Band Activities

"Ugh, that's disgusting..." Nijika's face turned green.

"Wow, Kessoku Band." Shiko suddenly spoke up.

The four of them looked over: red blood, yellow pus, blue cloth, pink brain matter...

They understood.

The drumsticks began tapping out a rhythm on Shiko's head.

"There's Shiko over there too." Ryo suddenly pointed at a spot.

The four of them took another careful look. Gray mold was mixed into the lump of flesh.

"Urk—" Kita was the first to throw up.

They couldn't keep watching. Shiko took the initiative. Several stone spikes rose from the ground and plunged into the mountain of flesh with a wet squelch. This was her ability, Fantasy Boundary. After being enhanced by CiRCLE, materializing something on this scale was already effortless for Shiko.

Kita immediately followed up. As the team's strongest source of destructive power at the moment, she had already condensed a rain of fire across the sky and blasted it down at the mountain of flesh. However, all the flames were snuffed out by acid. The acid erupted from gaps in the mountain, and as those gaps shifted constantly across its body, the monster behaved like a turret. The acid poured toward the five of them. At the critical moment, a deep, heavy bass note rang out, and a wall of sound shattered the stream.

The group split up and ran in opposite directions, trying to spread out. However, several more cracks opened across the monster's body, each one targeting someone. Meanwhile, the rain of fire and a waterspout mixed with ice blades continued harassing it. The acid blocked all their attacks, while its own attacks were stopped by walls of sound and stone. For a while, neither side could do anything to the other.

(We need to stop its attacks first!) Shiko kept raising stone walls between the others and the mountain of flesh, but couldn't find an opening for a counterattack. (It's like a slime. Even if we block a few gun ports, it can grow new ones whenever it wants...)

(Wait, what is Ichiri doing?)

At some point, Ichiri's guitar had shifted from fierce to nimble. The stream of water was no longer rushing straight toward the mountain's main body. After blocking the acid, the acid flowing into it instead increased the stream's volume. After accumulating for some time, there was finally enough liquid! Ichiri plucked the strings, and a wall of water gradually surrounded the mountain of flesh, forming a water cage. The mountain's only method of attack was spraying acid, but now all the acid was neutralized by the water wall!

"Nice!" Shiko cheered inwardly. As expected of an ability called Guitar Hero! The only question was how long Ichiri could keep it up.

Ichiri plucked the strings with difficulty, beads of sweat already appearing on her forehead. Yet in the next instant, she felt the pressure on her ease considerably. A silent wall of sound pressed against the water prison, becoming its support. Starlight descended at the same time, and she felt her strength continually recovering.

Shiko knew the opportunity had arrived. But the other three couldn't spare any strength. Kita's flames couldn't pass through the water prison, and Shiko couldn't use her ability without being able to see inside it. Simply throwing objects at the monster would hardly kill something with no visible weak point... How were they supposed to attack?

"Kita! Can you turn iron into molten iron in an instant?" she shouted at Kita.

After receiving an affirmative answer, Shiko waved her hand. Tens of thousands of iron rods appeared above the water prison. Kita understood immediately. The rods fell into flames as hot as the sun.

Once the flames dispersed, a downpour of molten iron rained down!

An opening appeared above the water prison for an instant, and all the molten iron poured inside. A scalp-prickling sizzling sound rang out amid clouds of steam, and everything ended.

The water prison dissipated. Just like before, there was no corpse left behind, only fine sand. As the group approached, a red orb gradually emerged from the sand, quietly glowing.

Ichiri exhaled and removed the hot gun barrel from her back, using it as a cane. Nijika thoughtfully handed everyone a bottle of water. After a short rest, they continued on their way. Through their teamwork, their coordination had improved considerably.

Powerful monsters were uncommon, and Nijika helped restore their stamina. However, the scenery remained monotonous. Even Kita, who had been chattering nonstop at first, had lost interest. Shiko instead took over the camera and moved to the back of the group, occasionally taking a few photos of everyone—mainly Ichiri.

The sun was beginning to slant westward. Earlier, they had found a concealed spot to eat lunch: boxed meals prepared in advance by Miss Marina. They had spent the entire morning fighting outside, and half the afternoon had already passed. It was about time to return. Looking at the sun, Nijika thought so.

"All right, let's call it a day. If we go any farther, we won't make it back," she announced.

With CiRCLE's enhancement, they could all roughly sense CiRCLE's location. The canvas bag already held quite a few orbs and was getting heavy. Shiko volunteered to take it from Nijika.

The atmosphere on the return trip was different from that at the start. The mission was complete, and everyone felt like students heading home after school.

"This outfit still isn't very convenient..."

"Next time, maybe I should change into something like Nijika's..."

"What about band practice?" Ryo asked.

"Huh? We still have to practice?" Kita had assumed they wouldn't have much time to worry about the band anymore.

