AMBiTiON/Story/Ch. 13

## String → Sky ← Nugget

 *Everyone's relieved as the miscommunication is resolved. Then, they think of an unexpected issue...?*

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Guess there was nothing to worry about, after all.

Chihiro didn't have a clue what went down that day at Haneoka. Apparently, Sorae had gone there on what was basically a whim and made up with Moriuchi-san - Mai, as they were calling her now - with a pinky promise and a smile or something stupid like that. How should Chihiro have known? She only had Izumi's word to go off of, which is to say, the information was less than credible. But Izumi seemed quite fervent about this - She insisted to Chihiro and Aki about 'the real Mai-chan!', from text messages, to in person with Chihiro on the train where Mai was sitting right beside them, listening in shameful dismay. It sounded quite impossible for that stuck-up girl to be so 'nice and caring', but if she had a change of heart, Chihiro wasn't about to change her back.

"Raa-kun! Hiro-tan, Aki-yan~!" Izumi was standing right at the platform stairs when Chihiro, Aki, and Sorae arrived at the train station. "Get over here, you gotta check this out!"

The three stepped onto the platform to be met with Mai... carrying a guitar case on her back.

"N-No way!" Aki's eyes widened. "Did you actually get your own guitar?"

Mai silently put a hand to her chin and looked away in contemplation. "It is rented."

"So what?! It's a guitar!" Izumi grinned. "I was so surprised when she showed up with it!! But she wouldn't let me see what it looks like..."

Chihiro normally found herself butting heads with the airheaded Izumi, but this time she had to agree. Was the rational Mai really crazy enough to make that investment so suddenly? Sorae must have talked some serious miracles into her head that day. It seemed like a rather bold decision, but Chihiro was perfectly okay with it, if it meant she was another step closer to the stage...

Soon the train arrived, and the girls stepped aboard. Thankfully for everyone, this time the atmosphere was much more lighthearted.

"So like, can you play anything on that guitar yet~?" Lazily sitting on the train seat, Izumi glanced up at Mai. She shook her head no, her dark hair brushing against her arm as she held onto the handle overhead.

Standing beside Mai, Sorae added. "Um, apparently the... bottom? Er, some four strings on a guitar are tuned the same as the four bass strings... S-So, maybe that could be helpful?"

Mai turned to the bassist and smiled. "That would be appreciated."

"Hey, how many strings does a guitar have, again?"

"There are six."

Aki chimed in. "Makes sense - You gotta play chords somehow. Well, not that you can't play chords on a bass, but it's on a lower register, so it ends up sounding pretty muddy."

"Honestly, isn't it kinda hard to hear the bass sometimes, in some songs?" commented Chihiro.

"But when it's gone, it's super noticeable." Izumi turned her gaze to Sorae with a teasing grin. "I guess some people are like that!"

Everyone simultaneously looked at Sorae, and the girl suddenly became flustered. "W-Wha? No, i-it doesn't apply to people like that..."

"Would it be bad if it did?" Mai replied with a completely neutral face.

"Yes-- I-I mean, no... I don't know~!"

Instantly upon entering the studio, Izumi urged Mai to reveal her new guitar with a "Dude, come on! Show us it~!".

"Curb your vigor and be patient." The girl with moss-green hair placed her guitar case on the floor with extreme care. With a reluctant grumble, Izumi complied.

The zippers of Sorae, Aki, and Mai's respective gig bags sounded in unison. In suspense, Chihiro intently eyed Mai's guitar.

It was an emerald hue, she could tell even from a hidden glimpse. As Mai heaved it out and propped it on her thighs, the guitar glistened in the studio light.

That was when Izumi snapped out of her excessively concentrated air-drumming session. In an instant, she jumped up to Mai, who knelt beside her guitar case, and began yapping uncontrollably.

"Oh, holy crap! That's so cool, oh my god, oh my god!!" Izumi bent down and plucked one of the strings, making a noise. Eyes sparkling in wonder, she squealed. "Kehe!! This guitar's awesome~!"

Mai put the guitar strap around her body slowly and stood up, looking even more like a proper guitarist. "It is a used guitar. It would have been much too costly otherwise." She twirled her hair around her finger, looking ever so slightly bashful.

"But still, it's cool!" Aki smiled as she analyzed the guitar.

"I-It matches your hair," happily noted Sorae.

A hopeful feeling appeared as a tingle in Chihiro's chest when she fully accounted for the realization. Now with Mai as their official guitarist, could this finally be Chihiro's debut as the ultimate star vocalist...? N-No, nevermind that. "Hey, Sorae-chan, think you can help Mai-san set up now?" She asked carefully.

There was a determined glint in Sorae's amber eyes. "Okay." With her bass, she shuffled to the amps in the corner while Mai trailed behind her. Both of them seemed much more relaxed than before, to everyone's relief.

The five chatted idly while setting up. Sorae taught Mai the basic melody, and when everyone seemed to be ready…

"Alright! Let's get started. Izumin, wanna start?" Aki announced.

Their usual practice song of Twinkle Twinkle suddenly sounded more cheerful than normal. Perhaps it was the faster tempo, or the lighter atmosphere, or Izumi's overly rapid drumming, like calm down, how many vitamin gummies did she take? But even with Mai trying out her guitar and tripping up, carrying only the info from Sorae's less-than-brief explanation, it felt more... alive.

"Damn it. You heard her teach you, now do it." Chihiro heard Mai faintly cursing under her breath.

