"Mm."
In the sparkling cherry-blossom pink, emotion that had unknowingly welled up from within blurred her vision.
"To Alice? Hmm... That's almost too classic."
As Emiru's slender fingers pressed down, the melodious piano music drew its listeners into a wonderful experience. Even Ash, rare for him, rested his cheek on his hand and listened quietly from his seat. Only occasionally could he sense a trace of sadness drifting over from Hana.
"What's wrong? You don't seem to dislike this piece, so why do you look so unhappy?"
"It really is a beautiful piece, but Emiru, the one playing it, is sad."
Looking at Emiru sitting upright onstage, her fingers constantly pressing and lifting from the keys, it should have been a dreamlike scene, whether for the audience or the performer. Yet the more Hana understood her, the sadder she felt.
"Actually, when I first met Emiru, her favorite instrument was the guitar, and the music she loved most was rock."
"However, as the daughter of a prestigious musical family, her hobby wasn't supported by her family. No, it would be more accurate to say they completely opposed it."
Hana spoke of the story between herself and her friend. These days, she had begun talking more and more.
"A long, long time ago, she came to me—the person she always called her senior—and cried about it. But other than hugging her and comforting her, there was nothing I could do."
"After struggling with it for a long time, she eventually followed her family's arrangements and became a pianist. She really did achieve incredible things, but even now, I can't help wondering... if I had supported her and helped her back then." As she spoke, Hana's gaze settled on Ash's face, as if searching for something there. "Like how Ash spared no effort to reach this point, would she have become happier too?"
"Hana, I want to tell you something... no, this is something you should have known long ago." Ash flicked at the collar of his vest, and his gaze behind his glasses became distant for a moment. "In this world—perhaps in every world—the people who can live according to their truest desires and real thoughts are the minority. Let alone those who can find happiness in doing so."
Countless people had fallen on the road in pursuit of so-called "truth."
"Y-Yeah, that's true."
After all, I was the same. If Ash hadn't brought about a miracle, then perhaps... the black ash left after I burned myself out would have been my ending.
Thinking that, Nono Hana hurriedly scratched her head and put on a goofy laugh. "Hahaha, honestly, you must feel troubled when I suddenly tell you all this, right? We're not even that close yet—mm?"
Feeling a broad hand settle atop her head, Hana made a puzzled sound.
"Hana."
"You could say I changed your life, right?"
"Yeah... so?"
"It's never too late." The man grinned at her, baring his teeth. "It only depends on whether you have the determination to change."
Case File 84: Date (3)
"This... this..."
Hana deliberately set down the newspaper's front page, trying to look calm and composed. Unfortunately, her constantly darting eyes and low, stammering voice exposed how she truly felt.
After taking a full breath in and out, the girl convinced herself that she had calmed down enough to endure the information ahead and once again looked at the newspaper's front page.
The two people in the center of the photograph were Ash and herself, standing atop V-Rex's chest. Their movements had matched with perfect understanding. Cure Yell had stepped forward and hooked her arm around Ash's neck, while Time Fire had lowered his arm to hold Nono Hana by the waist.
Her sweat-dampened pink bangs clung strand by strand to her pale forehead. With their eyes closed, the two of them pressed their soft lips together beneath the rising sun behind them, kissing each other for love and for tomorrow. The incomparably beautiful image was like the last fragment of beauty remaining amid the ruins, cruel and romantic at once.
Certainly, this had been the most wonderful moment of Nono Hana's life so far. But that was only if it hadn't been photographed by reporters and placed on the front page of the United Nations World News for billions of people across Earth to see, with a headline like "Love, the Future, and Robots" beneath it... And why was this picture so high-definition?! The blush on my face is one thing, but why can you even see the droplets by my lips, and that little bit still connecting... Ah! No way! This is devastating! Absolutely devastating!
Watching Nono Hana roll around on the floor without regard for her image due to overwhelming embarrassment, Homare, who had brought everyone to the underground bar after finishing her performance, switched which leg she had crossed over the other and deliberately teased her.
"Not only is it front-page news, this year's Pulitzer Prize is probably already in the bag." Homare continued teasing Hana, who was visibly steaming from the top of her head. "And that's not all. I saw countless despairing comments on anonymous boards crying, 'My idol has fallen!'"
"So, how does it feel to make more than a billion men around the world collectively lose their girlfriends? Warrior of love, Cure Yell?"
"Honestly, Homare, you're awful!" Teased until she felt uncomfortable all over, Hana puffed out her cheeks and started sulking at Homare. "More than a billion... that's way too exaggerated!"
"Maybe it really is that exaggerated. Ash-sensei?"
"Mm. In other words, with one kiss of love, I not only captured Pretty Cure's heart but also eliminated over a billion rivals." Ash, who was also sitting before the stage and enjoying the gramophone music, showed no embarrassment at all. Instead, he rubbed his chin with a thoroughly satisfied expression. "As expected of me. Taking down Nursery City's Pretty Cure was easy, because I'm a Time Ranger."
