Why play in a band if you don't form one for life?

But they still have to play covers sometimes.

In the evening, everyone studied the hand-drawn maps lying on the table.

"The recent schedule has indeed been a bit slow." Hong Xia said.

Lisa glanced at Yukina. It was needless to say who was responsible for this. Preparing for live events required a lot of practice, which took a lot of time. They had to slow down their daily progress and search. In the past few days, they had hardly moved.

Youxina crossed his arms. "Anyway, our purpose is to find someone rather than have a specific destination. It's okay to go a little slower, right?"

Hearing this, Sayo frowned slightly.

"Of course it matters." Shizi leaned on the table, "The slower the journey, the smaller the search area, and the lower the probability of finding someone."

Hongxia raised her head and looked at Yukina: "So, although I am very sorry, Yukina-senpai, the plan for the next live show must be postponed."

"but……"

"Yukina~" Lisa put her hands on her hips.

"Um... sorry..." Youxi lowered his head, which was rare.

"Come on, Yuki-san!" A voice that Roselia felt was familiar but impossible to appear here came out, "The sooner you find Popipa, the sooner you can see Kasumi with cat ears~"

Everyone looked and saw that Shiko had put on a brown wig with cat ears and was wearing Hanasakigawa's uniform. She was hugging Yukina with a look of energy and optimism.

"..." Yukina had no idea how to react. The scene remained silent for five seconds. Until "Toyama Kasumi" couldn't help herself and pulled off her wig and got off Yukina.

She covered her face and returned to her original voice: "Ah, it feels like the dark history has increased again."

"Uh, that..." Lisa was trying not to laugh. "I don't think... Kasumi would say something like 'Kasumi with cat ears'..."

"Yes." Shizi looked at Youshina resentfully, whose eyes were fixed on the cat-ear wig in her hand. "It's all for someone..." Shizi tried to shake the wig left and right, and Youshina's eyes also shook left and right, which was very interesting.

"Huh? When did you reveal that Yukina likes cats?" Lisa had no idea when Yukina had ever said that she liked cats.

"I occasionally heard her talking in her sleep." Shizi lied casually.

However, everyone who finished the band saw what Yukina looked like now.

"Hmm... meow?" Kita made a cat ear shape with his hands on his head.

"Ah...ah..." It can be seen that Youxina is trying her best to maintain her rationality.

In the end, everyone decided to push forward with the plan for Youxina to get a few cat dolls.

All are happy.

After the group disbanded, Youxi left with a stiff face and a few dolls in her arms. Although she was not in a hurry to perform live, she still wanted to continue practicing.

Someone was following her. She turned her head.

"Lisa?"

It was her childhood sweetheart, Imai Lisa. Seeing that she had been noticed, she walked over to Yuukina's side.

"Youxina, are you thinking about something?" There was worry in her words.

"Why do you say that?"

"You wouldn't be like this before, practicing hard by yourself and ignoring other things to keep going to live... No matter what happens, you can always come to us." Lisa patted Yukina's shoulder and left silently. In the distance, Sayo peeked at the situation here, but finally held the neck of the guitar tightly and turned away.

Yukina stood there for a while, shook his head, and continued on his way to the practice place.

On the way, she passed the entrance to a dense forest. In the distance, she heard a noise and the sound of tree trunks falling.

What happened? Youkina followed the sound and finally saw Shiko next to a fallen tree. She was standing next to the stump. The trunk in front of her, which was as thick as two people hugging, had just fallen over, creating a blank space in the dark canopy of branches and leaves at the top of the forest. The golden sunlight poured down from it and shone on the girl's slightly panting face.

"Is Wu practicing too?"

Hearing this, Shiko turned around and saw Youkina walking out from the shadows.

"Yes." Shizi said, "The more I practice, the more I feel that I am not strong enough."

Just like Yukina practiced solo in addition to band practice, Shiko also honed her abilities in addition to combat. Of course, she was always accompanied by someone to prevent her from suddenly getting sick again.

Ichiri watched timidly from the corner. Yukina glanced at her and then turned to Shiko.

She smiled: "You are already very strong and you are still working so hard. Thank you for your hard work."

Shizi's ability is very comprehensive in itself, and with her [Baolu], there is no limit if there are enough teammates to copy her skills.

