After that, the topic of the celebratory banquet became much more normal.
Most of the time, Momoka was passing on some of her experience as a veteran to the members of Kessoku Band to prevent them from taking the wrong path due to a lack of experience. Occasionally, Ichiji Seika would chime in, giving them some industry common sense from the perspective of a livehouse manager.
Even Hiroi Kikuri, who had recovered from a dead-drunk state to a tipsy one at some unknown time, began to teach her own insights—regardless of whether her theory of the "Happiness Spiral" was useful or not, you could at least say she was teaching earnestly...
Of course, as a high-level tsundere, Ichiji Seika often said things that weren't very pleasant to hear. However, every time she did, the sound engineer lady would smoothly complain and explain the true intention behind Seika's words, causing the three little ones of Kessoku Band to look at her with increasingly strange expressions.
Yamada Ryo had that subtle expression that was a mix of being slightly condescending and comical, but her expression didn't change much, so she looked fine. Hitori, on the other hand, had a perpetually flustered look, and no one knew what she was panicking about. Only Nijika, watching her sister constantly have her secrets exposed by others, went from being initially protective of her sister's prickly nature to looking at her with the kind of maternal love one has for an unlucky child, which instead made Ichiji Seika feel like she was sitting on pins and needles.
However, with Asakura watching from the side, and Momoka being an "outsider..." no matter how embarrassed she was, Ichiji Seika could only temporarily suppress her urge to perish together with the sound engineer lady and honestly pass on her experience alongside Momoka.
This teaching session didn't last too long—mainly because Momoka's alcohol tolerance was poor. Soon, she was drinking herself into a stupor again. Unlike Hiroi Kikuri, who was used to being tipsy and could still live a normal life in that state, Employee No. 1, who was usually quite diligent, started losing her train of thought as she spoke.
"Alright, let's call it a day for today's drinking." Asakura clapped his hands and said: "If we continue like this, my shop manager might start vomiting rainbows."
"Although I'm very curious as to why it would be vomiting rainbows, for the sake of the Kessoku Band members' mental hygiene, I'll refrain from asking." Nijika muttered.
"That's obviously because—"
"Wah-ah-ah, I don't want to hear it, I don't want to hear it!" Nijika covered her ears and let out a loud shout, drowning out Asakura's explanation.
Asakura shook his head, then helped up Momoka, who was mumbling something about wanting to buy mineral water—the most high-end kind!—and planned to stuff her into a car and send her back to Point Rabbit House.
Just as they left the private room, he saw Kita Ikuyo following them at a brisk pace, helping Asakura support Momoka on the other side.
"Aren't you going to stay a while longer with your Ryo-senpai and the others?" Asakura asked Kita Ikuyo as they walked out of the izakaya together.
"After Asakura-kun left with Momoka-san, Ichiji-senpai and the others gathered together. They're probably having a meeting within the band." The red-haired girl's face showed a rare, somewhat lonely expression—in Asakura's impression, this person always carried a smile full of vitality. Seeing her so dispirited was truly uncommon: "I'm just an outsider, and I even lied to her and Ryo-senpai... I simply don't have the qualification to join them."
"Liar." Asakura cut her off cleanly and decisively.
"I'm not a liar!" The girl became anxious.
"If you really didn't have even a bit of expectation for this kind of thing..." Asakura looked at the girl's hand: "Then why did you go to Kawaragi-san to learn guitar and practice so desperately to this extent?"
"I, I'm just..."
Kita Ikuyo subconsciously tried to hide her hands behind her back, but because her movements were too large, the drunken Momoka, who was on the verge of losing consciousness, let out an uncomfortable groan. The kind girl immediately supported the other party again, trying to help Momoka maintain a relatively comfortable posture.
The result of doing so was that her hands were completely exposed to Asakura's sight.
On them were calluses clearly caused by excessive guitar practice.
And in Asakura's memory, two days ago, her fingers were still covered with Band-Aids. Even the parts without Band-Aids clearly showed wounds where the skin had been worn away by guitar strings, revealing pale pink flesh.
Normally, for an injury to that extent, one should rest for at least two days, yet the girl didn't. Instead, she pushed through what might be considered a damage-deepening debuff and continued practicing until the calluses formed.
This was no longer at a level that "diligence" could reach.
In Asakura's view, the girl was more or less engaging in a form of self-harm to punish herself.
But it was precisely because of this that he could be more certain that the girl couldn't let go of Kessoku Band as easily as she said.
"Although it's a bit sudden, how about your singing, Kita?" Asakura asked abruptly.
"It is indeed quite sudden, why did the topic jump to that all of a sudden..." Kita Ikuyo, who was originally immersed in a somewhat heavy conversation, couldn't keep up with Asakura's thinking for a moment.
"Average, Great, Superb—which level do you belong to?" Asakura saw this and continued to ask in more detail.
"Shouldn't this kind of phenomenon be 'Poor, Average, Great'?" The girl couldn't help but complain.
"I used to work part-time at Starbucks to maintain my livelihood."
"Where is the causal relationship between this sentence and the previous one? Well, if I have to say, it should be above average. Although it's just a joke, my friends used to say I'm the kind of 'professional KTV singer' oh~"
"Doesn't that just mean you're a mic hog?"
"No way, it means my singing score in KTV is usually very high!" The girl said indignantly, and then she asked doubtfully: "Asakura-kun, why are you asking this?"
"Hmm..." After Asakura took out his phone and composed a short message, he gave her a thumbs up and said something that seemed like an irrelevant answer: "Wait, and have hope~"
"Huh?"