Iruma-san wants to win the Akutagawa Prize

Afterwards, she planned to practice using the tabs used by Guitar Hero.

There are many messages below Guitar Hero's videos from people who are also learning guitar, and many of them are asking for sheet music. However, most of the interactions between Guitar Hero and the audience are just to share sheet music.

"come on!"

After encouraging herself, Chihaya Aine hugged her guitar, then sat on the edge of her bed and awkwardly began her first serious electric guitar practice.

Because there was no one to teach her, even the initial tuning took her an hour to complete by following the video.

Not to mention the difficulties encountered during subsequent practice.

About two hours later.

The practice among the stars is over.

Chihaya Aine sat on the edge of the bed.

The Guitar Hero video on the phone was still playing, looping and repeating countless times. The sheet music on the tablet on the other side was still stuck on the first page.

In fact, such musical scores could not help Chihaya Aion at all. She could not understand the five-line score shared by Goto Ichiri. The only score she could play was the six-line score for guitar. She did not remember the so-called fretboard notes at all, not to mention that the scores shared by Guitar Hero in the later period were simplified to only the chord operation, such as three chords and four chords. To her at this moment, it was like a heavenly book.

However, these things that seemed as difficult as a chasm to Chihaya Ai were as easy as eating and drinking water for Guitar Hero.

For the first time, Chihaya Aine intuitively felt the gap between real musicians and people like her who joined a band purely out of vanity.

She couldn't help but frown.

There was a hint of distress on his face.

Perhaps she felt frustrated by her initial failure in practice, and was distressed that she was not as talented in music as she had expected.

But more importantly—

"When Chihaya-san comes over this weekend, we'll be able to rehearse together. Then Hibiki and I should be able to play some of the latest popular songs. I'm really looking forward to it."

Nagasaki Suyo's message appeared in the group.

Soon the number of reads of her message became 3.

Looking at this number that had never appeared before, Nagasaki Suyo leaned forward slightly.

At this moment, she is on the tram going home.

In fact, I sent messages in the group only because I felt lonely on the train alone.

She didn't expect that the 3 reads that she was looking forward to would actually happen now.

but--

Chihaya Aine was quiet, saying nothing as before, as if the 3 was just a programming error.

"Yeah! I'm really looking forward to the weekend's duet! Maybe we can write our own original songs even faster—"

[As for the lyrics, I've actually been having some ideas lately, and I might be able to write something that I can show everyone in a while.]

Iruma Hibiki's message came after Ijichi Kouka's message.

The two responded very close in time.

[Great!!!]

Ijichi Hongxia followed suit and started cheering.

【Is Iruma-san on the bus yet? 】

After waiting for a few seconds and seeing that the previous topic did not continue, Nagasaki Suyo asked the question that she cared about most. After all, the culprit who made her feel a little lonely just now was Iruma Hibiki, who said "getting squeezed in the car" and then disappeared for a while.

[Oh my god, the train back to Kasai Ward is so crowded at this time.]

[Be careful on the road, please go to the other side of the road.]

【The same to you.】

「Ahhh! You two have such a great relationship! I’m so envious!」

Ijichi Hongxia finally couldn't hold back and shouted with envy in the group along with a cute greater-than-less-than emoticon.

Then Nagasaki Suyo added a show-off emoticon to end the topic.

As for Iruma Hibiki, he didn't respond much, but sent a new message a few seconds later:

[Next time I will avoid Ijichi on purpose.]

【Eh? ! 】

Ijichi Hongka was shocked by the message sent by Iruma Hibiki.

She quickly thought about whether she had done something wrong to make Iruma Hibiki unhappy.

「Ah...there's nothing we can do about that.」

Nagasaki Motoyo cooperated tacitly with Iruma Hibiki.

「Ah… I was just kidding…」

【Me too. 】

[You two!]

Ijichi Hongxia made an angry expression after Nagasaki Suyo agreed, but in fact, at this moment she was leaning tiredly on the mop in the corner of the starry sky, with a big happy smile on her face.

"Is Hongxia okay? If she is, let's call it a day."

"I know, sister!"

Ichichi Hongxia put away her phone and responded.

"I've told you so many times, if you're in the store, you have to call me the manager."

With Ijichi Xingge sighing, her cleaning came to an end.

Such a happy day finally came to an end.

But for Ichichi Hongxia, the time before was like a dream. Any more extravagant demands would be greed, which would only let the hard-earned happiness at this moment slip away.

With Ijichi Hoshige's watchful eye and help, she casually zipped up the pocket where her phone was and began to pack up the cleaning supplies.