"It's not enough." Shizi looked up at the hole he had made between the branches and leaves, "I am still far from being able to fulfill the promise I made back then."

"promise……"

"(Is this a promise made to Ms. Marina?)" Yukina thought.

"Isn't it the same with Youxi? He's been practicing alone."

Shiko turned her head and looked at Yukina.

ps: Please comment~

Chapter 22 Revue (Happy birthday to nmm~)

"Isn't it the same for Youxi?" Shizi smiled at Youxi.

"…What do you want to express?" Youkina seemed to have heard the implication of Shiko's words.

"That's what I mean. Yuki is also working hard for everyone."

Shiko took a step towards Yukina. Yukina took a half step back, almost falling under the shade of the tree.

“What I’ve worked hard for…” Youkina clenched his palms.

"Oh my god, did I say something wrong?" Shizi raised his head and looked at her with an exaggerated mocking expression, "Oh, yes, yes, you are working hard every day, trying to be a good lead singer and a good leader of the band. Every day, every day, he is running around for the next live performance."

Shiko's face was almost touching Yukina's face: "Besides that? Is Yukina working hard for our current situation?"

The flash of steel and the collision of thorns created sparks.

"What is in your heart——" Shizi suddenly sang. Her expression was solemn and showed no strangeness.

"「The twinkling eyes are staring ahead──」"

"Even the star that remains unreached,

"If it's for the promise,

"I will continue to run towards it -" (Note 1)

The sound of metal interweaving. The thorns dispersed, and Shi Ziping behind him raised a sword and pointed it at Youxina's eyes.

"Yukina Minato, what are you thinking about?" She had a blank expression on her face and returned to her normal speaking voice.

Yukina regained her composure. Around her, steel thorns and roses intertwined: "I'm thinking about constantly honing my skills and reaching the pinnacle of music."

Shi Zi was still not satisfied.

"But that's not you, Minato Yukina." Shizi said in a deep voice, "The Minato Yukina I know is not someone who immerses herself in her own world every day."

"You said I was lost in my own world?" Youshina's voice was filled with anger. The thorns formed a ring behind him, circling continuously.

"Isn't it? Music is indeed important," Shiko stared at Yukina's pupils aggressively, "but Yukina Minato has a lot more to her besides music. Especially in this situation. Yukina Minato will definitely not delay everyone's schedule for music."

"Yukina-senpai! Let's do kirakiradokidoki together!" A figure suddenly appeared on Yukina's left. She turned around and saw a wooden sign with a cute version of Kasumi Toyama painted on it. And from Shiko's mouth came Kasumi's energetic voice.

The wooden sign exploded with a "pop" sound, and a cloud of smoke appeared. Youxina used her hands to disperse it, and found that Shizi was standing behind the wooden sign, holding it up with both hands, slightly tilted to the left, covering only half of her expressionless face: "Don't you want to find Popipa sooner?"

There was another puff of smoke, and Youkina turned sharply to the right, and found that Shizi had been standing there at some point, with the wooden sign in her hand replaced by Mitakeran, tilted to the right.

"Minato, is this what Roselia's captain is like?" She changed her tone and spoke in the voice of Mitakeran.

You Xina couldn't bear it anymore, so he took a step forward and grabbed Shizi's wrist: "What do you know about me! What do you know about them!"

"Understand?" A steel spike stabbed at him from the side, and Youxina had to distract himself to resist, so the strength in his hand loosened and Shizi broke free. Shizi threw away the wooden sign, stepped back two steps, covered his face, and seemed to find it funny, so he laughed. The laughter made Youxina's heart tremble.

For a moment, the only sound in the woods was Shiko's laughter. Yukina stood opposite her, watching coldly.

Shizi finally stopped: "No, no, no, I know much more about Youshina than you think... At least you won't ignore everyone's thoughts and would rather stay here and keep holding live shows."

A gleam of iron rose in Shizi's eyes: "That kind of Yukina is definitely not my Yukina!"

A storm blew up around Shiko. The ground rose up like a stage, lifting Shiko and Yukina up, isolating them from the outside world.

Yili saw that something was wrong when the two people met, and was wondering whether to intervene, but they suddenly started to fight. Seeing the platform rising, Yili wanted to build a water flow to rush up, but the speed of the platform rising exceeded her speed and soon rose to a place she could not reach.

