[I was all alone on this blue planet!]
[I heard so many voices!]
[The Earth has been spinning for hundreds of millions of years!]
[So even just a moment would be enough... ahh!]
[Please listen... listen to my voice!]
[Lonely! The lonely me was right here!]
[Like a chaotic melody, I screamed without a sound!]
[I just wanted to be! To become! Anyone at all!]
[Ignorant and foolish, all I could do was sing at the top of my lungs!]
[Pour it all out-to those stars!]
The song ended.
For a moment, the venue fell silent, as though time itself had stopped.
About nine seconds later, the audience snapped out of their trance and erupted into thunderous cheers, followed by wave after wave of applause.
"Thank you for your support, everyone!"
Having finished the song, Ikuyo Kita beamed as she offered her thanks, still slightly out of breath.
The girls' hard work had earned everyone's approval.
Hmm?
Where had all the sweat gone, you asked?
It was all on the people in the audience who understood music.
Especially the band members beside Chen Xiao who had lent Nijika Ijichi and the others their instruments. They looked just like the guy from Key & Peele, sweating buckets as his wife grilled him.
The long-haired guitarist instinctively reached for his cigarettes, but his band's bassist stopped him.
"Boss, you can't smoke in the venue."
"Oh..."
Looking dazed, the long-haired guitarist nodded, then turned and left the audience area, apparently heading off to find a smoking area.
"Wait! Boss, we're coming too."
The chubby drummer and the others followed him, not even in the mood to say a word to Chen Xiao.
Their forlorn, hunched backs looked like enough material for an entire angsty essay.
"Did that really shatter their faith in themselves that badly?"
Chen Xiao thought their reaction was a little over the top.
In reality, though, it wasn't exaggerated at all.
Back in his previous life, when the Bocchi the Rock! anime first aired, plenty of musicians had already offered their commentary. That was also when the [Nijika's superhuman arm strength] meme appeared.
Kessoku Band's instrumental skills were already professional-level. Even Ikuyo Kita, the weakest member, had quickly caught up according to the story.
They were geniuses!
In this world, however, there were barely any all-female bands in the music scene, and not a single one had made a name for itself.
Then Nijika Ijichi and the others had burst onto the scene like a world-shaking revelation and slapped every one of them hard across the face.
Even now, the audience still hadn't had enough, shouting nonstop for Nijika and the others to keep playing.
"One more song! One more song! One more song!"
"Please! If I don't get to hear a second song from Kessoku Band, I'll..."
"You... you really can't stop thinking about all of us, huh!"
The audience's enthusiasm was so overwhelming that Ikuyo Kita struggled to handle it.
"Thank you for all the love, everyone, but there are still other performances after ours..."
"You don't need to worry about that, Miss Ikuyo Kita. A few participants have just withdrawn their performances, so the organizers have made a last-minute change to the program. The stage is yours to keep playing."
The young hostess stepped forward from the edge of the stage to interject, letting them know they could perform another song.
"Yay!!!"
The audience broke into delighted cheers.
Clearly, Nijika Ijichi and the others' performance had been so successful that the organizers and some of the participants had realized there was a problem. To the audience, the remaining acts would be too bland to enjoy, but a shame to skip.
No, they might not even feel bad about skipping them!
Originally, those participants hadn't thought much of Nijika Ijichi and the others' act. Some might even have been waiting to laugh at them, but after listening, they could only smile in acceptance.
What else was there to say? Just let the girls keep singing.
Meanwhile, the long-haired man's bandmates had barely gone a few steps when they heard the impassioned sound of a guitar ring out from the venue again.
"Boss, it sounds like they're playing a second song... Boss? Boss?"
The long-haired man, who had been about to go for a smoke, didn't answer. Instead, he abruptly turned around and headed back.
He knew listening would shatter his confidence, but he still couldn't resist.
The others exchanged glances, then followed him back to the stage area.
This time, Nijika Ijichi and the others played another original, "Seishun Complex." Both the music and the lyrics resonated deeply, especially since most of the convention attendees were fairly young.
It stirred the audience's emotions even more intensely than the first song, "Guitar, Loneliness and Blue Planet," turning the whole area into Nijika Ijichi and the others' own band concert.
At that moment, everyone below the stage was merely background scenery. The four girls onstage were the only stars!
Unfortunately...
The two songs together lasted only seven or eight minutes.
After finishing the second song, Nijika Ijichi and the other three stepped forward together to thank the audience and briefly promote Kessoku Band. Finally, they returned backstage amid the crowd's reluctant cries.
"A-Xiao! How was it? Our debut performance!"
An excited Nijika Ijichi hurried over, almost crashing headfirst into Chen Xiao's arms.
"You were fantastic!"
Chen Xiao stroked Nijika Ijichi's hair.
"Aww... can't you give us a better review than that?"
Nijika Ijichi pouted, sounding a little dissatisfied.
Still, she thoroughly enjoyed the head pats he gave her as a reward.
"Too bad we couldn't charge admission. We'd have made a fortune!"
Thinking of all the people below the stage, Ryo Yamada realized that even charging each of them a single yuan would have brought in a tidy sum. The thought practically made her twist herself into knots.
"Ryo! Let's not talk about money right now!"
Ikuyo Kita protested helplessly.
"Ehehehe... A-Xiao praised me..."
Bocchi was still lost in her own little world, unable to pull herself out.
"Hiss..."
Standing some distance away, Ding Jiafang sucked in a sharp breath, feeling a faint ache in his back teeth.
He had just been about to find Chen Xiao and celebrate their victory, only to walk backstage and see this.
Why did it feel like A-Xiao had something going on with all four of these pretty girls?
Which one was actually his girlfriend?
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"Oh, Jiafang, you're here! Well? Didn't I tell you they definitely wouldn't disappoint?"
Chen Xiao spotted Ding Jiafang standing nearby and quickly waved him over.
Ding Jiafang also noticed that, upon seeing him, the girls beside Chen Xiao deliberately put a little distance between themselves and Chen Xiao. They were obviously hiding something!
If you're really juggling multiple girlfriends... A-Xiao, the class monitor won't even have to take action herself. The guys are seriously going to beat you up! Seriously!
Ding Jiafang silently swore to himself.
On the surface, however, he happily walked over to celebrate with him.
"Not disappoint? That's an understatement... A-Xiao, that was a concert-level performance. I still feel like I'm dreaming!"
As he spoke, Ding Jiafang gave him a heavy thump on the shoulder.
Chen Xiao: Why did you hit me so hard?
Still, he didn't dwell on it, assuming Ding Jiafang was simply too excited.
Not long afterward, the long-haired guitarist and his bandmates also came backstage. After collecting their drum kit from the staff, they went to Nijika and the others to retrieve their guitars and bass.
"Thank you for lending us your instruments."
Ikuyo Kita thanked them as she handed her guitar to the lead singer opposite her.
At the same time, Hitori Gotoh and Ryo Yamada returned the guitar and bass they were holding.
"No, we should be thanking you... Those two songs showed us that there's always someone better, always greater heights to reach."
The long-haired guitarist gave a supposedly "unruffled" smile.
Then he took his guitar from Hitori Gotoh and stroked its strings with a bitter expression.
"You must have felt so good in her hands..."
Hitori Gotoh: ?
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