[Goto-san, I have a sheet music here, but my understanding of music is very limited, and I've only heard this song before, so I'm not sure if this is the right way to recreate it. Also, I can't play this sheet music at my current level. Could you please take a look at it for me?]

Just when Goto Ichiri thought that today would be another boring 2-hour journey home.

She received a message from Hibiki Iruma.

After Hibiki Iruma's message, there is a photo. The background of the photo is Hibiki Iruma's notebook. If you look to the corner, you can see the floor of the tram and the seat opposite.

And on the notebook, there was a sheet of music just like what Hibiki Iruma had described.

God Knows...

This title is marked on the sheet music.

I think Goto-san won't find it strange if I start the conversation with such a topic.

Iruma Hibiki thought silently.

His mood was complicated.

It was so complicated that he planned to go for a late-night walk in Linhai Park.

Goto Ichiri's evasion of him at that time unexpectedly made him feel a little... sad...

Maybe it's even because I'm too unfamiliar with interpersonal communication.

Iruma Hibiki wasn't even sure whether he was feeling sad at the moment.

Just a tightness in my chest.

It's as if something is blocking it.

After sending the message and the music score, he quickly closed Goto Ichiri's chat box.

The sheet of music sent to Goto Ichiri was his favorite song before "Charging for Love". He had just spent some time and effort to write it out according to the notes and rhythm in his memory and with the musical sense he had practiced recently.

This hard and reluctant effort was just Hibiki Iruma's attempt to save the friendship between him and Ichiri Goto.

Did he do something wrong?

When opening the chat box of Nagasaki Suyo, Iruma Hibiki thought with his head down.

After all, there was only one thing that he absolutely did not want to see right now.

That was before Christmas—

He is a stranger to Goto Ichiri.

77 Distress and Dependence

Don’t you get tired of going to Linhai Park every day?

I remember that when Hibiki Iruma was very young, his mother asked him this question.

At that time, he was still in the stage of crossing over, full of ambition but constrained by the body of a child.

Without Dr. Agasa, Kogoro Mouri and Ran, even if Conan is full of talent, he will have to put on the yellow hat and follow his teacher across the street in a diaper.

As a child, Iruma Hibiki felt helpless when faced with this topic, but didn't know how to answer.

After all, he had already been called as a parent earlier—

"Mrs. Iruma, although Iruma-san is developing healthily and appears to be more mature than most children his age, we are somewhat concerned about his curiosity, desire to explore, and how he interacts with his peers."

Yes, then Iruma Hibiki was initially diagnosed with [early stage autism].

Afterwards, I received special care from my parents and teachers.

After that, his mother often took him to Linhai Park to relax and also quit her job.

However, what Hibiki Iruma called "early stage autism" was actually just a matter of not being able to play with his peers.

It is really difficult to get a mature high school student to integrate with diaper-wearing kids.

However, the experience at that time has also changed the current Hibiki Iruma.

For example, coming to Linhai Park has become his habit, especially at night when everything is quiet.

Over the years, Hibiki Iruma had never witnessed any strange phenomena in such an accident-prone area, such as magical girls making friends with light cannons, strange cards flying everywhere, waiting for the arrival of the magical girl who would reclaim them.

Naturally, Linhai Park tonight is the same as usual.

The news about Nagasaki Suyo continues.

He didn't stop from getting on the car to getting off.

【I'm going to take a shower now. See you later, Xiang.】

It was not until Hibiki Iruma walked around Rinkai Park for the second time and came to a lighted vending machine in the darkness to buy red bean soup that Nagasaki Motoyo sent this message.

Yes, Nagasaki Suyo naturally lives alone.

Iruma Hibiki confirmed this again.

On the other side, Goto Ichiri—

After his message, Goto Ichiri never replied again.

Iruma Hibiki pursed his lips bitterly.

To be honest, being distanced by Goto Ichiri, then ignored, and not replying to my messages at all...

He deserves it.

This is only natural, isn't it?

Hibiki Iruma thought carefully about what he had done to Ichiri Goto, and in the end he could only come up with this answer.

He dragged Goto Ichiri to the band, but ended up hurting her.

No matter how you look at it, this kind of thing is his fault.

And it's a complete and utter mistake.

Even if the starting point is good.

Maybe it would actually be better if he did nothing?

After all, the disappearance of Guitar Hero is also——

He was just worried about Goto Ichiri, worrying about himself. In fact, Goto Ichiri was completely fine, wasn't he? Even that day, when he fainted in the classroom.