AMBiTiON/Story/Ch. 9

Chapter 9 - The Forecast Said Rain
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"What if we get there before them? What if they miss the train? What if--"

"Wait, didn't we do this already?" Just like last Friday, Chihiro was leading Aki and Sorae to the train station where they would meet their new recruit. Though today, the new girl was not Izumi, but Moriuchi-san - It would have been a deja vu moment if not for that crucial detail. "Like I said before, Haneoka's closer to the station than Hanasakigawa, and Izumin won't make herself late."

For the past few days, Chihiro's usual afterschool train ride with Izumi had been accompanied by the serious Moriuchi-san, who didn't make much of a difference being there anyways, since she hardly spoke at all. When Chihiro and Izumi exited at their station, Moriuchi-san remained, still as a statue, on the train since her stop was further away, as if she didn't even know the two...

"S-Still, I'm kinda scared to meet Moriuchi-san..." Sorae cowered, and for good reason. The forest-haired girl would have been intimidating to any person, and for the anxious Sorae it must have been like meeting a grizzly bear head on.

"It'll be fine, Sora-chin!" Aki consoled. "Just introduce yourself like you did last time. Moriuchi-san doesn't sound that scary to me!" She smiled, and Chihiro silently added after, 'Because everyone you meet automatically likes you.'

They walked up the stairs to the station platform where Izumi's eyes met Chihiro. "Ohmygod, hurry up! It's almost hedgehog o' clock," she urged, and so they approached. Again, Sorae cowered behind Chihiro and Aki, though the bass guitar case on her back this time made her quite overt. "Let's play the intro game again," Izumi said.

Aki and Sorae gave their introductions, the latter being extra stuttery, only for Moriuchi-san to give the same reply she had given to Chihiro - name, year, a simple nod. She quietly moved on without another word, the only thing moving her along with their conversation being Izumi's input.

Even as they stepped onto the train, the air was uneasy. Chihiro noticed that even the agreeable Aki was acting a bit more hesitant than usual, and Chihiro began to doubt if Moriuchi-san was meant to be here after all.

--

"So, Moriuchi, try it out!"

Moriuchi-san's long hair flowed behind her as she pulled the light blue guitar away from the wall and, watching how Sorae carried her bass, gracefully positioned the guitar strap over her shoulder. Her face was emotionless, peering down at the guitar strings.

Izumi pointed at Moriuchi-san's right hand. "And now, try strumming the strings!"

The six guitar strings vibrated under the touch of her thumb. Although the guitar was not connected to an amplifier, a layered chord of the six notes sounded. Moriuchi-san's eyes widened slightly, the first sign of any kind of feeling from the stone-faced girl.

"Hehe. She looks legit, doesn't she!" Aki, finished with her prepping, went towards Chihiro and Sorae. The three had been watching from afar as they set up their own instruments. Aki's voice dropped to something of a whisper. "But if I have to be honest, I'm kinda worried for her."

Chihiro blinked. "Why's that?"

"Moriuchi-san's hardly said anything to any of us, so I'm worried she might not be fitting in all that well. And also, she might not be in as good of a position as us in terms of our instruments. I mean, we all have our respective instruments at home but what about her? Does she have her own guitar? Or... does her sister? And also--"

"Oh, come on, now you're just sounding like Sorae-chan." Chihiro shrugged indifferently. "She said she'd play the guitar, so would it be our fault that she can't...?"

Sorae gripped her bass a bit tighter. "M-Maybe if we could get help from ECL:PSE..."

"Ah, that's it!" Aki exclaimed, her blue eyes lighting up. She began to approach Izumi and Moriuchi-san, standing near the studio door.

"Hey, guys!" Aki caught the attention of the two. She turned to the new girl and gave a friendly smile, "Moriuchi-san, I just had a quick question."

The girl with green hair - almost olive in the studio light - stared at Aki. "... Hoshime-san. What is it?"

"So your sister's in ECL:PSE, right? Like Izumin's?"

"Indeed. Her name is Fuyuna Moriuchi."

"Mm~, so if Izumin's sister plays the drums, what does Fuyuna-san play?"

And as they'd speculated, this Fuyuna girl did not play guitar like her older sister was planning to. "She plays the keyboard."

"Oh, like me! But, that means you don't have a guitar for yourself, right?"

"Hm." Moriuchi-san only stared down at her studio guitar with a distant expression.

"So anyways, we were thinking - Oh, this is for you too, Izumin - what if we got some help from ECL:PSE? We need permission, yeah, but if they agree, what do you think about letting them help us?"

"Wait, that's genius!" Izumi cracked a sly smile like a cartoonish villain. "If we get ECL:PSE to help us, I can force Kiyomi to teach me drums...!"