She fell back to the ground, gritted her teeth, and ran towards the others.

On the platform, the two of them stood opposite each other. Yukina stood at one end, with thorns behind him extending to form giant butterfly wings.

At the other end, Shizi was left with only one person and one sword. The tip of the sword was raised, reflecting the cold light, towards his idol.

"There is only one brightest starry sky,"

"I will always protect this moment of light."

Iron pipes radiated from behind her head like music, and she seemed to be carrying an iron corona. This corona gave her figure a sacred majesty, but it also blocked the real sunlight and shrouded her true expression in a shadow.

"End the band, Wu Shizi."

Shiko shouted, "I will bring back the Minato Yukina that I know!"

Seeing that this battle was inevitable, Youkina closed his eyes, and when he opened them again, there was only determination in his eyes.

"The road to the top is never easy,"

"I will light the steel thorns on fire with my song,"

"Use musical notes to give birth to the Purple Flame Rose."

Youkina raised her right hand high, and the thorns behind her were woven into the shape of a phoenix's wings, and she cried out sharply.

"Roselia, Yukina Minato."

“Music is everything to me!”

In an instant, smoke and dust covered the sunlight. The rain of iron spears and the rebellious thorns collided in mid-air, and the sound of iron annihilating each other could be heard for a hundred miles. The agile figure turned flexibly in the iron rain, bypassing the thorns that kept bursting out from the ground, and flew towards Youxi. The thorns came from all directions and bound her body, but the figure immediately turned into a cloud of smoke and immediately appeared behind Youxi, with a long sword pointing directly at her back!

"I have been-I have been working hard to become stronger!" Shizi shouted, "What are you doing! You have been hiding in the world of music!"

“I didn’t!” Youkina turned around, and a wall of thorns grew out at the last moment, withstanding Shizi’s attack and repelling it again. “Only when I reach the pinnacle in music can I realize my dream!”

Shi Zi flew in the air, and a pillar rose up from the platform. She rolled twice, steadied her body, and stood on it with her hands behind her back.

The thorns stabbed towards the pillars. Shizi held the fiery red immortal scroll between two fingers of her left hand and drew it in the air. The flames burned the thorns into drifting black ash. She kicked her feet, picked up the sword again, and flew towards the ground.

She sang again:

"There are no dreams in this place,"

"I have seen ash and death."

"Don't break through the cage and return to the sky,"

"How can a firebird emit such a dazzling divine light?"

The sword ignited with a golden flame that was too hot to look at. It flew in the air and chopped the thorns again. Shizi cut a path through the thorn bush and headed straight for the main body!

Youxi's pupils dilated, and Shizi was right in front of him in an instant!

Note 1: Reference: Pride and Arrogance

ps: Please comment~

Chapter 23: Yukina Minato, You Are So Beautiful

There was a loud explosion on the platform. Smoke and dust rose up, covering everything. When the smoke cleared, Yuukina was seen lying on the ground, and Shiko was lying on top of her, with one hand on her head and the other holding a camera, pointing it at Yuukina's helpless face.

The flash went off, and a photo popped out of the camera, which was a picture of Yukina and Ryo facing each other on the boat. This memory slowly fell, mixed with Yukina fighting, Yukina singing, and Yukina riding the boat.

Shizi made the following decision: "Your will is overshadowed by cowardice. You can no longer reach that stage."

Her words were cold. The sword pierced through the photo, carving a rift between Yukina and the others. Her figure blocked the sun's rays, and Yukina's eyes were filled with only a pair of bright yellow pupils.

In such a situation, she smiled.

"Humph." She looked at Shizi with disdain. "What qualifications do you have to criticize me? A guy who even split a personality just to escape?"

Shiko's eyes remained unwavering. She straightened her upper body and looked down at Youshina. "Yes, I once ran away. In order to escape, I tore myself apart, I killed myself, and now I am reborn on my own corpse. Now I—" She stood up, opened her arms, and let the sunlight cast shadows on her face, "Fearless."

"But I'm afraid." Yukina sat up and looked at her jealously. "I have the best skills in music, but my current panel doesn't have any outstanding features! Even in battle, I'm the one who gets hurt the most! The only thing I'm good at is music, and outside of music I'm nothing!"

Shizi put down his hand and sneered.