Chapter Text
/ Miyamasuzaka Street /
They hurried down Miyamasuzaka Street, though “hurried” was probably more accurate for An than Akito. She had to quicken her pace just to keep up with him, nearly stumbling once before catching herself and calling out, “W-Wait! Hey, Akito—slow down!”
Akito glanced back over his shoulder. “I’m walking pretty fucking slow.”
“Not that!” An waved her hands as she caught up. “I mean talking to Kohane! I thought you said she was pissed and—eek, I don’t think I can handle that!”
Akito gave her an incredulous look. “Since when could ya be anxious, huh?”
“Hey!” An retorted. “Even as a future star, I too can be nervous, Akito.”
Toya, walking alongside them, couldn't help but look a little relieved at the familiar bickering. After everything that had happened, hearing the two of them argue like this again was strangely reassuring. Still, there was a more important matter at hand.
“As much as I’m relieved you two could bicker again, could we focus on the objective right now?” he said, glancing between them. “Also, ah… please slow down—you two walk quite fast…”
An and Akito both stopped.
The two of them exchanged a brief look before slowing their pace, and for a moment the three walked in silence.
Eventually, Akito broke the silence. “What did Kohane tell ya after I… left?”
An's expression immediately changed. “I-I…”
Toya glanced at her, then ahead again. “She… said that we can’t make the best show by ourselves. That what happened between us made her realize how important it is to work together.” He spoke slowly, but after the first few words, his voice faltered.
His eyebrows drew together.
(No, that's not right…)
He tried to picture the scene again—the three of them standing there after Akito stormed off. Kohane speaking, An responding. But the memory wouldn't settle properly. There were pieces of it he could remember clearly.
The rest was blurry.
Toya's fingers curled slightly at his side.
He remembered being there. He knew he had heard Kohane speaking to An. But whenever he tried to bring the conversation back into focus, his thoughts seemed to slip away from him, leaving behind only scattered impressions. Even remembering the argument itself made his chest feel strangely tight.
He looked down for a moment, taking a quiet breath.
“I…” Toya paused again. “I'm sorry… I remember the general idea, but not everything she said. I wasn't really… able to take much of it in at the time.”
Toya didn't elaborate. The way his gaze drifted away, really, said enough.
An knew what he meant. During the argument—at the very brief glaces she shot Toya in her attempts of self defense—Toya had barely seemed present.
He had been standing there, but his eyes had looked distant, as though he were somewhere else entirely. She hadn't understood it then. Now, remembering the way he'd struggled to speak afterward, she felt a small twist of guilt in her chest.
“So…” Akito prompted carefully. “What was the point?”
Toya looked back toward them, but before he could try again, An answered.
“Basically, she said that Kohane—agreed with you,” An explained. “That you were right about how I couldn't make the best show alone.”
“She said that she'd realized how much more fun performing was when you had people to do it with, and that I'd forgotten something really simple because I was so focused on making the show perfect.”
Akito's expression soured slightly.
“And she thought I was being unfair to you,” An continued. “She said you already felt guilty about what happened, and that I cornered you instead of trying to understand how you felt.”
“She also… said she wasn't going to come back to the stage anymore. She apologized to Toya and—" she hesitated, a little longer than she would've liked. “And before she left, she told me that I wouldn't ever be able to become a star like that.”
The three of them went quiet again.
Toya's gaze lowered but he didn't say anything.
Akito looked ahead for a few seconds before muttering, “'Shows can't be done alone'… or something along those lines, huh.”
An nodded. “Yeah. But after that, my temper got the better of me, and I ended up not being able to talk to her properly.”
Akito's mouth twisted into a grimace. “Tch… she was bein' a hypocrite, really.”
“Oh, that's rich coming from you.” An shot back.
“Oi, what's that supposed to mean?”
Toya had been quiet for a moment, but then a tiny laugh escaped him. “Hehe.”
An and Akito both turned toward him.
It wasn't a big smile. Barely even a smile at all, really—just the faintest little upward curve at the corner of his mouth.
“I guess we all have some hypocrisy in us,” Toya said.
An stared at him for a second before her own expression softened. “Yeah—!”
The moment passed almost as quickly as it came.