"Let's discuss it tomorrow. It's our first day, so let's rest for now—but we definitely have to practice. It'd be ridiculous if we returned to reality and couldn't even play our instruments anymore," Nijika said.

Kita actually wanted to say that even if they couldn't play their instruments by then, it would be fine. They could just learn from scratch. However, seeing the meaningful look in Nijika's eyes, she tactfully didn't object.

Before night fell, they returned to the light.

Band Activities

When the hour hand reached eleven, Shiko reluctantly returned the CD in her hands to the storeroom. After washing up, she headed to the dormitory.

She pushed open the door to the room.

"Eek—" A chorus of screams greeted her.

"Huh?" Shiko was startled by them.

"Sorry, we were telling ghost stories~" It was Nijika's voice.

After someone beside her fell asleep, Ichiri heard the others still whispering. Their conversation grew softer and more indistinct, and soon Ichiri could no longer hear it.

She fell asleep.

These past few days, whenever the lights went out, Ichiri was always the first to fall asleep. She had often stayed up late practicing guitar in the past, but daytime activities were simply too exhausting now. Nijika could help with her physical fatigue, but mental exhaustion was unavoidable. On days when they planned to practice with the band, they could usually only practice for an hour or two after dinner before calling it a night.

More importantly, Ichiri was constantly tense whenever she was awake. Although she had been getting along happily with everyone these past few days, the truth was that they had only just met. In the past, she had spent most of her time with her familiar family, so there had been no problem. But now that she had suddenly arrived in an unfamiliar environment, she felt pressured from time to time.

Shiko was handling it much better than she was, but Ichiri understood how Shiko did it. She couldn't learn from her.

All Ichiri could do was hope that time would slowly change her.

Would it? At the dinner table, Ichiri stuffed a piece of fried chicken into her mouth. Miss Marina had worked hard to make food suited to each of their tastes, but in the end, it was still different from her mother's cooking.

"Based on my observations over the past few days, you're collecting fuel far faster than CiRCLE is consuming it, so your work hours can be reduced," Marina announced before dinner.

"Yes!" The happiest person was unexpectedly Kita. Although she was the only one of the six who enjoyed going outside, she had long since had enough of fighting disgusting monsters against the same scenery every day while being unable to post anything on SNS! She wanted a holiday!

Ryo raised her hand. "May I ask about our wages for these past few days—"

"You're still thinking about wages?" Nijika's hand chop landed with a thud on Ryo's head, interrupting her delusion. She then turned to the others. "So, from now on, we'll increase our band activity time a little. Does anyone object?"

Ichiri naturally had no objections. She also wanted to return to her daily six hours of guitar practice as soon as possible.

Kita grimaced. She had already planned to sleep until noon. Still, though she was unhappy about it, she didn't object. Everyone else's attitude made their wishes obvious, and there was no need for her to make things difficult. After years of social interaction, she had grown used to handling things this way.

"But before that!" Nijika suddenly became excited, even her triangular ahoge swaying slightly. "Let's take some artist photos!"

The next day, besides hunting, they also had to search for a suitable background for their artist photos. Shiko held a camera that she had borrowed from Miss Marina.

The scenery of the badlands had seemed somewhat fresh at first, but after several days, they were thoroughly sick of it. Visibility was excellent, but everywhere they looked there was only limestone gray, limestone gray, and more limestone gray, enough to make their eyes spin.

"C-can't we take them at CiRCLE?" Ichiri asked weakly. She only wanted to go back as soon as possible and didn't think they would find any good locations anyway.

"Artist photos are the first step in getting people to know Kessoku Band. We can't just do them carelessly," Nijika said, brimming with enthusiasm. "Actually, several places would look better if we took the photos at night... A starry sky that can't be seen in a big city would make the perfect background. It's a shame Miss Marina says nighttime is dangerous."

"Actually... I have an idea." Shiko, who had been silent until then, spoke up.

She stopped and raised both hands. A stone wall and a concrete floor appeared in front of them. As she recalled more details, yellow-green graffiti gradually spread across the wall. Before long, a vivid mural full of modern artistic flair was complete.

"Huh? Don't tell me Wu-san is an artist?" Kita excitedly grasped Shiko's hand, her eyes sparkling.

"I somewhat miss the days when I used to sweat it out on the streets with my rowdy friends..." Shiko raised her head toward the sky, barely able to keep her expression from cracking. After all, she had merely recreated this wall by copying the artist-photo background from the original in her memories.

However, the gesture made the others mistakenly believe that Shiko truly had an exciting past, and they couldn't help praising her.

Until a trembling voice broke the mood. "Shiko... you didn't have any friends before either, did you?"

Kita fell into a daze.

Nijika began equating Shiko with Ryo in her mind.

Ryo, on the other hand, felt even closer to Shiko.

"...Let's hurry up, finish taking the photos, and go home." Shiko expressionlessly raised the camera.

The photos emerged from the printer one by one.

