AMBiTiON/Story/Ch. 10

## Chapter 10 - Coin Flip

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Her mind was still hung on yesterday's little quarrel when Chihiro walked down the street to meet Izumi and her sister Kiyomi, at the street corner where they would normally separate instead.

After "talking to the sky" on her balcony the other day, Chihiro believed it would all go perfectly well. Wow, THAT was stupid. She should have already known that it wasn't going to help. Chihiro supposed it was only a matter of time before someone like herself started attracting bad luck and eventually, everything would go downhill.

Then again, why did she even care? The situation wasn't her own.

"Ah, Izumin!" Chihiro called, spotting Izumi waiting at the street corner with a stranger beside her.

"Greetings, fellow traveller." Izumi said. Chihiro wondered if Izumi had recovered from the small feud. If she hadn't, Izumi didn't show it. "Here's Kiyomi. Say hi, Kiyomi~." She moved aside for her younger sister.

Kiyomi, like her sister, was quite short, but surprisingly just a bit taller than Izumi who was two years older than her. She had short spiky hair that was dark blue, and an oversized gray hoodie with pink and blue sleeves. "I'm not a damn kindergartener! Whatever, I'm Kiyomi," she waved lazily.

"Uh, hi, Kiyomi." She decided not to say her name just yet to save herself the trouble.

The three continued walking to Live House HorizoN. Chihiro and Izumi made conversation as usual, but it was evident that both of them were avoiding talking about yesterday.

They got to HorizoN when another familiar group of people approached them. "Fuyu-yun!" Kiyomi called.

It was Aki and Sorae, the latter sticking near the former, and in front of them were Moriuchi-san and her younger sister Fuyuna. She was an innocent-looking girl with long jade-green hair in low twintails, a green shirt, and a keyboard case on her back. The middle-schooler held the hand of her older sister, and shockingly Moriuchi-san perfectly tolerated it. 'They must've met up at the train station,' