Girls' Wishing Tree

When she first activated the system, the system got along with her very happily. After she became a great tree demon, this happiness reached its peak.

However, Ying gradually discovered that the options provided by the system would make her bear the lives of the girls. Especially after she put pressure on Li Xi and hurt her, some rifts began to arise between her and the system, and she began to doubt the existence of the system.

Takagi Sakura felt a little confused. She crawled into the cherry tree, then crawled out from the branches. She sat on a branch three stories high, enjoying the cool breeze, hoping to clear her mind a little.

Chapter 80 Shrines, Festivals and Monsters: 39, Group Formation and First Live

The person who said on the Internet that he would take a plane to see Takagi Sakura didn't show up, but Momoka and others' second joint training started on time.

In the shrine's training room, Takagi Sakura felt her heartbeat quicken as she watched the five girls gathered together.

There was no doubt that these five people had worked hard for the band, but Sakura was a little unsure whether they could recognize each other.

"Let's get started. Let's practice together again." Takagi Sakura casually mentioned the live performance: "If it's appropriate, there will be an event held in a shopping mall soon. This kind of occasion is very suitable for a new band to test the waters."

Relying on a band to hype up a mall opening is a common practice, especially in this age of girl bands. First, get a few young girls on stage to sing and dance to warm up the crowd, then have a girl band perform a few songs, which always attracts a lot of attention.

"Isn't it a bit too early to hold a live concert so soon? The band hasn't even been formed yet—" Zhi frowned. "Besides, the mall opening requires singing a song designated by the client, which is usually a forced singing of lyrics that don't fit together, with almost no musicality."

Miao Meng expressed a different opinion: "If we participate in activities and release clips, fans will think we are a more mature commercial band."

Zhi's face turned a little red. He glanced at Taoxiang who was debugging the equipment, then turned his gaze to Rupa, but finally chose not to get angry.

Ying also noticed that the atmosphere was a bit low, and quickly stepped in to smooth things over: "I've written a few songs for everyone, you can all give them a try. If you sing well, they should be popular."

Nina stood up and said, "No! I joined the band because I wanted to sing Momoka's music! Sakura's songs are great, but I can't always rely on Sakura to write songs!"

Momoka touched Nina's arm. "Hey, come on. Sakura is helping us. It's not like the band doesn't do covers at all, right?"

Nina put her hands on her hips. "But this first live performance is our chance to introduce ourselves to everyone, right? If we want to beat DiamondDust, we can't just follow suit and sing other people's songs!"

"Stop, stop!" Gao Muying clapped her hands. "Everyone, let's practice together first. The three songs for today's practice have been confirmed, right?"

Miao Meng immediately started playing the drums, but everyone was still preparing, and Zhi, the only one who could keep up, couldn't catch up.

“Meow, wait a minute,” Rupa called out. “My bass isn’t tuned yet.”

Takagi Sakura closed her eyes and took two deep breaths, and once again felt the urge to press the system to the ground and rub it.

These five people have no common understanding of the band, so it seems a bit forced to form a band.

What Miaomeng always wants is traffic and ways to monetize that traffic, Momoka wants to "catch" Rencai's rebellious and unyielding voice, and Rencai wants to sing songs like DiamondDust in the Momoka era that can ignite people's dreams.

As for Rupa and Zhi, they want to play in a band, but they don’t want to do it just for fun. They really want to achieve something in music.

If there was an efficient glue in the band, they might be able to form a team, but no matter how these five people get together, they can't find a true positive corner.

They started the joint practice with some hesitation, but better than last time, Renai did not make any stupid mistakes.

But that's about it.

Their playing and singing were merely passable, lacking any chemistry. From an outsider's perspective, Takagi Sakura felt the band was individually good, but together, they lacked that spark of inspiration. However, when it came to ferreting out the "traitor" in the details, she couldn't find one.

It wasn't a matter of instrumental timbre or coordination, but rather a divergent understanding of the same song. In other words, everyone performed with no problem, but the emotional expression of the five people in the music wasn't unified.

After arranging all three songs, Takagi Sakura directly pointed them out one by one: "Take turns to share your ideas, starting with lead singer Niina."

No one spoke in the rehearsal room for half a minute.

Just as Momoka was about to speak first, Nina spoke up, "I feel good. Momoka's special training is working."

"Is that all?" Miao Meng knocked the cymbals with some dissatisfaction.

