Another string reel from Bandoli

It was still that hoarse voice that was so stubborn that it killed the conversation.

It's like going back to the past.

"I heard it from Saaya."

His new phone just floated in the air.

His golden eyes just stared at him.

As cold and sharp as a falcon.

"I briefly discussed what happened today. The live performance on the rooftop was a mess, and the singing was so loud that the whole school could hear it."

"You just abandoned all three of them like that? You really have no shame." He had serious intelligence deficiencies and was so arrogant that he refused to conduct a serious investigation. He made a conclusion based on a few words in the chat record of Yamabuki Saya.

"Are you sad?"

He asked just that.

"Are you embarrassed?"

He spoke in a didactic tone.

"Thinking about giving up?"

"No! I didn't..."

Kasumi Toyama instinctively wanted to refute, as her intentions were almost misinterpreted.

A brand new notebook was forced into his arms.

It was a notebook with a cover decorated with colorful stars.

You can buy it at any convenience store, it's cheap, and anyone can buy it after it comes off the assembly line.

"You can't even understand what you're singing, yet you're forming a band and dragging others along to play house with you. Crap songs like Kasuga Kage's will only lead to living in the shadows, and they'll never get out of it. It's not like a human idiot would sing them."

He kept pointing his fingertips at his chest through the notebook, pointing harder and harder.

"I made that kind of music to mock those fools who live in the past and only follow others. You, Toyama Kasumi, even picked up a song that only belonged in the recycling bin."

He sneered at the song he had composed without any concern.

"What's with the shining light? I've already made the singer so humble in the lyrics, a coward who won't even let go of my hand. How can you say this is a good song?"

"Apologize to these three people tomorrow," he unreasonably gave her a task.

"Otherwise, I'll drag you in front of them and force you forward."

He didn't want to listen to anyone's arguments or responses. It was as if he was trying hard to hide how bad his condition was after being pulled down from the wall.

She kept making excuses for things, but it was obvious that Toyama Kasumi didn't mean that at all.

As soon as he took a step, it felt like the joints supporting his body were broken, and he almost stumbled.

“Liver pâté!”

Toyama Kasumi tugged at his sleeve.

This time he was so stubborn that he shook it off.

The outstretched hand caught nothing.

He was like this, even breathing was difficult for him.

"besides……"

"If you want to sing, just sing whatever you want... Don't get lost in the rain..."

"If you want to convince me, then just work hard on your own and come up with the lyrics you want. I won't help you anymore!"

As the door was closed.

"Go to bed early and don't stay in bed again."

Although he knew that Toyama Kasumi always woke up earlier than the alarm clock, Xianjuan Gan still said things that went against his wishes.

Just like the old days.

Not sparkly at all.

It was like it was burned out, and nothing could make his heart beat faster.

Even if it's just a little bit, I want him to be happy and smile.

He is too sensitive to her affairs, but is so slow to react when it comes to his own affairs, and even procrastinates.

How could she convey this feeling to his heart? Toyama Kasumi tightened the quilt which still retained some warmth.

With this promise, I will never show complicated emotions in front of others again.

Even if I'm laughed at, even if I'm called a bitch, it doesn't matter.

All I want is for him to feel the "beating of the stars"

……

"I can't take care of you forever..."

The last sentence was so soft that it was almost inaudible.

Toyama Kasumi couldn't hear it.

And after the door between the two of them was opened.

"I can't be that shadow on that spring day forever..."

In the darkness far away from the stars, Xian Juangan slid down the doorway exhausted.

His left hand slipped weakly, and the dark green watch hit the floor, leaving scratches on the wooden board like the scratches of a wild beast.

Under that dark green surface with white stripes, that absolute existence was bound.

They are prisoners of each other.

It was a rainy day, as it happens every week.

The rain fell without any pattern, with a rusty feeling, giving people a dark, gloomy and damp feeling.

Just like the old days.

"——I'm Kasumi——! Please listen to the next song! 'Stay Away from the Freshly Made Clay Tube'"

The silly musical is back again.