An cleared her throat and looked ahead. “Anyways, what's the game plan, songster?”
Akito blinked.
"'Songster’…?” he repeated, almost baffled. A faint blush had already begun creeping across his face.
An grinned. “I mean—if we're gonna play name-calling with that flopstar stuff from earlier, I figured I should have one back~”
Akito's face went noticeably red.
He immediately yanked his hood up and pulled it over his head, turning his face away as if that could somehow hide the fact that his ears were burning.
Toya looked at him, then at An. “It doesn't seem to be a negative type of nickname, unlike ‘flopstar,’ Shiraishi.” There was the faintest hint of amusement in his voice as he glanced at Akito's hooded face. “If Shinonome's reaction is anything to go by.”
“Oi— stop it…” Akito muttered from underneath the hood.
An's grin widened. “Is someone flustered~?”
“Fuck no—”
Akito stopped himself, took a slow breath, and waited until the heat in his face had died down enough that he could actually look at them again. He finally pushed his hood back down, though his cheeks were still slightly pink.
“Anyway,” he emphasized, “About that plan.”
An snickered but let him continue.
“Well, I don't see her anywhere,” Akito said, scanning the street. “So plan B. Let's go to her house.”
“Yeah—!” An nodded before freezing. “Wait, what? Go to her what?!”
Toya turned toward Akito. “You know where Azusawa lives, Shinonome?”
“Well, obviously.” Akito looked at him like the question was ridiculous. “’Ve been friends with her since we were little, and we're literally neighbors. It'd be stupid if I didn't know.”
An stared at him. “Hold on. Since when were you two neighbors?”
Akito gave her a blank look.
“Did you not hear what I just—” He stopped himself with an irritated sigh. “Tch. Forget it.”
He began patting down his pockets, checking them almost absently. Then he unzipped his bag and started rummaging through it.
"Fuck my life—didn't bring the spare keys with me. Guess we'll have to break in through her window."
"Through her window—?!" the two blue-haired people exclaimed at once. Toya visibly paled, and it was almost as if a purplish shadow was on his expression from dread. Right, he had a fear of heights.
Akito snickered.
(Goddamnit he got his payback! This soon too!)
"Nah, just messin' with ya." he said casually. ""M just gonna ask auntie to let me in."
"I don't know if that's any better—"
"Ah yes, should we ask politely or break in—oh the horrors of having to choose." he deadpanned back at her.
Toya grabbed his arm. "Shinonome, please stop talking."
"Alright, alright."
They took the time to look around again, in case they spot their pigtailed director.
"Hey, Akito!"
"Hm?""
"Mind telling us more about, uh, how you and Kohane are friends?"
Akito's expression turned thoughtful. “We're the same age and all that, and there were basically no other kids in the neighborhood ’sides me and my sisters." he started. "’S what I think went through her parents' heads, at least.”
An nodded. “I get that. I didn't really have any friends my age around where I live, but I had loooaaads of aunties and uncles.”
“Eh, my neighborhood was boring as hell,” Akito said, finally giving up on whatever he had been looking for and letting his bag fall back against his side. “Anyway…”
His expression softened just a little as he looked ahead.
“When we were kids, we sure did perform a lot of different skits and ‘shows,’ if you could even call ’em that.”
Toya's eyes brightened with recognition. “Ah, that sounds similar to what the Tenmas and I would do as kids.”
“Mm, oh—” Akito nodded. “We always got into different classes in elementary. Hell, this year's the first time I got in a class with Koha. Though I guess middle school doesn't count, ’cause we went to different schools.”
He paused. “...Koha, back then, had wanted to perform shows with her classmates, but…”
Toya suddenly slowed, which in turn caused the other two to slow down too.
His eyes focused on something farther down the street.
“Is that Azusawa? Over there…”
An followed his gaze.
“Huh?!”
“The shepherd began to think, ‘I also want to perform like that!’” Kohane narrated, her hands held tightly together in front of her chest as she forced herself to keep going.
“The shepherd did as the troupe had done and practiced many shows! With that, one day, she performed her own show for the people. Then, the people of the town were incredibly pleased.”
Her voice had become a little steadier as she reached the part of the story.
