Chapter Text
It was something absolutely nobody present was expecting to handle.
They had only expected to casually out as old and new friends, celebrating the day off from school. Mizuki invited themself and An over to the Shinonome household since Ena so graciously did not offer to host, but Mizuki decided for her anyway. An wanted Kohane to join, but she was on some class trip this weekend a few prefectures over.
So for now, it's only the three of them sitting around Ena's living room discussing the typical end-of-semester things: how tiring the exams were, how much homework they have to do, possible plans for future hangouts, and so on. They are stalling for time waiting for Rui to arrive. Although An and Ena don't know him that well, Mizuki is anticipating seeing him. They've regretted not keeping in touch after junior high, and now the two of them are able to become better friends as their better selves.
"How have your performances been going recently?" Ena asks An. "Akito never tells me anything, but I see your posts about Vivid Bad Squad every so often."
An brightens up at the mention of her treasured group. "It's been great! We actually just did a competitive event last week called STAY GOLDEN and did really well." An nervously chuckles and questions whether or not to mention that Akito's been a lot more serious about practice since that competition, also leaving out a few details of how she's felt since then.
"Wow! That's incredible, An!" Mizuki chimes in. "You'll have to invite us to one of your shows sometime~"
Ena adds, "Totally! I think it would be really fun!"
"Whoa, I didn't think you two would be the type to get so enthusiastic about live music." An means to say this as a joke, but Mizuki and Ena shoot each other a glare so as to say 'you have to be careful with what you say.'
It's not exactly as if they were trying to hide their music from people in real life, but it's just more convenient to not mention it considering Mafuyu actually has to actively hide her music from her parents. The fewer people who know, the easier it is for her. Also, it's just kind of embarrassing...
"Oh, you know…" Ena wants to cover all her bases, just to be safe. "I'm just trying to get out more. Plus! Live shows make for great social media posts."
"That's the most bullshit thing I've heard come out of you in a while."
Ena, now 100% more annoyed, snottily quips, "I didn't realize you were here."
Akito had just entered and stands across the room from the chair where his sister is curled up around her phone, resting her head in her hand that is propped up by her elbow on the arm rest. She doesn't even spare him a glance before looking back down at her social media feed.
"That's kind of the point." He looks over to Mizuki and An sitting next to each other on the sofa and back to Ena on the lounge chair.
Irritated that he's interrupting, Ena continues to snap, "Well, what are you doing? You going somewhere?"
"What, am I not allowed to be here? In my own home?" Both of them become increasingly more agitated. "It's nice that you pretend to care in front of your friends."
"He-Hey, if it isn't the little bro himself." Mizuki cuts into their bickering like a hot knife through butter. They've called Akito by that dumb nickname too many times for him to care anymore.
"Hey, Akito!" An calls out to him.
"Is this what you're missing today's rehearsal for? To sit in my living room? On my couch?"
"Dude, we've been over this! Kohane is out of town so there's little to no point for the three of us to rehearse without her." Akito rolls his eyes as he heads towards the kitchen. He grabs a water bottle out of the fridge while An keeps going, "You and Touya will be so much more productive practicing your duets without me." Akito doesn't respond as he is preparing to head out.
Ena speaks up on her brother's behalf, "I'm so sorry you have to deal with his stupid one-track mind. I hope he isn't too much to handle."
It's interesting, An thinks, that's what Ena wants to apologize for, when his 'one track mind' is something that herself and Akito have in common. "He's not all that bad, but it's a bit reassuring to know that he gets grouchy at home too."
"What have you guys been working on? Any new songs?" Mizuki asks eagerly.
"Um, well…" An starts but trails off.
Regardless of how she wants to answer, Akito speaks up to answer for her. "We're at a bit of a standstill right now. We can't decide what to work on next." The shortness and the direction of his tone seems to presume that he thinks it's An's fault they can't agree. "It's probably for the best since we need to work on polishing our current set list."
"Hey, that question was for An." Ena is looking for any excuse to get at him at this point.
"It's okay, really." An begins to understand Kohane and Toya a bit better. "But yeah—you can see how that's a bit complicated right now."
"Hm, that seems rough." Mizuki, like An, is growing tired of the tension and trying to change the conversation yet again. "Well if you ever need help with anything, let me know okay? Especially if it's about potential costume designs~☆"
"Hehe, I'll definitely take you up on that!"
Akito starts to make his way to the front door and calls out to Ena, "Touya's almost here. I'm leaving. Don't wait up for me."
And Ena, without looking up from her phone, endlessly scrolling, replies, "Wasn't planning on it." The front door can be heard opening and slamming shut from the living room.
"Actually Mizuki, and Ena too, do you have any Miku song recommendations? We want to cover one of her songs, but can't make up our minds. Maybe there's one that you like that will work better for all four of us?"
Did they ever have Miku song recommendations.
Not answering and staring at each other is pretty suspicious, so Mizuki quickly speaks up, "Ahaha… How did you know I've been on a Miku kick recently?"
"No way! So you must know a ton of good ones! Come on, show me!"
"Yeah, I have a playlist actually." Mizuki reaches for their phone out of their skirt pocket. "Here I'll show you—" Just then, the doorbell rings twice.
"If that's Akito, I'm not getting up because he locked himself out." Ena snidely remarks, completely disregarding the fact she's the only one in her family that's home and her doorbell just rang.
"That must be Rui then!" Mizuki stands up and hands their phone to An. "I'll go let him in. Take a look at these songs. I've had this playlist on all week!" An takes the phone from Mizuki and they rushe to the door.
Surely enough, through the peephole they can see Rui waiting, but he's not alone. Mizuki opens the door to reveal Rui and Touya with Akito standing behind them, looking away and dejected.
"Hello, Mizuki—" Rui greets, "always lovely to see you."
"Sorry to bother you, Akiyama, but Akito wouldn't let us in." Touya offered a small head bow.
"I was a bit concerned about finding the right address since I've never been to this neighborhood before, but as luck would have it, I ran into Touya on the way here," Rui beamed.
"Nice! Hiya, Touya~" Everyone steps inside as Mizuki opens the door wider. They would've expected more resistance from Akito since he seemed to be in such a hurry to leave before, but now he's quietly following Touya back into his house. "We're all hanging out in the living room for now."
Making their way back, An continues the conversation from before without noticing the additional company. "All of these look so good. There's quite a few I haven't heard of before." Various songs are playing through Mizuki's phone speaker as An is scrolling through. Ena is still focused on her own phone, seemingly typing out a caption for her next post. "Ooh, I like the cover art on this one."
"Which one? Lemme see!" Mizuki is almost back to the sofa before the others entered the room after taking off their shoes and making themselves feel at home (as if this isn't Akito's literal home).
"This one," An moves the phone towards Mizuki to show them. "Composing the Future?" and like that, with one simple tap, Mizuki can't do anything to save themself.
"No, not that one—!" Such a stupid, stupid mistake on their part.
Ena looks up at the mention of that particular song title and to her horror, sees An and Mizuki vaporizing into small, glittery triangles. "No, wait!" She cries, as if that's enough to stop the scene from unfolding in front of people that she doesn't want to explain this to. But the sight was something that she has never seen before herself: somebody else traveling to the sekai.
Somehow, seeing the transportation take place before her makes everything she’s experienced so far seem incredibly real, and scary—actual people fading away before her eyes into a faded blue and then shattering into hundreds of intangible pieces of light. The crystal-like particles disappear into nothing, taking the two unsuspecting people and the phone with them.