"It's a karaoke bar by the river, so it's called karaoke. Kawakara, Kawakara—"

The boys laughed at and teased the once energetic girl.

The decadent girl just lowered her head and let them laugh at her.

The other girls were not here today, so Toyama Kasumi was left alone.

She was holding an umbrella and walking on the road she had to take after school.

More and more boys are singing Sichuan Karaoke, and even boys from other classes have joined in the farce.

At least... Asuka wasn't by her side, not standing in front of her to protect her useless sister...

Kasumi Toyama, who just entered the fourth grade of elementary school, closed her eyes, holding on to this only thing that made her feel thankful.

Trapped in a vortex of darkness, if I could just close my eyes and not hear anything, then it would be better to just wallow in the bottomless darkness.

I just closed my eyes tightly, hoping that time would pass quickly.

She hit something.

It was a strange kid who had never been seen around here before, wearing an ill-fitting sweatshirt with a hood covering his messy blond hair.

He opened his eyes tiredly, and his golden eyes, now as dim as dusty yellow jade, looked at her.

He looked around and saw that the boys had bumped into someone because of Toyama Kasumi, and were laughing at her even more wantonly.

"Being bullied?" the boy asked in a hoarse voice.

Toyama Kasumi just said nothing and lowered her head even more depressed.

She didn't know him.

"...It doesn't matter. I don't care anyway. Just treat it as me meddling in your business."

He stretched out his left arm and lifted his sleeve to reveal a golden watch.

It was a watch with an hourglass composed of two triangles on the icon of Yi Wuqi IX Liushan 2.

The sign of the unknown makes people anxious.

There was a mechanical jingle, and the dial movement sprang up.

"I just happened to be in a bad mood."

The boy botched a job when he used unclean stones in his seafood soup recipe.

He smashed it down hard.

A dark golden light extended from the surface.

When Toyama Kasumi raised her head because of the screams, the boys who had bullied her had all fallen to the ground.

The shadowless being, who seemed to be floating in white skin, bound and restricted by iron chains, turned back into a child of the same age in front of her.

With his hands in his pockets, he walked away from the group, stepping on the boys who had once laughed at her, and moving forward on his own.

He kicked the leading boy, leaving a deep mark on his body, and kicked him aside.

The obese body crashed onto the telephone pole.

In the rain, I didn't have an umbrella and just walked forward alone.

He didn't look like a human at all. The rain just flowed down his sweatshirt and along his body, blocking all possibility of reaching the shore.

The rain stopped.

I gave him half of the umbrella.

The boy looked in surprise at the girl who had just been bullied and who had transformed into a monster in front of her. Her face was pale and trembling, but she still mustered the courage to move the umbrella closer.

That was the first day the two met.

The next day, a rainbow appeared after the rain.

Toyama Kasumi got up even earlier than usual.

The burst of emotions continued to swell. My head was numb and my heart was trembling.

She still remembers it to this day.

I am so stupid. Why do I only remember the rain?

There is a rainbow too.

The gray light outside the window came in sparingly, reflecting the brown hair ends of Toyama Kasumi that had grown longer as she shed her hair.

She stepped on the cold floor without bothering to wear indoor shoes.

She turned on a star-shaped eye-protection lamp.

He opened the tattered "One Step to Success" notebook.

After looking at the unfinished melody.

She closed her notebook.

"POPPING! Don't say you're a little nervous. Show your confidence! POPPING!" was printed on the brand new, cheap notebook.

……

This printed font seemed to make Kasumi Toyama feel something.

POPPING! Kasumi whispered. And whispered it again, POPPING!

In the brand new notebook, the tip of the pencil made a rustling sound as it scratched across the brand new page.

Go ahead. She didn't want anyone to stop her. She didn't want to stop.

Toyama Kasumi closed her eyes and listened to that voice. The beating she had pretended not to hear—the "beating of the stars" that should have always flowed within her heart—

That was the prelude to the future that had always been depicted.