Why Not Form a Band for Life

"I'm surprised," Nana said, her smile gone and her eyes devoid of emotion, a stark contrast to moments before. "You weren't... thinking of anything dangerous, were you?"

Shiko should have lied to brush it off, but her mind completely froze, unable to conjure any sort of excuse. "Of course not, ahahaha..."

Nana didn't press further. "That's good." And then she left.

Shiko was already drenched in a cold sweat. Although Nana was one of her favorites, facing her in person was undeniably stressful.

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

Nana walked into the club room. "Banana, you're back," someone called out.

She nodded, but walked over to a familiar classmate from the Shuka Drama Club. "Kashu-san, is this student in the drama club?" she asked, pulling out her phone, which displayed a photo of Shiko.

"This... seems to be an exchange student from the first year? No, she's not here, and she doesn't seem to be in any clubs."

Nana's expression was slightly regretful. "Is that so? I saw her perform a really good play before... she truly has the talent to be a Stage Girl."

"Oh, right, isn't the drama club still recruiting? Why not try to find her?" Nana's words seemed casual.

In previous encores, she had never encountered that girl. Because she was curious about it, she followed her for a while and ended up discovering something incredible. Was that figure she saw at the end of the last encore her? It shouldn't be; although they both had long hair, their auras were different. However, that girl was indeed very suspicious.

But no matter what, no one could interrupt my encore.

No one.

Shiko returned home.

"Ah~ I wanted to leave a good impression on everyone at Seisho..." Shiko sat in her chair, propping up her face with one hand, muttering to herself, very dejected.

After taking several deep breaths facing the wolf painting on the wall, Shiko returned to normal and continued her music studies.

Despite some twists and turns, everything was back on track.

Kessoku Band had already been formed.

In a few days, there would be Roselia's performance live.

Then there was the Seisho KyuKyu Group audition, and Poppin'Party's performance live.

Kessoku Band would have their first live performance during summer break, and next semester there was the Bang Dream competition...

So many exciting stories, so many shining dreams, she had to be in the closest position to cheer them on!

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

That night, she stayed up until past midnight before sleeping.

She had a dream.

In her dream, Kessoku Band achieved great success after their debut, everyone from Bang Dream reached Budokan, everyone from Revue Starlight became stars in the theater world, and she herself was always in the closest position as their supporter...

A cold wind woke her up.

An endless Gobi Desert.

The sun rose brilliantly from the horizon, illuminating the infinitely tall spires in the distance, and the wolf shadows on the towers.

There was no trace of humans.

This was the wilderness.

Chapter 4: Kessoku Band

"Where... is this?"

A vibration from behind helped her regain consciousness.

A colossal creature gradually emerged from the dust behind her. The main body of the living thing was a flat, lying rib cage, and a blood-stained hemp rope hung from one of the bones, connected by a bit of flesh and blood. The rope was tied to a pale, upside-down skull, its lifeless eyes firmly locked on her. Below the skeleton, indescribable leg-like appendages had grown wildly, and the movement just now was caused by this mass.

Shiko immediately sobered up and ran.

The city had disappeared. There was only gravel here. When the wind blew, it was a desolate howl. Not a single living person could be seen.

Finally, she ran until she was tired. There seemed to be no movement behind her, so Shiko stopped, bracing herself on her knees to catch her breath.

"Tch." She wiped her sweat.

What kind of place was this? Main God Space? Lord of the Six Paths Reincarnation? The plot had been going on for so long, and then suddenly there was a super development. Did you think you were a Platinum Author?

"Rurururururu jijijijijiji--" An irritating sound came from behind.

"What? It's still here!"

She turned her head and saw that the monster was already right in front of her, with nowhere to escape.

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

The monster extended a tentacle from the chaotic mass of appendages below and swung it at Shiko. She quickly rolled to avoid the attack. The dust kicked up by the tentacle got into her eyes. Instinctively, she raised her hand to block, and in that instant, the next attack arrived!

"(I wish something would block this!)" This thought flashed through her mind. But the tentacle was already coming, scaring her so much that she could only protect her head and stood there blankly.

"Thwack!" The sound of something soft hitting something hard. Shiko opened her eyes and saw an earthen wall that had appeared in front of her at some point. Behind it, the sound of tentacles striking repeatedly could be heard. The earthen wall began to crack, but it wouldn't fall immediately.