Aki glanced over at Sorae, either unaware of or completely brushing over Mai's 'criticism'. "Hey, Sora-chin!" She called. "Did you make the bassline different?"

She nodded. "Um, I saw bass music sheets for... some anime songs, a-and they were all stable and not moving like that. And then I saw that I've been playing, like, guitar-y parts, so then I tried playing it a different way."

"Now that I think about it, we really need to learn actual songs," Chihiro pointed out with a roll of her eyes. "This is seriously lame."

Izumi sucked in a loud, dramatic gasp. "Are we gonna write our own song?!?!"

At that impulsive query, Chihiro's mind went haywire. Finally, they got to the stage of songwriting! Did that mean Chihiro would finally get the chance to go onstage and p-perform? What kind of song would they write? What would it be about? How did one write a song, anyways?!

Then Chihiro forcibly kicked her excited imagination back into unimagination. "N-No way! Are you crazy?! We're literally beginners!" She refused with a frantic shake of her head - The moments where she let her excitement take the wheel were seriously the worst.

"T-Then, how about covering an anime opening?" Sorae stepped closer to everyone, a sparkle in her gaze. Uh oh, not this again...

Mai looked up from her guitar. "Well, what is the song in question?"

"C-Chihiro-chan, you'd know it... It's the MagiGal opening!"

But before she even got to press play on the phone she pulled out, Chihiro interrupted immediately. "Wait~! Wait wait wait wait wait wait. That's like, super fast, isn't it? No way that isn't too hard for your level," she gave the sentence a twinge of haughtiness.

A blank expression of momentary confusion appeared, followed by Sorae blinking. "U-Um, then how about... the ending?" She tapped somewhere else on the screen, and the next thing Chihiro knew, the ending song of Majika MagiGal played among the circle of the five girls.

She cringed at the awkwardness of loudly playing an anime song in public, half expecting Sorae to pull out a cosplay from sparkly-eyes-hell, but Aki seemed pleased. "That could work!" Her crystal blue gaze swept across them. "It's relatively slow and simple, so I'm sure we could do it with enough practice!"

A smile showed on Sorae's face, then accompanied by excited determination as she single-mindedly stared back at the phone in her hands. "I-I'll see if there's band scores online!"

"... I-N-G... Found it! The title's 'ganbare! magic'." Izumi grinned, looking at her own phone. "Kehehe~, that's gonna be so cool. Just imagine! 'MagiGal ED, ganbare! magic, covered by...' uh, covered by..." Then she trailed off, uncharacteristic of her normally confident self.

"So like, what's our band name~?"

Silence. A lot of it, actually.

Mai was the first to respond. "Good question. Requires further consideration."

They stood there aimlessly, quietly corralling what little brain cells they had together. Sorae piped up in a shaky voice, "... I found band scores..."

The remainder of their abnormal rehearsal session was spent individually looking over the new music scores from that ending song. It was boring, but Chihiro would take this over the disaster that was last Friday any day. Plus, it gave Sorae a chance to help Mai a bit more, and God knew she needed to catch up.

Although Chihiro was sure that, like herself, everyone's minds were occupied with the consideration of their band name. How could they have missed that this whole time? A band name... Since Chihiro was supposed to be the focal point, how should a band name be centered on her? Something cutesy? Something charming? What other possibilities were there...?

By now, Chihiro and Izumi had sent off Aki, Sorae, and Mai to the train station, and had left HorizoN for perhaps a minute or so when:

"Hmm. Chickin Nuggy."

"What?" Chihiro looked at Izumi, who blurted nonsense out of the blue.

"*What*, 'What'? I'm thinkin' 'bout band names."

"You're stupid. We're *not* naming our band Chickin Nuggy."

"You don't understand, Hiro-tan." She stared deep into Chihiro's eyes, maybe even her soul, speaking words so profound it would seem she was a messenger of a deity this whole time. "I don't want Chickin Nuggy. I *need* Chicken Nuggy." Then she began to shake with laughter at her own quip. "Ehehe, Chickin Nuggy... Comedic genius."

"Oh, shut it, idiot." Chihiro shook her head. Things suddenly became so laid-back now, it felt like the past week had been skipped as if it were a board game turn. She had to wonder why she even worried so much, in the long run.

Actually... Why *did* she?

Like a dart tipped with turmoil, the question shot Chihiro with unexpected confusion. On one hand, as their unnamed band's leader, of course she'd have to care - Who else would clean up their mess? But on the other hand, it wasn't her problem to begin with! It was never her fault that it happened... Not to mention, why should any of it matter to Chihiro when she was going to leave these troublemaking fools behind, some day or another? Maybe it could make for a compelling backstory of trials and tribulations. Yes, that should work...

"Hello? Earth to Hiro-tan~?"

Izumi waved a hand in front of Chihiro's distant eyes, and she returned to reality. "H-Huh? Yeah, I'm here."

There was no point in caring - People only ever played nice as an act. It was only too bad for them that Chihiro could do the same. Who in their right minds would want to work with her, anyway? Some time, she would rip the bandage off, cleanly and with haste, and no one would be hurt.

... Or so Chihiro thought, yet a faint voice rang in the cavity of her mind, 'Don't leave them behind.' And it echoed, again and again and again.

'Why,' she pled bitterly, understanding the word's futility. Why did everything involved with her have to feel so wrong? It seemed Chihiro had a different problem in her own, uncertain hands.

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## Trivia

* Upon reading this story, the song ganbare! magic is unlocked.