“The shepherd was overjoyed. She had finally been able to perform a show for everyone, just like the troupe she had admired. And because the people loved her performance, they began to say that they wanted to perform shows together with her.”
Kohane took another breath, but this time it caught slightly in her throat. “At first, the shepherd was happy to know that she would be able to perform shows with the people. B-but…”
“When the shepherd suggested an idea for their shows, it would end up wrong. Some thought the shows were too weird, and some became uncomfortable with them.” She swallowed thickly. “Little by little, t-the people… they started leaving.”
The words seemed to grow heavier as she said them. “That wasn’t the fault of either the shepherd or the people. It was a difference in the way they thought…”
She hesitated for a long moment before finally forcing herself to finish.
“But in the end… e-every single one of them left the shepherd behind.”
Kohane lowered her head, staring at the ground as though she could no longer bring herself to look at anyone.
“The shepherd realized…” she began, her voice trembling. “S-she… she realized she was no leader. Not a lonely shepherd, but…” She squeezed her eyes shut for a second. “A lone sheep…”
Akito's brows furrowed immediately.
He didn't wait.
The moment he heard those words, he moved closer to her, his footsteps quickening before he even seemed to realize he was doing it.
An and Toya followed behind him, though neither said anything. Akito's expression had lost its usual irritation, replaced by something much more concerned.
“...Koha,” he called out.
Toya came up beside him, his gaze fixed on Kohane. “Azusawa…”
Kohane startled and looked up.
“E-eh…?” Her eyes widened when she recognized the two of them.
“Akito-kun, Aoyagi-kun…” Her gaze moved between them, confusion slowly replacing the sadness on her face. “What are you two doing togeth—”
Then she noticed the person following behind them.
Her expression changed.
It was subtle, almost painfully so. Her face seemed to soften for a second, but there was something else underneath it, something that made her look both sadder and a little more hurt.
“...And An—” Kohane stopped herself almost immediately. Her eyes shifted away. “Shiraishi-chan.”
An winced.
She had known Kohane was upset with her. She had known she wasn't going to forgive her immediately. But hearing her own name corrected into her surname—something less familiar—still hurt.
Kohane looked down and fiddled with the edge of her sleeve. “...Sorry. I-I… I have to l-leave.” She turned away from them. “No one watched anyway.”
An's heart sank.
“Kohane, wait!” she called, taking a step after her. “Please—I want to talk to you.”
Kohane stopped, but she didn't turn around. “Sh-Shiraishi-chan, if this is about… yesterday, then there isn't anything to—”
“I joined the troupe again.”
Akito's words cut through the conversation.
Kohane froze.
“...H-huh…?”
She slowly turned around, her eyes widening as she looked at him.
For a moment, she simply stared.
Then her expression softened.
“Ehehe…” A tiny smile appeared on her face, one that looked almost relieved. “That's amazing, Akito-kun. I'm… I'm really glad, in that case.”
Akito smiled too.
It only lasted for a moment.
Then he shook his head, his expression becoming more serious as he looked directly at her. “Hey, Koha.”
Kohane's smile faded slightly.
“You still wanna perform with the troupe, don't you?” Akito asked.
She didn't answer.
The question seemed to have hit something inside her, because her eyes dropped toward the ground and her hands curled together again.
An took a small step forward.
“Kohane, yesterday…” she began, her voice quieter than usual. “I was wrong.”
Kohane looked at her.
“The show failed, and that was all that ended up filling my head,” An admitted. “I kept thinking about how badly everything had gone, how I couldn't become a star like that, and I got so frustrated that I lost sight of the most important thing.”
Her hands tightened into fists.
“It's just as you said. To perform the best shows, I needed friends.” An glanced briefly toward Akito and Toya before looking back at Kohane. “I needed you guys—!”
She swallowed.
“The way I reacted… was wrong.”
Kohane remained silent.
“I don't expect you to forgive me easily,” An continued, forcing herself to hold Kohane's gaze. “But I still want to perform with you.”
Kohane's expression crumpled slightly.
“I-I’m sorry…”
An blinked. “...Eh?”
Kohane lowered her head.
“An-chan… I know you reflected on it,” she said, her voice wavering. “I-I know you did. I just can't…”
She squeezed her hands together.
