into some outrageous development. Did you think you were a Platinum Author?

"Rururururururururururururururururururururururururururururururu—" An irritating sound came from behind her.

"What? It's still here!"

She turned around and saw that the monster was already right in front of her, leaving her nowhere to hide.

Shiko had only seen something of this size at a zoo. But there were no fences here, and this thing wasn't as cute as an elephant.

A tentacle extended from the monster's chaotic mass of limbs below and lashed toward Wu Shiko. She hurriedly rolled aside, dodging the blow. The dust kicked up by the tentacle blinded her, and she instinctively raised a hand to shield herself. In that instant, the next attack arrived!

(Someone give me something to block this with!) The thought flashed through her mind. But the tentacle was already upon her, and in her fright she could only protect her head, standing there stupidly.

"Smack!" It was the sound of something soft and limp striking something hard. Shiko opened her eyes and saw an earthen wall standing in front of her, though she had no idea when it had appeared. Behind it came the continuous sound of tentacles lashing against it. Cracks began to spread across the wall, but it wouldn't collapse anytime soon.

Could it be...? Shiko had an idea and continued imagining things in her mind. "Give me a gun!" Her hand suddenly grew heavy, and a handgun that perfectly matched her imagination appeared in it. She tried firing into the sky, only to discover that she couldn't even pull the trigger. Looking closely, she realized that the entire gun was just a solid lump of iron.

"Fine." Shiko pursed her lips, unsurprised. "So I can only create materials whose structures I can imagine?"

"Then..."

The earthen wall collapsed. Amid the dust, Shiko faced the monster with an emotionless expression, neither dodging nor retreating.

"I'm annoyed, so hurry up."

Shiko raised her hand, and several gleaming weapons appeared in midair before crashing down from above onto the skeleton. It dodged, causing most of the weapons to pass through the gaps between its ribs. Only one struck a bone, instantly snapping the rib in two.

"Graaagh!" The monster was completely enraged. Several tentacles bounced off the ground and came crashing down on Shiko. It slammed into the earth in an instant, yet when the dust cleared, all that remained on the ground was a steel plate punched through by the impact. Shiko had vanished.

"There!" The head on the rope abruptly twisted around and saw Shiko leap into the air, a longsword thrusting toward the rope! Taking advantage of the opening, Shiko had already circled behind the monster, but several tentacles sprang up in response, about to touch her body all at once!

She made a mistake at that moment. Instead of continuing her thrust, she summoned a pile of sponges to cushion her body and block the tentacles' attack. She hurriedly backed away several steps and returned to solid ground. When she looked up, however, she could no longer see the monster.

Had it run away? Naturally, that was impossible. Dust filled the surroundings, obscuring the enemy's whereabouts. She was only a novice when it came to combat and had no confidence that she could seize an opening at the instant it attacked. Nor could she yet release a large-scale area-of-effect attack. What should she do? Every shadow looked like it might be the monster's incarnation, and cold sweat appeared on her forehead.

The monster lay in wait in the dust for a long time. The other party's prolonged lack of movement made it suspicious. Thus, it cautiously moved closer and discovered that only a square iron box remained where she had been. What was that? It didn't know. But instinct told it that its prey was inside. So it struck the box with its hand.

So cold. That was its first reaction. It instinctively wanted to pull away, but it couldn't move. Why? It couldn't understand.

"Because it froze." Shiko knew her plan had worked. Holding her head, she slowly rose. "The space between this box's iron walls is filled with ice. I succeeded. Your tentacle is covered in bodily fluid, and when it touches an object at an extremely low temperature, it has an effect similar to licking an iron railing in winter! You can't move anymore! Now!" She opened a small hole in the direction of the tentacle, allowing her to see what was outside. Enduring the violent headache, Shiko activated her ability again. Metal spread along the tentacle like crystal, growing until it encased the entire limb. Then it brutally tore apart the monster's skeleton. Ignoring its struggles, it crushed everything within a frenzied metal jungle. No more sounds came from it. After confirming that everything was safe, Shiko slowly stepped out of the iron box.

The monster was almost completely encased in metal, with only several sections of tentacle exposed. Soon, the tentacles stopped struggling and turned into fine sand, taking the enormous mass of metal with them.

It was over. Only then did Shiko relax. The moment she let down her guard, she could no longer stand and collapsed onto the ground. She had been far too extravagant just now. She didn't know whether she had overdrawn something, but an unprecedented headache tormented her. She no longer had the energy to deal with anything beyond the pain.

"Ah—haa—" Shiko knelt on the ground, desperately clutching her head with both hands. She could only gasp for breath and couldn't think about anything. Her fingers nearly dug into her flesh. She had no idea how long passed before the symptoms finally eased.

A shadow suddenly appeared on the ground before her.

"Sparkle?"

She raised her head. A wolf stood before her—a wolf as large as the monster from earlier. Her muscles tensed, but the wolf showed no intention of attacking.

The wolf continued looking down at Shiko. "Sparkle... truly... sparkle..." After saying that, another gust of sand blew by, and its figure vanished.

"What the heck was that...? Of all the Main Gods I've seen, you're the most cryptic." Shiko sat up. Still, the wolf's words rekindled a sliver of hope in her.

