"Hee hee, they all really bought it."
Once everyone had gone, Chiose Noshiro finally let the smile she'd been holding in for so long break free.
She didn't dare laugh too loudly, for fear of irritating her windpipe. But not laughing out loud left her chest feeling stuffy.
What a... difficult choice.
"Chiose, honestly! You gave me a real scare back there."
That was how Chiose Noshiro's black-haired, violet-eyed girl spoke up.
She pressed a hand to her chest, where an uneasy heart was leaping beneath those layered waves.
"Heh heh. If you want to salvage a situation like that, you've got to put your little gray cells to work and pull a few little tricks, you know."
Chiose, a little bashful, traced heart shapes on Taki's palm.
"But what if the lie gets exposed in the end? There's no way we can keep this from everyone for the rest of our lives."
"Exposed?"
Chiose tilted her head, as if something amusing had just occurred to her. "I told everyone I only have a few years left, right?"
"Yeah."
"Then there's no problem. Don't worry about it. It won't get exposed."
"Huh? How do you pull that off? Can you explain it in more detail, Chiose?"
Because I won't live that long in the first place, you silly little Taki Shiina.
The terminal illness may be fake, but dying is definitely real. The process is all wrong and the result is all right. How could you possibly work that out?
"Taki."
"Hm?"
My funeral will surely come before your coming-of-age ceremony.
The day I'm buried... will be the day your new stage of life begins, Taki Shiina.
Faced with Taki's curiosity, Chiose Noshiro began lying without the slightest pressure.
"In a few more years, our friendship will surely melt away every difficulty! Little Taki! You have to believe me!"
"From here on! It's the burning journey that belongs to me... that belongs to the two of us, and to Crychic!"
"Let Sakiko Togawa go to hell."
...
Let Sakiko Togawa! Go to hell!
That was actually rather difficult.
After all, the remnants of Crychic were mostly old acquaintances of Sakiko, and by now most of them had been cut off from her.
These lonely empty-nest girls needed someone to comfort them.
And that someone was, beyond all doubt, Crychic's current keyboardist!
Chiose Noshiro!
...
In a blink, another semester had gone by.
RiNG, outside the rehearsal room.
Chiose Noshiro, now a third-year middle schooler, straightened her clothes, took a deep breath, and pushed open the door.
"Little Chiose? Want to come over for a late-night snack tonight? My mom said the samgyetang you made last time was really good, and she got off work early for once, so she wants to invite you!"
After half a year with Chiose Noshiro, the bassist Soyo Nagasaki had become her closest confidante. The moment she saw Chiose, she clung right to her side.
"Chi... Chiose... I wrote a new song. B-but I didn't bring it with me. Do you want to come see it at my place?"
Little penguin Tomori Takamatsu had started out uneasy like most of the others, and she longed for Sakiko's return.
So how should Chiose soothe her now?
All Chiose had to do was gently manipulate them and paint them a pie in the sky, telling them things like: our singing will definitely move Sakiko; as long as we keep holding LIVE shows and keep raising Crychic's name recognition, everything will turn out fine!
Yes, everything will turn out fine.
Chiose Noshiro smiled and patted Tomori's head.
"Next time for sure."
As long as the pie was painted at the start, and with enough time on top of that, a good woman like Chiose Noshiro was confident she could steal the girls' heartbeats again and again.
"Chiose, good afternoon."
Mutsumi spoke in a wooden monotone, like a little block of wood.
But after more than half a year together, Chiose Noshiro had found that Mutsumi Wakaba wasn't actually that hard to get along with.
Chiose often shamelessly crashed at Mutsumi's house, and over time she'd become the member of the band who knew Mutsumi best.
At Mutsumi's home... Mutsumi's mother was very beautiful, just as beautiful as Nagasaki-nee.
If I simulate becoming Mutsumi's adoptive mother later on, it wouldn't be bad fun.
Ha ha.
"Chiose, why did you have me come in first today?"
The rest of the band were merely handy, necessary pawns. The one making her entrance now was the heroine of this Simulation—
"Taki! I went to prepare a surprise for you all! That's why I couldn't let you know ahead of time. It would've spoiled the surprise!"
Chiose's arms were slender, and what those slender arms were hiding behind her back was an invitation, and not a small one.
"What's this?"
"It's a music festival being held at RiNG! We haven't performed much in half a year, so this might be one of our few chances! What do you all think, can we do it?"
In that half year, as her hearing kept worsening, Chiose had gone through two more hearing aids.
Taki had claimed every one that was swapped out.
She said they were fine keepsakes, something to take out and reminisce over later.
Taki was always talking about what they'd do later, later, later... Did the girl really hold such great hopes for the future?
Had she never considered that their "later" was a distant legend that would never arrive?
"Sure. Gaining stage experience is important, too."
"Mm! But, Chiose... what about your health?"
Soyo clapped her hands in agreement, but Tomori was thinking of more.
Everyone in the band still remembered the [terminal illness] Chiose Noshiro had spoken of.
In daily life they didn't dare bring up the subject, afraid it would upset Chiose, but on an occasion like this there was no avoiding it.
"Of course I can! Don't be scared, you guys! It's all just small problems! How could I, Chiose Noshiro, ever desert music!"
"But..."
"Even if it's just for Sakiko's sake... we need to perform to keep our band together, right? You don't want the band Sakiko built with her own hands to be ruined by us, do you?"
"Mm..."
Something unreadable flickered in Mutsumi's eyes, but she was the first to give her answer.
"Let's do the LIVE. Performing is essential. Since Chiose's time is... short, we should perform all the more."
Mutsumi Wakaba held out her hand, and Chiose understood what she meant.
She placed her own hand on top.
"Huh?" Seeing the physical contact between Chiose and Mutsumi, Taki felt a sour pang she could no longer suppress.
She put her hand forward as well, but hers went straight in between Mutsumi's and Chiose's.
"Fine, then. We'll leave it all up to Little Chiose."
Then something happened that left Taki Shiina dumbfounded.
Soyo Nagasaki, that sneaky thieving cat... had put her hand on top of Chiose's!
"Tch."
Taki Shiina... did not care. Not one bit!
[Wah, stop touching each other, stop touching each other.]
"Mm! Let's... perform together!"
Tomori wanted to smile at Chiose, but Taki's glare scared her off.
Who in the band didn't know that Taki Shiina was a terrifying woman?
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