“Even in the first place, it was between you and Akito-kun. A-and… it's good that Akito-kun forgives you.” She looked at Akito for a moment before her gaze dropped again. “But I can't… not with you.”
An stared at her.
Toya's eyebrows drew together. “Azusawa?”
Kohane flinched slightly at his voice.
“I'm sorry, Aoyagi-kun. Akito-kun…” She looked between the two of them, tears beginning to gather in her eyes despite her efforts to hold them back. “I can't join again.”
Then she looked at An.
“An-chan…”
An's chest tightened. She was almost surprised to hear Kohane call her 'An-chan' again.
"Yeah—?"
“For getting Akito-kun to want to perform again… I really thank you for that. But I don't want to perform shows with you anymore.”
“Kohane—!” Akito called, stepping forward. But she had already predicted his reaction. Kohane turned and ran.
Akito stopped, turning back and looking at An. “Oi, Shiraishi, what are you waiting for?!” he snapped. “Chase after her!”
An remained frozen. “W-What? You—you chase after her—!”
She turned toward the direction Kohane had run. There was no one there.
“...Tch.” Akito looked away, frustration flashing across his face.
Toya stood beside them, his gaze lingering on the empty street. “She… ran off. I don't understand—”
An slowly turned back toward Akito. “Hey, Akito, why did you tell me she was pissed at me?!”
Akito looked at her.
“Did ya actually, seriously think she was pissed at you?” he asked, raising an eyebrow. “I told you that so you would actually think before you talked to her.”
An's mouth opened.
“I—”
Akito folded his arms.
“...I mean, it worked, didn't it?”
An stared at him.
She hated that he was right.
Toya looked between them before letting out a small breath. “Let's go back to the old stage…”
Neither of them argued.
/ Old Stage /
By the time they returned to the old stage, the three of them had fallen into another heavy silence.
Akito eventually dropped onto the stage floor and lay flat on his back, staring up at the ceiling. An paced back and forth near the front of the stage, her hands repeatedly running through her hair as she tried to think of something—anything—that could bring Kohane back.
Toya stood a short distance away from Akito, his arms resting loosely at his sides.
The silence stretched.
Finally, Akito broke it.
“...What do we do now?” he muttered, still lying on his back. “I don't have a plan C or anything, and we sure as hell can't break into her house and just confront her like that.”
An groaned.
She covered her face with both hands before finally giving up on pacing and plopping down onto the stage beside Toya. Her knees came up toward her chest, and she rested her forehead against them.
Toya looked down at her.
“...Shiraishi,” he started. “You want to perform shows with Azusawa too, don't you?”
An looked up. “Of course I do!” she answered immediately. “She's the best director I could ever ask for! I don't know how to… I don't know how she can see that we need her.”
Akito suddenly sat up.
Before An could even react, he reached over and caught her by the arm, pulling her upright with him—causing her to let out a yelp.
“Then prove it.” he said bluntly.
An blinked.
Akito's expression was serious.
“Kohane… has always wanted to perform the best show,” he said, his voice quieter than usual. “That's why, the feeling of wanting to perform a show with friends… even now, I know she still feels that way.”
An stared at him.
“So let's think,” Akito continued, giving her arm a small shake before letting go. “So that we can do it together.”
Toya nodded. “Exactly.”
He looked at An, his expression with a clear determination behind it. “And Shiraishi is a future star after all, right? Surely, you can bring her back.”
An looked between them.
Akito was still sitting there, his expression stubborn and determined despite everything that had happened. Toya stood beside him, looking just as resolved.
(My troupe... my friends.)
(The people she had nearly thrown away because I'd been too focused on proving myself.)
(If I'm supposed to be the leader, then I can't just stand around waiting for someone else to fix things!)
(I need to be the one who kept the flame burning!)
“That's right… that's right!” she exclaimed. She pumped one fist into the air, the determination returning to her face. “Let's discuss a plan—!”
Akito blinked at her sudden burst of energy. Toya's lips curved into a small smile.
An's hand dropped toward her pocket. “And I know just the help for that.” She pulled out her phone, unlocked it, and immediately began scrolling through her music library.
Her thumb moved past song after song.
Then she stopped.
Her eyes settled on one particular track.
Untitled.