My love game with them that will lead to certain death

Since the boy is no longer the boy who treated me gently in my memory, it would be a stretch to want to keep anything now that things and people have changed.

Goto Ichiri is very good at backing out, which is actually exactly what she wants.

Before leaving the street, Goto Ichiri turned around and took a look.

The boy's door remained closed.

Chapter 33 No Surprises

Whether in the original world or in this "parallel world" that had accidentally appeared, Yamada Ryo found that he had never paid attention to the eyes of the curly-haired boy.

Apart from his slightly recognizable curly hair, he is not noticeable in a crowd. One needs to observe carefully to discover his lake blue eyes with an indescribable magic.

Yamada Ryo, who had just taken a closer look at his appearance at the end of rehearsal the day before yesterday, realized belatedly that those eyes were actually quite nice.

But I don't know why, but I seemed to feel a sense of relief and ease.

"Is that guy planning to quit?"

On the day of the special performance of the Shimokitazawa underground band, Ryo Yamada did not see the person he wanted to see among the people who were busy setting up the stage, and he rarely put down his bass during rehearsal time.

Although Shimokitazawa is not a big place, there are at least a dozen underground bands active here. After all, performances are one of the most important sources of income for bands, so most bands are invited to the livehouse performance venue to perform, and their audiences have already heard the news and bought tickets - their influence is also counted in the underground band circle in the entire Kanto region.

But among the familiar or unfamiliar faces in these bands, she did not see a curly-haired boy leading his band members to practice near the rehearsal room.

A feeling of uneasiness slowly crept into her heart. Yamada Ryo, who rarely dealt with such situations, felt a little annoyed, but even she herself didn't know what she was annoyed about.

It must be because she didn't get Ming Hai to pay the bill last time they had dinner together. This was the only conclusion she could come to.

Anyway, that guy Ming Hai promised to explain to her, so she can just wait until he comes to meet up and then talk to him about it.

He can’t possibly skip the show, can he…?

"I have important news for you guys."

While she was playing the bass and rehearsing with her companions, Boss Ijichi, who had been preparing and setting up the scene, came over to the band during the break.

"Maybe you'll have to add one or two songs. Can you do that?"

"Eh? Why, sis?"

Ijichi Hongxia stopped playing the drums and looked at her sister with eyes full of confusion and fatigue.

The band had prepared quite a few songs for today's performance, but if they added a few more, it would completely disrupt the rhythm of their performance - and that would also require time to rehearse in advance.

"This morning I received a notice from Hayama and Hikigaya, the band members of Toru Narumi, that their band just disbanded yesterday. There will be more than ten minutes of vacant time for today's performance, and they need someone to take over."

Ijichi Hoshika showed a troubled expression that said "That's why I hate these little brats who do whatever they want". The sudden change made her busy coordinating arrangements between the bands.

"...?"

The uneasy feeling in his heart gradually grew stronger, and Yamada Ryo's fingers on the bass strings turned slightly white because he pressed too hard.

"Disband? Why?"

Kita Ikuyo blinked in confusion, and Pochi-chan beside her poked half of her head out of the box with a look of surprise on her face.

"Ah, who knows the specific reason... It's the same reason as all the other bands that break up. There are irreconcilable conflicts between the members, and they couldn't come to an agreement, so they parted ways."

Boss Ijichi waved her hands impatiently, and she spoke in a nonchalant tone, as if she had expected something like this to happen.

"And to be honest, their strength is a bit stretched to cope with this kind of situation. It might be a good idea for them to disband and go home to study hard."

"Usually when we were rehearsing seriously, those few people... no, mainly Narumi was always making jokes and joking with Pochi-chan, and he didn't practice well himself... That kind of attitude is not right for playing music well."

Ijichi Hongxia heaved a sigh of helplessness. The greater purpose of this news for her was to remind her to learn from it and pay more attention to communication with other members in her daily life.

"He didn't fulfill his promise. Really, how fickle is this guy's personality... But it's a good thing for us that Ming Hai won't be on stage this time. This way, Pochi-chan can perform without being distracted and don't have to worry about being laughed at by that over-the-top guy."

