"What?! What did you say?!" The most agitated of them, Yazawa Nico, rushed up to Hanayo Koizumi in one stride, grabbed her shoulders, and shouted in excitement.
"That hurts..." Hanayo Koizumi cried out despite herself as she felt the force of Yazawa Nico's grip on her shoulders.
"Calm down, Nico!" Eli Ayase, the calmest among them, saw this and hurriedly pulled Yazawa Nico away from Hanayo Koizumi together with Nozomi Tojo.
"Calm down? How am I supposed to calm down?! The song was clearly safe with you, so why did you lose it?! This is everyone's hard work!"
"I... I'm sorry... wahhh..." In Rin Hoshizora's arms, Hanayo Koizumi cried in self-reproach.
"What do we do now? The song is gone, and it's almost our turn. There's no time to go get it, so how are we supposed to perform without the song?" Maki Nishikino said, her expression looking rather grim.
"This..."
For a moment, everyone fell silent.
"Let's go on." Just then, Honoka Kosaka suddenly spoke.
"Huh?"
"Let's go on. The way we are now, we have no way to back down anymore!"
--Perspective Shift--
"What's taking so long?" Below the stage, Senba Gari looked at the nine girls in front of him in confusion, but at that moment their expressions seemed rather off. He even saw that Hanayo Koizumi's eyes were a little red and swollen.
"What happened?" Senba Gari frowned tightly as he looked at the nine girls in front of him, his tone turning serious.
"..." But the girls seemed as if they had not heard him and stayed silent.
"Eli, you tell me!" Seeing that no one was speaking, Senba Gari immediately looked toward Eli Ayase.
"...The song is gone..." Eli Ayase said with difficulty.
"I... I'm sorry... It's all my fault... wahhh..." As soon as