"Also... everyone's very nice. We're all... not from Tokyo, right? It's rare for us to get together here... We could try forming a band. I'll find a way... to stop the cram school work."

When Miao Meng heard that Rencai was going to drop out of school, her eyes flickered - she was actually not very satisfied with Rencai's singing, but she was somewhat moved by Rencai's awareness.

Just as she was about to speak, Taoxiang spoke first, "Right now, it's not as good as DiamondDust, but if everyone is willing to practice together, we should be able to reach a higher ceiling than DiamondDust. There is one thing I must point out, and that is our running-in, if it comes to creative running-in. Only by writing songs together can we reach a consensus on music."

When Miao Meng heard Tao Xiang mention DiamondDust, she took the initiative to answer: "The lead singer of DiamondDust is also a Kumamoto person like me. He is very popular in Kumamoto. I heard that they are going to hold a special live in Kumamoto——"

Rencai suddenly interrupted Miaomeng: "She doesn't deserve to hold a live in Kumamoto! She is a despicable traitor!"

"Hey?" Meow Meng walked over to Nina. "Do you know their lead singer? What's going on? If Momoka and Nina are both related to DiamondDust, we can package our debut as the Avengers of Music. A lot of people would like this gimmick!"

"Meow Meng, don't go off topic. Tell us about your experience with the joint training." Takagi Sakura brought the topic back.

"As for me..." Miao Meng glanced at Ying, then turned her gaze to Rencai who was still looking down: "We can try to organize a live show first."

"You can write songs with everyone." Zhi spoke at this time: "Momoka's voice is indeed talented. But if we can't agree on the musical concept when writing a song together, Rupa and I will choose to withdraw."

Gao Muying clapped her hands quickly: "How about this? I'll help everyone arrange a live performance. For this live performance, everyone should work hard together and do their best. If after the live performance, if it is determined that we are not suitable to form a band together, you can withdraw."

Zhi thought for a few seconds and agreed, while Miao Meng walked over to Ying and put a hand on her shoulder: "Okay, Ying, remember to always take me with you during the live broadcast."

Momoka moved closer to Nina and said, "Nina, I think we can try to do a live show first. What do you think?"

"...We have to perform in the same venue as DiamondDust." Nina clenched her fists. "We have to tell them that we are worthy of having a musician like Momoka!"

"DiamondDust's next show is in Dub, with a crowd of a thousand people. It's going to be a little hard for us to catch up, right?" Miao Meng said, pointing to DiamondDust's official account on her phone.

"Let's do the first show at the mall. If we get along well, I'll contact DiamondDust and try to get a chance to perform on the same stage. I have their contact information. We worked together at the last Harvest Festival. Is that okay?" Takagi Sakura said while looking at Nina.

Only then did Rencai agree to it.

Chapter 81 Shrines, Festivals and Monsters: February 25th Update and Modification Notes

This book was updated throughout January, but because there was not enough time to sort out and revise the content, some problems occurred during the update process.

During the Spring Festival, the author goes out to visit relatives, and after the festival the work for the whole year starts, so it will be very busy.

In order to ensure quality, we will give up full-time updates in February, but we will update more than 80,000 words.

At the same time, in February, based on readers' opinions and the author's revisions to the outline, some revisions will be made to the previous content, mainly to modify the logic of the context and reset the Li Xi plot line.

In order not to affect the experience of new readers, typos and logical modifications will be completed one after another without further notice. After the Lixi line is modified, the author will put it in the book at once and send a notice indicating which chapters have been modified.

The modifications will be completed before launching the Crychic line, so that old readers do not need to review too many chapters.

Thank you for your support of this book.

Chapter 82: Shrines, Festivals, and Monsters: 40. Charlatan? Hermit?

Even if Takagi Sakura could leave the shrine, she didn't leave it very often.

Practicing the piano took up a lot of her time, and the shrine really needed someone to look after it.

Now that Sayu was watching over the shrine and the two red gingers were helping sell the goods, she was able to go out more often - for example, to Hanasakigawa Girls' Academy and prepare for the shrine maiden club performance with the girls.

There are two familiar faces in the shrine maiden club, one is Wakamiya Eve from PasPale, and the other is Matsubara Kanon from HHW.

Wakamiya Eve joined the shrine maiden club because she likes shrine culture, while Matsubara Kanon likes cute shrine maiden costumes.

Sakura has already worked with the JKs from the Miko Club, so it's only natural for her to go to Hanasakigawa as an off-campus instructor.

The school festival is just a few days away, and the entire campus is filled with the atmosphere of preparing for the school festival during recess.

Some students who have prepared projects for the school festival are preparing props, and some students who will be performing are rehearsing on campus.

For example, Aya Maruyama of PasPale gathered several members from other bands to form a temporary band for the school festival. PasPale is an idol band formed entirely by the agency, and every performance requires authorization from the agency. Unlike Roselia, who can perform on their own in non-commercial occasions, Aya Maruyama wanted to sing for everyone at the school festival, so she had to use the identity of Hanasakigawa's student and call on Tsugumi Hanezawa and others to perform together.

Seeing Takagi Sakura, Maruyama Aya happily came over and said, "If the idol course arranged by the agency didn't conflict with the activities of the shrine maiden club, I would definitely join!"

Of course, Sakura would not blame Maruyama Aya - in the band PasPale, it might be controversial to say who has the best musical literacy and the strongest idol power, but the one who works the hardest is undoubtedly Maruyama Aya.

In order to present the best performance on stage, Maruyama Aya has put in a lot of effort behind the scenes.

Her idol talent isn't top-notch; she bites her tongue on stage without a prompter, and isn't good at dramatic singing or dancing. However, she possesses the most important quality of an idol: a heart that warms everyone around her.

Ying smiled and nodded: "There's no need to be so polite between friends. I heard from Hinata and Eve that you also prepared a program this time. Come on!"

"Hehe, I originally wanted to give everyone a surprise, but in the end everyone knew about it. I dragged Tugumi to rehearse these two days, and Mocha even told them about it." Maruyama Aya said a little embarrassedly.

"It's a rare occasion for two schools to jointly hold a school festival. Popipa should be participating too, right?"

"Yes, Popipa is looking forward to the school festival very much and has even written a new song." Maruyama Aya pointed at the school gate. "When they have a little free time these days, they will go to Ichigaya's house to rehearse."

"You guys, PasPale, haven't come to my shrine to rehearse much lately. It's a bit lonely there. Come and visit us when you have time." After saying this, Takagi Sakura patted Maruyama Aya's arm and continued walking towards the shrine maiden club.

The job of guiding the shrine maidens is not difficult - the Kagura dance and prayers prepared by these JK shrine maidens basically remain at the level of "Cosplay" and are not as elaborate as the formal religious activities of large shrines.

However, the system did not give any prompts and did not give her the opportunity to easily earn shining points.

The relationship between Sakura and the system has become extremely complex. She wants to use the system to become a more powerful tree demon and gain more abilities, but she doesn't want to interfere too much in the lives of the girls. Furthermore, someone revealed her identity as a demon during a livestream, claiming she's been possessed by something "dirty," and her suspicions about the system have intensified.

However, these few days have passed and there is no news about the netizen named Otte, and it is not known whether she has bought the plane ticket.

She opened her phone to see if Otte had left her a private message today, and there really was one.

[Damn it, your aunt's work visa was rejected. Didn't she just write about going to a shrine for exorcism when she applied? Find a way to get her through!]

It can be seen that Otte is really angry, and she claims that she has been upgraded from "old lady" to "grandmother".

Takagi Sakura shook her head, unable to suppress the corners of her mouth - if you apply for a work visa and say you need to go to a shrine for exorcism, only a ghost will let you go!

Any sane staff member would reject such a suspicious request, right? It would be better to apply for a tourist visa and say you're going to Tokyo to see a girl band live!

"I think you should apply for a tourist visa. It's hard to get a work visa without a company introduction." Ying replied to Otte.

The reply came almost instantly: [That's impossible. I can't do you such a big favor without getting paid. I checked online and found out that if you want to get paid, you need a work visa. Don't try to trick me into working for you for free.]

Sakura Takagi suddenly felt that the other party was suspected of fraud.

What kind of hermit would call someone "old lady" all the time and ask for money before even showing up?

This really is more like the behavior of a charlatan.

So, Gao Muying replied more cautiously: [If you want me to rescue you, you should at least send me your information and I will find a way, right?]

[Guo Yu, Taoist priest of Songma Temple on Simu Mountain. I came here to help you, so please don't be ungrateful. Hurry up and find a way to get me a visa.]

"I'll think of another way for you. I can't guarantee it'll work. I'll send you something in a few days." Gao Muying thought of her own skill at forging documents—if they got caught, Guo Yu would be the one to be embarrassed anyway.