"Ah, um..."

The pink-haired girl, who had been hiding in the mango box, was stunned for a moment when her name was mentioned, but soon nodded her head like a chicken pecking at rice.

"That's not bad, Pochi-chan! If that guy isn't here, let's treat today as a new beginning - let's try to perform on stage without the cardboard box!"

Kita Ikuyo had obvious stars in her eyes as she cast a passionate and excited gaze at Pochi.

"Okay, okay..."

Unable to bear such gazes from the sunny corner, the pink caterpillar, who was used to curling up in the damp corner, had to stammer and agree.

Of the entire four-member band, only Yamada Ryo stood there silently, neither slacking off nor strumming the bass out of boredom.

This abnormality of hers was noticed by her sensitive friend, Ijichi Hongxia.

"Liang? What's wrong? You haven't said anything since a while ago."

The blue-haired girl opened her mouth to say something and hesitated for a moment, but finally responded with a plain topic.

"…Nothing, just a little nervous."

"Hmm - Ryo, are you still nervous? That's strange."

Hong Xia raised her little head, her eyes full of "Really? I don't believe it."

Not to mention that she didn't believe it, even Yamada Ryo himself didn't believe it. This excuse was too poor.

But God knows what happened just now. She clearly wanted to say something else, but the words that came out of her mouth turned out to be the most perfunctory answer.

This feeling of being unable to gain freedom and as if being controlled by a higher-level mind is truly terrible.

Fortunately, this feeling of being unable to control oneself only occurs in very rare cases. In most cases, Yamada Ryo still has self-control.

For example, now, she can use her intelligence to solve the problem smoothly.

"If we need to take over, then we can just play rock songs that everyone is familiar with."

"Hey, is it too late to learn the new music score now?"

Kita Ikuyo expressed her concerns in time, and after a brief hesitation, Ijichi Kouka nodded thoughtfully.

"If they are all popular songs, then we can just choose classic songs that we have practiced together before. There is no need to memorize new scores, and popular songs can also arouse the audience's interest."

"That sounds good."

Ijichi Hoshika gave her sister an approving look, which was actually her "special treatment" for ending the band.

"There will be some media coming to film and report on this, and many internet celebrities in the video will also want to check in, so you guys should perform well."

Being able to perform on a stage where the exposure is countless times greater than usual will also qualitatively improve the popularity of these little girls' band.

"Okay, I'll leave it to you then."

"Oh!! I won't let you down, Manager...!"

After responding to Ijichi Hoshi's song, Kita Ikuyo gave a thumbs-up to her companions with great energy. This once-in-a-lifetime opportunity really made everyone's eyes light up.

Except for the listless Goto Ichiri and the expressionless Yamada Ryo who seemed to be worried about something.

After urgently rehearsing a few songs, it was time to go on stage to perform.

A few minutes before the show, Yamada went to the store manager to ask for the performance schedule, which was unusual for him - he was disappointed to see that the boy and his band's names were indeed crossed out from the list of performers.

When he walked onto the stage with his bass and looked at the noisy crowd below, Yamada Ryo felt a little dazed for some reason.

If she remembered correctly, her first encounter with the curly-haired boy also took place in this environment.

The drum prelude gradually rose, and the girl with short blue hair easily brought the bass melody into the rhythm with her fingertips.

They played "So Young" by Suede, a song that was very infectious on the spot.

?Because we are young, because we are hopeless?

?We ride the tides of thought, the electric surges of thought, isn’t it?

?Let's go chase the dragon, shall we?

Immersed in the lively musical atmosphere, the audience around the stage moved their bodies contentedly to the beat, and lead singer Kita Ikuyo also cut into the main song with her bright voice at the right time.

The song praising the decadent youth was particularly touching in this small livehouse venue, bringing most of the audience into a strong emotion.

But only Yamada Ryo felt something was wrong.

It started from the time she came into contact with rock music and got her first bass guitar - she was the one who was more passionate about performing than anyone else.

As long as you are in the world of music, you can isolate yourself from the external noise. No matter how troublesome the matter is, it will seem less important when compared with music.

But even such a person who was completely focused on music, Ryo Yamada, felt a sense of alienation on the stage as never before.

It was as if she was the only one who did not belong to this stage, and she was the only one who was out of it.

why.

Why did it turn out like this…?

But even in her distracted state, she still performed the pre-rehearsed music perfectly.

They played songs from their own bands, and also tried their best to play many well-known songs of rock bands during the emergency rehearsal, such as "Unintended" by Muse, "There's a Light That Never Goes Out" by The Smiths, "Heart-Shaped Box" by Nirvana, and finally ended with "No Surprises" by Radiohead.

Even though Hongxia could feel that something was wrong with Liang's condition, for the first time, Pochi was no longer confined to the mango box and was finally able to face the audience with her true self - her hard work and outstanding performance attracted the applause of most of the audience, so not many people noticed the bassist's wandering mind.

Although she played every string perfectly and her fingering was impeccable - but true listeners can hear whether she has put her current emotions into her singing.

It is obvious that Yamada Ryo is in a state of detachment.

The performance was a great success. As far as high school girl bands are concerned, they are one of the most outstanding ones among their peers. The audience members in the audience, who were holding up their mobile phones and taking pictures non-stop, also generously screamed and used flash cameras after the performance, recording their every word and action after the performance.

Her restless state did not get better after the performance. Yamada Ryo would have enjoyed the feeling of being the center of attention, but at this moment she felt that these were just trivial matters that she had no time to take care of.

"Ryo~ We coordinated well today, and Pochi-chan also performed exceptionally well! Let's take a group photo first and then go to the dinner party later... hm?"

After a busy day of work and sweating profusely, the band returned to the backstage. Hongxia was about to happily call her best friends to attend the celebration party organized by boss Ijichi - but she found that Yamada Ryo was packing his belongings in an orderly manner, as if he was about to leave.

"Where are you...going?"

"Sorry, Hongxia. Let's make an appointment next time."

She decisively turned down the band party, and her unquestionable tone left Ichichi Hongxia a little confused.

"If it's urgent, we can postpone eating or something. Let's come over and take the photo first, okay?"

"You guys go ahead and take the photo, and then you can photoshop me in later."

"What? When did you become a busy man..."

Liang's repeated excuses made Miss Hongxia pout in dissatisfaction, but when she saw the blue-haired girl casually put the bass box aside, her originally depressed expression froze.

"Beth... aren't you taking it home?"

Yamada Ryo, who was willing to spend her living expenses and eat grass for a month to buy a new bass guitar - actually left her precious bass guitar casually in the rehearsal room of the venue?

"Ah, I have something urgent to do, let's leave it here for now."

After briefly explaining everything, Yamada walked out of the rehearsal room quickly, carrying a shoulder bag with her - completely ignoring Kita Ikuyo who was about to high-five her, and Pochi who was about to collapse from exhaustion due to running out of social energy.

"Meet me at my place after the show. I'll tell you everything then... including what I need you to do."

This was the suspense that Ming Hai was selling in the family restaurant at that time.

He should have realized it at that time. They would be performing together soon, so why didn't he set the meeting place near the venue?

It only means that he had no intention of performing on stage with his band members from the beginning.

After leaving the venue, Yamada Ryo took a taxi directly to the address given by the boy. Along the way, the uneasy thought was gradually growing.

It wasn't until she stood at the door of the boy's dirty and old home that this sense of uneasiness took shape.

She tried knocking on the door, but no one answered.

"Xiao Hai~?"

Shouting doesn't work either.

When she looked around depressedly, she found a key reflecting a faint light under a flowerpot next to her.

Yamada Ryo picked up the key and unlocked the door after hesitating for a moment.

After pushing open the door, a strong smell of alcohol hit her nose. With the curtains drawn, most of the narrow and dim room was pitch dark - but the little light pouring in from the gaps in the curtains allowed her to see the figure on the bed and the empty medicine bottles scattered beside the bed.

The shoulder bag slid weakly from his shoulder, and Yamada Ryo vaguely heard a plop.

That was the sound he made when he collapsed on the ground, powerless.

"……Eh?"

The boy lying on the bed just looked like he was sleeping.