Chapter Text
Ichika logged onto Nightcord, glancing at the wall clock. Quarter to one. Or, rather, quarter to 25:00. She sighed, rubbing her eyes while checking to see if the other members of her group were online. The other members of…what did they even call themselves? As far as Ichika knew, they didn’t have an official name for their group. Despite making music together for around half a year at this point. But back to the point. Sakiki was in the voice call by herself. Stella and Shodo were still offline. Might as well talk to Sakiki in the meantime.
“Hello, Sakiki.”
“HIIIIIII KAKU-P~”
Ichika had to take her earphones out for a second, her ears ringing. That was the second time this week alone that Sakiki almost busted the former’s ear drums.
“...Maybe tone it down a bit next time? Please?”
“Ok, ok, gomen…”
The two got to talking. Nothing life-changing, just the normal stuff like school, grades, the works. Though most of the school-related stuff was on Ichika’s end. Sakiki was mostly homeschooled for health reasons. A few minutes later, Shodo joined the VC.
“Hey, Kaku-p and Sakiki.”
Shodo joining was quickly followed by Sakiki nearly breaking the sound barrier again-
Ignoring that, Stella joined a few minutes later. The four started doing their individual tasks. Ichika recorded vocals for their latest song and Shodo, Sakiki and Stella recorded their backup vocals and instruments. The call was silent, all four of them keeping their microphones muted to keep from disturbing the others. That is, until Sakiki started speaking.
“Ok, I’m done!! If you don’t need anything else from me, I’m gonna go sleep-”
“Already? You usually stay up until around 3-ji to play games,” interrupted Shodo.
“Hey! I can sleep early sometimes too-”
“Not without a reason though..” Stella added softly.
“This is targeted…”
Ichika laughed, unmuting her microphone to join in.
“They’re not wrong though, are they, Sakiki?”
“Not you too, Kaku-p! You guys are so mean…”
They could practically hear Sakiki’s pout through her voice.
“But fine, you got me. I’m starting school again tomorrow! My health is stable enough that they’ll let me attend classes again!”
Ichika felt a pang in her chest. It reminded her all too much of her childhood best friends. Saki getting hospitalized, then Shiho and Honami drifting away from her…
“T-That’s great, Sakiki!” she finally managed to get the words out, trying to focus on this good news rather than…her little situation with her old friends.
“Yeah, congrats.”
“We’re happy for you!” the other two added.
With that, Sakiki said goodbye, leaving the voice call. Although the other three had a sneaking suspicion she would end up staying up late to play video games. Ichika stayed silent for a while, getting Shodo’s attention.
“...Kaku-p? Are you alright? You’ve been quiet.”
“H-Huh? Oh, I’m fine. Just…thinking.”
“About?”
“N-Nothing important…”
Ichika yawned, glancing at the time on her tablet. Two in the morning already?
“I think I’ll go to bed. Try not to stay up too late, you two…” she said softly, eyeing Shodo and Stella’s Nightcord profile pictures. A picture of a handwritten kanji and a star respectively.
“We won’t. Sleep well, Kaku-p…” Stella replied, muting her microphone, presumably to record her drum instrumentals for their song.
Ichika left the call, sitting there in front of her tablet for a while, thinking about Sakiki. It was probably coincidence, right? Saki and Sakiki. As close as the two were, Saki wasn’t exactly the rarest first name in Japan. And there was always the possibility that Sakiki’s real name was something else. Based on previous conversations though, it wasn’t the most far-fetched thing Ichika had ever thought of. It sort of lined up.
She shook her head, her vision already getting blurry. Between doing homework and staring at her screen for the past few hours, Ichika was already exhausted. And she was likely just grasping at straws. There’s no way Saki and Sakiki could be the same person, right?
Ichika crawled into bed, the same train of thought running in her head over and over again.