Calling over Saya, who was filling in as bartender, Ash added another instruction.
"Vodka martini. Shaken, not stirred."
"Of course." The smiling Saya no longer carried the gloomy despair she had worn when she became a Doomsday Monster. "But if we're talking about that, a certain Time Fire is the same. There are plenty of girls online crying about heartbreak right now."
"Exactly." With both hands behind her head, Homare deliberately leaned back and let out an exaggerated sigh. "Ah, who would have thought that Time Fire already had a girlfriend? I got my heart broken too."
"W-What?!" Forgetting even to be embarrassed, Hana widened her eyes and leaned closer with a stunned expression. "Homare—you like Ash too?!"
Surprised by Hana's enormous reaction, Homare froze for a moment before laughing awkwardly. "Although his methods were a little too rough, he really was the benefactor who helped me stand back up again. So yes, there were moments when he made my heart flutter..."
I said it so plainly. Hana can't possibly misunderstand again, right?
"Hmph—" With a heavy snort, Nono Hana wore an aggrieved, comically furious expression as she hugged Ash around the waist from behind while he tasted his drink. "No..."
"Huh?"
"No!"
"Hahaha, my joke made Kotori hate me..."
"Um, excuse me..."
After finishing her performance, Emiru had been put into a sack backstage by four people wearing sunglasses and masks, then loaded into a van. Thinking she had been kidnapped, she had begged nonstop the entire way—until she discovered that her friends had brought her to this underground bar owned by Saya.
Heaven pity her, this refined young lady from a prestigious family had received elite education since childhood. She had never been to an underground bar, and she had not even gone to a proper karaoke place before. Just being in an atmosphere of music and dim lighting made her whole body tingle!
Still, seeing everyone joke around, playfully bicker, and even feel happy during arguments made her happy too. Since middle school, how long had it been since she had laughed over something so simple?
Emiru, who had been unable to join the conversation and could only watch from the sidelines, finally spoke. "Can I go home now? My family's six o'clock curfew is about to pass."
"Take out your phone."
"Huh?"
"I said, take it out."
"O-Okay..." After taking the phone from the timid girl's hand, Ash directly turned it off despite her protests and placed it beside the table.
"A six o'clock curfew... God, are you some elementary schooler who used to live next door to me, the kind who could never outcompete me no matter how hard she tried?"
"There. Now nobody can call and bother you." Seeing Emiru's hesitant expression, Ash drained the vodka martini Saya had mixed and raised a finger, pointing at the four people present, including himself. "And do you think we came here for no reason?"
"Um, because it's fun?"
"That's part of it. But mainly, it's for you, Miss Emiru, because you have a wonderful group of friends."
"Emiru's performance earlier really was beautiful. The graceful melody also carried a touch of sadness that added greatly to the song." Saya pushed up her glasses, wisdom shining in her eyes. "But that was precisely because of the sadness in your heart while you played. It was the result of your feelings showing through."
"Hah... hahaha, Saya, you're joking too. What are you talking about?" The blonde girl smiled awkwardly under the gaze of four pairs of eyes. "I've practiced this with my family since I was little. How could I possibly be sad?"
"That's exactly the problem, Emiru." This time, even Homare shook her head as she continued. "Do you remember telling us before? What you really liked was rock music, but you just didn't have the courage to change reality."
"Phew."
Ash exhaled alcohol-scented breath, his eyes inconspicuously glancing toward the equally worried Nono Hana.
A girl's dream, gradually worn away by so-called reality. The ability to become anyone and do anything was, after all, a privilege reserved for the few whose bodies and hearts were both strong.
That was just how fucking reality worked! Thinking of what he might have to face later, disgusted contempt surfaced in the man's eyes.
Tch... even for me, it's the same!
Case File 85: Date (4)
"After all this time, have you even forgotten your dream?"
Homare's words made the girl instinctively want to refute her, but her tongue, somehow numb, could not form the words. When that deeply buried thought was mentioned once more, her former dream surged back like a snake's bite.
"It doesn't matter anymore..."
Besides, I'm already an adult now. What can I even do—mm?
"This is yours." Ash raised his hand and tossed the still-depressed Emiru a bright purple electric guitar. Its headstock had been specially shaped into the head of a mechanical-style falcon, raised proudly.
"For rock beat, there are no limits and no impossibilities."
"Everyone, time to bring out the gear!"
Pushing up his glasses, Ash clapped his hands. To Emiru's surprise, everyone seemed to have prepared beforehand. From the boxes beneath Saya's counter, they took out the custom instruments Ash had made on a whim in the past. Saya held a bass decorated with ivory and mammoth heads; Hana set up a folded dragon-wrapped drum set; Homare held a keyboard that looked as if it were entwined in vines; and the receiver of Ash's microphone had been fashioned into a wolf's head with its bloody mouth wide open.