With a sorry laugh for Izumi's sister Kiyomi, Aki tilted her head in Sorae's direction. "You can thank Sora-chin for the idea."

"Thanks, Raa-kun~!"

Sorae, standing beside Chihiro, tensed up at the sudden attention. The vocalist rolled her eyes at her panicky personality, then wondered what it would be like to meet the girls of ECL:PSE. Chihiro had only seen them during their performance where she first met Izumi, and watching them perform so wildly onstage, Chihiro could not imagine what the real people would have been like.

Enthusiastically, Izumi was already texting Kiyomi about their plans, though from how the middle-schooler refused to teach Izumi anything about drumming as of yet, Chihiro expected a negative answer.

"I guess they're done with that," Chihiro turned away from the situation. "Can we try playing something now? We only have like, what, 30 minutes this time too?"

"Just Twinkle Twinkle again?" Sorae asked.

"Might as well try. Then Aki-yan can keep lecturing us on that... what was it? Music theory or whatever from last time."

Izumi put her phone down. "Hey, are we playing now?" She and Aki returned to their instuments. And so, Moriuchi-san was left, standing before all of them in unexpressed confusion with a sky-blue guitar in her hands.

"If I may be so bold as to ask, what should I do?" Moriuchi-san asked with a blank face, addressing all four of them.

Aki was the first to answer. "Oh! Eh... Sora-chin, how about you help Moriuchi-san use the amp? She might not be able to play, but you can show her that," Aki suggested, to the terror of Sorae. It was obvious to Chihiro that Aki just wanted to encourage her to talk.

"W-Wha? Um, I mean-- M-Moriuchi-san, y-yeah, I can help!..." Sorae's words began spilling out as she frantically stumbled to another amp, not even beckoning her disciple over.

Moriuchi-san, simply skirting around the nervous girl, stood unmovingly next to the amp. "So... Tell me the procedure." She commanded, strictly and directly.

"Huh? Um--" Sorae bent to take and unfurl the instrument cord, sitting coiled on top of the amp. "Okay, s-so you... take this c-cord..."

Her shaky hands fumbled around the cord, panicking more and more. Chihiro had a feeling it wouldn't end well.

"G-Got it, got it-- And then, you c-connect it here, in this hole..." She stuck one end into a hole on the amp. "P-Put it there, and then... you turn on the amp, with the-- the button to turn it on-- Gh."

'Her finger completely missed it,' Chihiro found herself becoming an unimpressed sports commentator.

"O-Okay, there! Then the other end of t-the cord, you stick it-- U-Uh, you stick this end in the g-guitar, which is... right here--"

As the fearful Sorae was about to plug the cord into the guitar, Moriuchi-san finally spoke. However, it wasn't pleasant. Her grave voice shook the core of every onlooker.

"Sorae Ishizawa-senpai, was that your name?" Moriuchi-san's eyes were deadpan as she spoke. "Your demeanor inclines me to believe you are doing this incorrectly. Stop stumbling and give me a proper instruction, or cease wasting my time."

Although it was a fair observation, Moriuchi-san's cold gaze pierced right into Sorae's, and she started to shake even more.

"S-Sorry-- Just stick the cord here, and then-- A-Aki-chan...!"

Nearly tripping over her own cable, Sorae fled behind Aki in terror. Surprised, Aki faced Sorae. "S-Sorry! I-I didn't think it would be like that..."

Aki looked back at Moriuchi-san, who stood there with no reaction. Chihiro thought she might finally see some sort of anger in Aki's eyes, but they showed no trace of upset, only pity. What Aki pitied, Chihiro didn't know.

Meanwhile, the usually confident Izumi broke from her cheerful front. "Hey, Moriuchi! What was that~?" Izumi pouted, a comical yet artificial peevishness crossing her face.

"I told her to calm down."

"Well, yeah! But can't you tell how nervous Raa-kun was? Don't scare her like that~!"

Chihiro could only stand, frozen in place, unsure of what to do. The middle of the room seemed more alienating than usual.

An uncharacteristic sound popped up, interrupting the tensening atmosphere. "Oh! That's my phone," Izumi approached to the pile of bags with a stiff rhythm, obviously trying to keep up a light-hearted mood.

After a couple moments of fiddling, she lifted her face and swept her gaze across all the other four, wearing an empty smile. "Kiyomi said we're allowed to go to ECL:PSE's next rehearsal! They do them on Saturdays, so that's... Tomorrow. Back here, Live House HorizoN, at 2PM."

It would have been good news had whatever that was not happened.

Trying her best to take control, Aki forced a laugh. "O-Oh, nice! Okay, let's get to playing now, shall we? Ah, Moriuchi-san, I think you can just play around with the guitar for now. Izumin, wanna start a countdown? Okay, one, two..."

HorizoN, huh?

Chihiro could see trouble over there.

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