"Sparkle—ah." She thought of the giraffe from Revue Starlight. If that wolf and the giraffe were the same kind of being, perhaps she had a chance of returning to reality. And also... Kessoku Band...

She didn't know. She rested for a while longer, undisturbed.

"Time to go."

There was nothing here but gravel. The tower in the distance was like Ao's leg supporting heaven and earth, yet from afar it looked as thin as a bamboo skewer, making one worry about the stability of this world. Based on her gaming experience, that place was definitely something like a Demon Lord's Castle—not somewhere a beginner should go. Shiko deliberately walked in the opposite direction. She didn't know how long she traveled, climbing over several hills and passing through a canyon, nearly falling off a cliff, yet she still didn't see a single normal living creature, only a few scattered blades of grass. She often encountered bizarre things shaped like the monster from before. She avoided those she could, and with considerable effort defeated those she couldn't. However, Shiko had gained several more wounds, and her clothes were in tatters.

And moreover—Shiko produced a cup of water in her hand and drained it in one gulp—even though she could create water and food herself, the stamina of a shut-in was almost at its limit.

At the same time, four other people were trekking through the wilderness. The pink-haired and red-haired girls carried guitars, the blue-haired girl carried a bass, and the yellow-haired girl carried nothing. After exercising for a long time, everyone was slightly tired except the red-haired guitarist, who still had the energy to chatter about this and that.

"Hey, Gotou-san, isn't there some kind of sound over there?" Suddenly, the red-haired guitarist stopped and looked in one direction.

"Hmm... Huh?" Ichiri abruptly snapped awake. "Sorry, I was thinking about something just now... What?"

The four stopped to listen. They could indeed faintly hear a noisy sound coming from that direction. This was the first time.

"Let's go take a look!"

Kita led the way, followed by Nijika dragging Ryo along. Ichiri was half a beat behind, but she quickly chased after them.

Come to think of it, she seemed to have been thinking about something the whole time. It was only a change of worlds and continuing to live, so why did it feel so painful? Ichiri wondered. But here, she couldn't attract attention with her guitar...

And there was Dad, Mom, Nili, Jimmy Hen...

And also—

The petite figure that had been missing for several days—

The one struggling against a gigantic monster.

Without thinking any further, Ichiri picked up her guitar. Water shot out from it and gathered beneath her feet, carrying her into the air.

Streams of water surged into a tidal wave, then scattered into a torrential rain that poured from thick rain clouds. She led the rain downward from the artificial clouds.

The monster was nowhere to be seen. When the water finally subsided, only mud remained.

Light followed, shining down on the two of them. Shiko felt warm all over. Looking down, she saw that her wounds had completely healed. She raised her head. Ichiri stood before her with her guitar in her arms.

"...Thanks, Ichiri." The muscles in her cheeks twitched, but in the end her expression settled into one of "surprise."

Kessoku Band had still come...

Suddenly, Shiko sensed that something was wrong. "Ichiri?" She poked the girl in front of her, only to see her turn directly into a pile of fragments.

"Go—tou—san—has—burned—out—!" Kita shouted. She had just arrived and was scared half to death.

Fortunately, Shiko had some experience. She soaked the fragments in water, kneaded them into a ball, and molded the person back together.

The dining table was covered with all kinds of dishes. The four of them finally got to eat a full meal. Shiko had created the table, chairs, and food herself.

"I heard Little Shiko had been missing for several days. I never expected to meet you here..." Nijika chewed on a fried egg while carefully observing Shiko.

"Th-thank you all so much for your help..." As the center of attention, Shiko's brain had long since crashed. The fact that she could still speak was already impressive.

"...All right, you've said that plenty of times already." Nijika glanced at the Manchu Han Imperial Feast the girl had created as thanks and vaguely sensed an aura similar to Little Bocchi's.

"Fuh hungry, Ryo needs a chicken leg?" Ryo suddenly spoke with her mouth stuffed full of food.

"Oh, right!" Shiko hurriedly gave Ryo a chicken leg.

"You understood that?!" Nijika exclaimed in shock.

Kita was also extremely interested in Shiko. "Come to think of it, Wu-san is the first person we've met here! How did you get in?"

Shiko answered mechanically. "I just... woke up and found myself here..."

Little Bocchi looked at the flustered Shiko. (No, Shiko is in the middle of a major crisis. I have to help take some of the pressure off her...)

"Th-that!" Hurry, Ichiri! Think of a new topic!

"What is it, Gotou-san?" Everyone's eyes focused on her!

"...I forgot." Sorry, whenever I get nervous, I can't think of anything!

Still, Ichiri's interruption did ease Shiko's pressure considerably.

"We suddenly arrived here right after finishing work, and we even encountered a monster like the one before, as well as a talking wolf..." Nijika continued the conversation, easing Shiko's awkwardness. "We also got superpowers. Mine are like this..." As she spoke, Nijika raised her hand, and a pop-up window appeared in front of her. It had appeared after the first battle, and Shiko had one too.

Nijika Ijichi

Physical: 100

Reaction: 100

Intelligence: 101

Sparkle: 150

Mental Strength: 102