Could it be... Shiko had an idea and continued to fantasize in her mind: "Give me a gun!" Then her hand felt heavy, and a handgun that perfectly matched her imagination appeared. She tried to fire it into the sky, but found she couldn't even pull the trigger. Upon closer inspection, she realized the entire gun was a solid lump of iron.

"Fine," Shiko pouted, not surprised. "Can it only create matter whose structure I can imagine?"

"Then..."

The dirt wall collapsed. Amidst the dust and smoke, Shiko faced the monster with a cold expression, neither dodging nor evading.

"I'm annoyed, so hurry it up."

Shiko raised her hand, and several weapons emitting a cold light materialized in the air, smashing down at the skeleton from above. It dodged, and most of the weapons passed through the gaps in its ribs. Only one struck bone, instantly snapping that rib in two.

"Gaooo!" The monster was completely enraged. Several tentacles sprang from the ground, pressing down on Shiko. It slammed into the ground in an instant, but as the dust settled, only a steel plate pierced through remained on the ground. Shiko had vanished.

"Over here!" The head on the rope spun around violently, spotting Shiko leaping up, a long sword aimed at the rope! Seizing the opportunity, Shiko had already circled behind the monster, but several tentacles reacted instantly, about to touch her body simultaneously!

She made a mistake at this moment: instead of continuing her thrust, she summoned a pile of sponges, cushioning her body and blocking the tentacles' attack. She retreated a few steps, returning to solid ground, and looked up, but couldn't see the monster's figure.

Ran away? That's impossible, of course. Sandstorm everywhere, can't see the enemy. I'm just a newbie in combat, I don't have the confidence to seize the chance the moment it attacks. And I can't use a wide-range AoE yet, what should I do? Every shadow seems like a manifestation of the monster, a cold sweat broke out on my forehead.

The monster had been lurking in the sandstorm for a long time. The opponent's long inaction made it suspicious. So, it cautiously approached and found only a square iron box left in its place. What was that? It didn't know. But its instincts told it that the prey was inside. So, it swung its hand at it.

So cold. That was the first reaction, instinctively wanting to pull away, but... I can't move. Why? It couldn't understand.

"Because it's frozen." Shiko knew her plan had succeeded. She pressed her head and slowly stood up. "The iron walls of this box are filled with ice. I succeeded. Your tentacles are covered in bodily fluids, and when they come into contact with an extremely cold object, it's similar to licking a frozen railing in winter! You can't move anymore! Now!" She opened a small hole in the direction of the tentacles, and Shiko could now see the outside situation. Enduring the severe headache, Shiko activated her ability again. Following the tentacles, the metal proliferated like crystal, growing and enveloping the entire tentacle, then violently destroying the monster's skeleton, ignoring its struggles, and shredding everything in a chaotic metal jungle. No more movement could be heard. Confirming everything was safe, Shiko slowly walked out of the iron box.

The monster was almost entirely encased in metal, with only a few tentacle ends exposed. Soon, the tentacles stopped struggling and turned into fine sand, along with that large piece of metal.

It's over. Shiko finally relaxed. The moment she let her guard down, she couldn't stand and fell to the ground. I was too extravagant just now, I don't know if I overdrafted something. An unprecedented headache tormented her. Now, she had no energy to deal with anything other than the intense pain.

"Ah--haah--" Shiko knelt on the ground, pressing her head with both hands, only able to gasp, unable to think of anything. Her fingers were almost digging into her flesh. After an unknown amount of time, the symptoms finally subsided.

A shadow suddenly appeared on the ground before her.

"Shining?"

She looked up and saw a wolf. A wolf as large as the previous monster. Her muscles tensed, but the wolf showed no intention of attacking.

The wolf continued to look down at Shiko. "Shining... truly... shining..." With that, another gust of wind and sand swept through, and its form vanished.

What the heck... Of all the Sovereign entities I've met, you're the most cryptic. Shiko sat up. However, the wolf's words rekindled a sliver of hope in her.

"Shining--ah," she thought of the giraffe from Revue Starlight. If that wolf and the giraffe were of the same kind, perhaps she had a chance to return to reality. And... Kessoku Band...

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

"Let's get moving."