Everyone took two. One was an artist photo of Kessoku Band, and the other was a group photo of all six of them, taken after they returned with Miss Marina. After looking at them for a while, they chatted and laughed as they entered the recording studio.

"They really turned out well." Marina moved closer to the two who were standing still. Ichiri and Shiko were both examining the photos carefully, wearing identical foolish grins.

Ichiri studied the group photo of the six of them. For some reason, the tension that had always existed in her heart began to fade. Although they had only known each other for a short time, with this photo, it felt as if some invisible bond had connected them.

A group photo... How amazing...

After Ichiri also entered the recording studio, Shiko muttered to herself, "Kessoku Band..."

Seeing Shiko's innocent smile, Marina couldn't help feeling envious.

Youth was wonderful.

So, while doing chores that afternoon, Marina assigned the beaming Shiko twice as much work.

"I feel like I'm already twenty years older..." Shiko looked twenty years older at dinner.

(Little Shiko seems to have been cleaning with Miss Marina the whole time... That must be exhausting.) I noticed the look on Shiko's face.

With a thought, two beams of starlight enveloped Shiko and Miss Marina.

"Thanks for your hard work."

"Thank you very much..."

"Hey, hey, we're almost done writing our first original song!" Little Kita quickly changed the subject.

Ah, I'd been paying too much attention to Little Shiko. As the leader, I should have been the one to announce this...

I quickly followed up. "That's right. We plan to write an original song as soon as possible and pass CiRCLE's audition as soon as possible."

Of course, I had originally planned for us to perform at Starry first, then gradually build our reputation at other live houses. But since we were here, CiRCLE was a well-known live house too. There was nothing wrong with starting here.

Miss Marina remained fairly calm. "The owner isn't here, so I'll be in charge of the audition. I won't go easy on you. After all, I've seen all your hard work. Kessoku Band definitely isn't a band that needs special treatment, right?"

My heart warmed. "Thank you very much!" This time, we spoke in unison.

I saw the light in Little Shiko's eyes. She looked even more excited than I was. Did we already have such an enthusiastic fan?

That evening, after band practice ended, I approached Little Shiko.

"Hey, Little Shiko, could I ask you for a favor?"

She seemed startled.

"Sorry, did I bother you?"

"No, no. What's up?" Little Shiko regained her expression.

Lately, the joy of forming a band had been lingering in my heart. Encouraged by that excitement—"I went ahead and designed some band merchandise. It might be a little early... but someone will buy it someday, right?" I took out a design. "However, turning the design into a real product will require Little Shiko's help! Please!"

Little Shiko didn't refuse my request.

Before long, several cable ties appeared in her hands. Red, pink, blue, and yellow, corresponding to the colors of the four members of Kessoku Band. I picked one up and tried tying it around my wrist.

It was pretty cute.

"Ijichi-senpai, what's that?" It was Little Kita's voice. I raised my head and saw her lean over to examine my wrist.

"It's band merchandise I came up with after thinking all night!" I couldn't help feeling proud as I raised my hand to show it to her.

Little Kita's reaction was surprisingly flat. "Isn't that just a cable tie?"

That annoyed me a little.

"Isn't it cute? I'm pricing it at five hundred yen!"

Hearing the price, neither of them reacted.

"Compared to anime character merchandise, it's pretty normal..."

"Compared to some influencer products, it's definitely more practical..."

Hey, hey, was there something wrong with these two people's spending habits? I'd only thrown out five hundred yen casually. If they both agreed, could I actually...?

After chatting casually for a while, I prepared to say goodbye to them.

"Ah, are you going to practice guitar?" Ijichi-senpai asked.

"That's right! I'm currently the weakest player in the band, so I have to work even harder for the audition!" Although I wasn't actually very motivated to practice, now that I had started, I had to take it seriously. At the very least, I couldn't practice less than everyone else.

What was wrong with Wu-san? Why had she suddenly covered her eyes and started saying something about it being "too dazzling"...?

I didn't think much of it. I left and headed for the recording studio. After practicing guitar for a while, I went out to use the bathroom and ran into Ryo-senpai halfway there. Seeing Ryo-senpai filled me with joy. Before I knew it, I had already greeted her.

"Hi, Ryo-senpai. Where are you going?"

"The roof." Her answer was simple.

The roof? Come to think of it, I had never been there. Everyone had no particular reason to go there together, and I had no desire to be alone there either. Ryo-senpai, Gotou-san, and Wu-san seemed to go there often, though. Huh, being alone really was lonely... I was so envious of Ryo-senpai and the others. They could be happy all by themselves, which was why they could so easily walk down an unusual path...

I said goodbye to Ikuyo and headed to the roof. It was cool and quiet there, and you could see a starry sky that was invisible from the big city. Since I had decided to compose a new song, there could be no better place to find inspiration.

I ran into Miss Marina at the stairwell. What surprised me was that she was holding an acoustic guitar.

"Miss Marina, can you play guitar too?"