She certainly wouldn't directly forge something difficult like a passport, but writing an exchange invitation letter, inviting the other party under the pretext of shrine and Taoist temple business exchanges, and then forging some approval procedures is relatively simple, and the probability of being discovered is not high.

Gao Muying put down her phone and found that Xian Juanxin walked in.

Genjumaki Shin took out a camera that looked very expensive and started taking pictures of Kanon, who was wearing a shrine maiden costume, until Kanon's face turned red so much that steam was about to come out, and then she put the camera away.

"Xin! Stop taking pictures!" Hanane covered her face with her hands.

"Kanaon is so cute! Yay!" Kokoro made a "Victory" sign. "Operation to capture Kanon in the limited edition shrine maiden costume was a huge success!"

Sakura was watching the activities of the two band members, but unexpectedly, Genjumaki Kokoro came to her side and asked: "Sakura, when will there be a live performance at the shrine?"

"The next live performance will probably be during the Sakura Festival next year. Unless something unexpected happens, the shrine will not hold a live performance this year."

"What's going on? Everyone at HHW loves the Live Sakura holds! Misaki said even Michelle is happy!"

"Well... there has to be a festival to hold a live. According to tradition, my shrine only has two events every year: the Cherry Blossom Festival and the Harvest Festival." Sakura made up an excuse.

"What about the New Year? Many shrines have New Year prayers, right?" Xianjuanxin seemed to still have some expectations left.

"Everyone has it, so we won't join in the fun." Seeing Xianjuanxin's somewhat lost expression, Gao Muying added: "We will invite HHW to perform at the Sakura Festival again next year."

Chapter 83: Shrines, Festivals, and Monsters: A Bright Future

The joint school festival of Hanasakigawa Girls' Academy and Hanaoka Girls' Academy started on time.

The shrine maiden club provides an experience project and a program. The experience project is to help JKs put on shrine maiden costumes and take photos in front of the PVC torii display board. The program is to perform the Kagura dance at the festival.

Many students showed interest in putting on shrine maiden costumes and taking photos. Even Lenai, who had no interest in this kind of activity, deliberately came over to put on the shrine maiden costume and took a photo when she saw Sakura.

Many of the girls who came to take photos had chat boxes next to their heads, and Sakura Takagi also added the contact information of several people - everyone liked the cute Sakura Takagi, and many students specifically wanted to take photos with Sakura, so she wouldn't be suspected at all if she asked for a few contact information.

Some of the system's features were quite useful, such as being able to see which girls had special talents, quantify the skills one was training, etc. If it hadn't tried to burden her with the girls' lives, Sakura would definitely not have had any complaints about it until now.

"Everyone, I have to go out for a while now and will be back before the show." Ying glanced at the time on her phone: "RAS's premiere is about to begin. I promised to go and see it."

Hanane nodded: "Sakura, remember to come back later. The Miko Society is waiting for you to lead the dance."

"OK, no problem." Sakura walked into the locker room, took off her shrine maiden costume, changed into a set of casual clothes, tied her cherry blossom-colored hair with a ribbon, and quickly left the school festival activity area.

The LiveHouse where RAS held its first Live was a bit far from the place where the two academies held their joint school festival. If you walked there at a normal speed, it would take about an hour.

Sakura took the free ticket and also bought tickets for two more people to go - there were originally five people, but Renai, Momoka and Meowmu refused, and only Rupa and Chi agreed to go together.

Miaomeng is taking supplementary lessons because she failed an exam, while Renai and Momoka are writing their own songs and don't want other bands' works to "pollute" their thinking.

"Ying, this way!" Rupa, who was taller, saw Ying's long pink hair from a distance and waved to her on tiptoe.

"You're already here. Sorry, I had some activities today, so I'm a few minutes late."

"It's okay, the audience hasn't started arriving yet. After hearing Ying's introduction, we're also a bit curious about this band." Rupa pointed to the LiveHouse, which can accommodate a thousand people. "They're really confident that they can create such a big fanfare for their debut. Looking at their promotional materials, they sound quite confident, but after listening to the demo, it really doesn't seem like they're just bragging."

Zhi looked up at Rupa and said, "I can't say she's that amazing. You still have to see her live. If she's a studio prodigy, she's just so-so. When I participated in piano competitions before, the preliminaries were usually recorded. Some people were amazing in the videos, but in person they were just so-so. They can't compare to someone like Toyokawa Shoko, whose performance was even more stable than in the videos."

"Toyokawa Shoko?" Takagi Sakura was a little unfamiliar with this name.