There was only gravel here. The distant tower resembled the Ao's leg supporting heaven and earth. 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 was definitely a place like the Demon Lord's Castle, not suitable for beginners. Shiko deliberately walked in the opposite direction of the tower. After walking for an unknown duration, climbing several small hills, passing through a canyon, and nearly falling off a cliff, Shiko still hadn't seen any normal living creatures, only occasional patches of grass. She often saw strange-looking things like the previous monster. She avoided them when she could, and when she couldn't, she could defeat them with some effort, but Shiko acquired several new scars, and her clothes were tattered.

And—Shiko conjured a cup of water in her hand and drank it in one gulp—even if she could create water and food herself, her hikikomori stamina was nearing its limit.

Meanwhile, four other people were trekking through the wilderness. The pink-haired and red-haired individuals carried guitars, the blue-haired one carried a bass, and the yellow-haired one carried nothing. After prolonged exertion, except for the red-haired guitarist who still had the energy to chat, the others were visibly fatigued.

"Hey, Gotou-san, do you hear something over there?" the red-haired guitarist suddenly stopped and looked in one direction.

"Hmm... Huh?" Ichiri suddenly snapped awake. "Sorry, I was lost in thought... 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 check it out!"

Kazuha Kita took the lead, followed by Nijika dragging Ryo. Ichiri was half a beat behind but quickly caught up.

Speaking of which, I seem to have been thinking about something the whole time. Is it really that hard to just live in a different world? Ichiri thought. But here, I can't get attention with my guitar...

And there's Dad, Mom, Nili... Jimmy Hen...

And—

The small figure who had been fighting a giant monster for days—

Who had gone missing several days ago.

Without further thought, Ichiri picked up her guitar. Water shot out from the guitar, gathering at her feet and lifting her into the air.

Streams of water converged into tidal waves, then dispersed into torrential rain, pouring down from the heavy cumulonimbus clouds. She led the rain, descending from man-made clouds.

The monster's figure was no more. When the water finally subsided, only mud remained on the ground.

Light followed, shining on the two of them. Shiko felt a warmth, and looking down, her wounds had completely healed. She looked up to see Ichiri standing before her, holding her guitar.

"...Thanks, Ichiri." The muscles in her cheek twitched, finally settling into an expression of "surprise."

Kessoku Band really came after all...

She suddenly felt something was wrong. "Ichiri?" She poked the girl in front of her, only to find her turn into a pile of dust.

"Gotou--san--has--burned--out--" Kazuha shouted. She had just arrived and was terrified.

Fortunately, Shiko had some experience. She soaked the dust in water, kneaded it into a ball, and shaped the person back.

On the dining table, various dishes were laid out. The four finally had a hearty meal. The table, chairs, and food were all conjured by Shiko.

"I heard little Shiko had been missing for several days, I didn't expect to run into you here..." Nijika chewed on a fried egg, observing Shiko closely.

"Th-thank you all so much for your help..." Shiko, the center of attention, had her brain already shut down. Being able to speak was an achievement.

"...Alright, you've said it many times already." Nijika glanced at the Manchu Han Imperial Feast that this child had conjured as a thank-you gift, sensing a similar aura to Bocchi's.

"Sooo hungry, can I have another drumstick?" the blue-haired girl asked, her mouth full of food.

"Ah, yes!" Shiko quickly gave Ryo a chicken drumstick.

"She understood!" Nijika was shocked.

Hitori was also full of interest for Shiko. "Speaking of which, you're the first person we've met here, Shiko! How did you get in?"

Shiko answered mechanically, "I just... woke up and I was here..."

Bocchi looked at the flustered Shiko. "No, Shiko is in a major crisis, I have to help her share some of the pressure..."

"So, um!" Hurry up, Ichiri, think of a new topic quickly!

"What is it? Gotou-san?" All eyes focused on her!

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

However, Ichiri's interruption did relieve some of Shiko's pressure.

"We suddenly arrived here right after finishing our part-time jobs. We also encountered monsters like before, and a talking wolf..." Nijika continued the topic, easing Shiko's awkwardness. "We also got superpowers. Mine is this..." As she spoke, Nijika raised her hand, and a pop-up window appeared before her. This pop-up window had appeared after their first battle, and Shiko had one too.

[Name: Nijika Ijichi]
[Body: 100]
[Reaction: 100]
[Intelligence: 101]
[Shine: 150]
[Willpower: 102]