"What is this?!" Emiru looked utterly at a loss as she faced the electric guitar suddenly tossed into her arms. Especially when she saw the falcon head on the guitar, seemingly proud of and defiant toward everything, the girl could not look away.
That eagle's eyes are looking at me. And I feel like I've seen it somewhere before. Even though she knew it was merely a finely made decoration, for some reason this thought surfaced in Emiru's heart.
She stroked the unruly falcon, then looked up at everyone who had already risen to their feet.
"This was my great idea, so accept it gratefully."
"Eh, but I don't think this dragon looks very good." Nono Hana timidly raised her hand. Looking at the green dragon-wrapped design on her pink drum set, she seemed somewhat at a loss. From there, instead of receiving thanks from the ladies, Ash was met with a continuous wave of complaints.
"Why did you put this thing on my keyboard, Ash? The keyboard is heavy enough already, and my old shoulder strap has uneven weight distribution. Add this on top of that—do you want me showing up to work tomorrow morning with uneven shoulders?" Homare fiddled with the heavy cannon decoration on her keyboard and complained about Ash's strange aesthetic sense.
"Although I am better with the bass, didn't we agree earlier that the drum set would go under my seat?"
"Mm, maybe your presence was too weak, so I didn't hear you."
"Hah, how can you be so awful?!" The moment Saya heard Ash's casual reply, she instantly bristled. Like she had entered Raging Enders mode, she brandished the ivory decoration on her bass as if she were about to stab Ash straight through.
Ash raised his little finger and dug into his ear. While Hana hurriedly smiled apologetically behind him and comforted her friend, he blew the debris from his fingertip as though he had heard nothing.
"Um..." Just as the atmosphere threatened to transform the underground bar into an arena, Emiru, who had been silently stroking the eagle head, spoke.
"Isn't this the guitar from Summoning Eagle Slayer?" Emiru raised the electric guitar in her hand and pointed at the crimson eagle head.
Don't think I can't tell. It's such an iconic design—
"Oh, so the pianist lady reads rock-related manga too?"
Ash's fishing scheme had succeeded. He curled his lips into a smug smile.
"No, um... I only read it sometimes! You know, bookstores have sales, and it's hard to resist those. And when they bundle books together, they always slip in some extra... You know what I mean, right?!" Seeming to realize she had exposed something, Emiru frantically gestured as she tried to explain something that could not possibly be explained to the friends now wearing looks of sudden understanding.
Seeing Emiru's embarrassed expression that seemed to scream, "Damn it, I've been exposed!" the others could not help laughing along with Ash.
"Emiru." Saya interrupted Emiru's excuses.
"You believe me, right, Saya?"
Hugging the guitar against her chest, the girl gazed at her friend with shining eyes, desperately seeking rescue.
"Physical copies of Summoning Eagle Slayer are currently only available to people who preordered online half a year ago." Saya pushed up her glasses and calmly delivered the words that shattered Emiru's last shred of hope.
"It's a collector's item for serious enthusiasts. Emiru really likes it, doesn't she?"
The Aisaki Emiru battleship had sunk.
"Listen, Miss Emiru." Ash walked to Emiru's side as she slumped in an utterly gray, defeated pose. The wild smirk on his face gradually settled into the calmness he wore when doing serious work. As he adjusted the sound quality of the equipment in his hands, he spoke to her. "Hana—no, not just Hana. Everyone here is worried about you. But I think whether your dream is truly alive or already dead..."
With everyone's help, a stage far simpler than the one in the square was set up in the bar. Seeing that a performance seemed about to begin, the other customers also gathered over in twos and threes, wanting to see what kind of show it would be.
"Let us see it and prove it!"
"Or are you too scared?"
I'm scared? Hah, what a childish attempt at provoking me... provoking me...
At some point, the fingers resting on the guitar strings had begun plucking along with the background music playing nearby.
"Uwaaaaaah! Fine, I get it, I get it! I just can't let it go! Whenever there's anything related to it, like Bocchi the Rock or MyGO, I secretly buy it and secretly read it! Are you satisfied now?!"
As if she had resigned herself to it, the formerly blank-faced Emiru suddenly erupted. The emotional outpouring she had never before allowed made Homare and Saya instinctively close their eyes. Ash, meanwhile, felt soft warmth pressed against the right side of his body. Turning his head, he saw Nono Hana leaning tightly against him, her head buried at his side.
"Hah... hah... hah..." Having vented the resentment in her heart, Emiru raised her head and stared directly into Ash's eyes.
"Finished venting?"
"Finished."
"So, are you still going to keep going?!"
"Come on, come on—this lady's here!"
"Hah, that's more like it!"
Growing excited as well, Ash grabbed the microphone before him. Along with the blood-pumping melody behind them, this utterly amateur band began its first tune.
Before starting this plan, Hana had worriedly said that she had only learned drums for a while before and could hardly be considered capable of playing. Ash had replied that as long as she could make sound by hitting them, nothing else mattered.
After all, for rock, as long as it could convey the power to stir people's spirits, everything else was irrelevant.
Before you continue