AMBiTiON/Story/Ch. 9

## The Forecast Said Rain

 *The band is back to rehearsal, but Mai seems a little standoffish. Chihiro starts to worry.*

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"What if we get there before them? What if they miss the train? What if--"

"Haven't you said that before?" 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 déjà vu moment if not for that crucial detail. "Like I said, 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 stone-faced 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 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 a little worried about her."

Chihiro blinked. "For what?"

"Moriuchi-san's hardly said anything, so I'm worried she might not be fitting in all that well. It's okay if she's not one for talking, but I'd hate it if she's feeling uncomfortable." Aki crossed her arms with a dubious tilt of the head. "Also, don't you think she might not be in a good position in terms of her instrument? 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. "... Hoshinomiya-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!" Slyly, Izumi cracked a 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, 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 panic, 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 drummer refused to teach her anything yet, Chihiro expected a negative answer.

"I guess they're done with that," Chihiro turned away. "Can we play something now? We have like, what, 50-or-whatever minutes this time?"

"Just Twinkle Twinkle again?" Sorae asked.

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

Izumi put her phone down. "Hey, are we playing now?" She and Aki returned to their instruments. And so, Moriuchi-san remained, standing before them with a sky-blue guitar in hand.

"If I may be so bold as to ask... What shall I do?" Blankly, Moriuchi-san addressed the four.

Aki was the first to answer. "Oh! Hm... Sora-chin!" A lightbulb popped from her head. "How about you help Moriuchi-san use the amp? She might not be able to play, but you can show her that," she suggested with a smile towards Sorae, but the recipient returned a face more frowny than smiley. It was obvious to Chihiro that Aki simply wanted to encourage her to talk.

"W-Wha? Um, I mean-- Moriuchi-san, y-yeah, I can help!..." Wide-eyed, Sorae now had slippery words begin 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 her. "Tell me the procedure," she commanded, strictly and directly.

"U-Uh, yes! Um--" Sorae bent to take and unfurl the instrument cord, sitting coiled on top of the amp. "Okay, M-Moriuchi-san, so you... take this cord..."

Her shaky hands fumbled around the cord, panicking more and more. Chihiro was starting to get a bad feeling.

"G-Got it, got it-- And then, you c-connect it here..." 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,' Chihiro found herself becoming an unimpressed sports commentator.

"O-Okay, there! Then, the other end, 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. Please 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, the first-year turned to face Sorae. "Ah, sorry! I-I didn't think she'd..."

Aki trailed off and looked at Moriuchi-san, who looked back with no reaction. Chihiro thought she might finally see some sort of frustration in Aki's eyes, but they showed no trace of upset, merely 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, unsure of what to do. The middle of the room suddenly seemed more alienating than usual.

An uncharacteristic sound popped up, cutting through the atmosphere. "Ah! That's my phone," Izumi approached the pile of bags with a stiff rhythm, her gait with light-hearted weight.

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 'em on Saturdays, so that's... tomorrow! Back here, Live House HorizoN, 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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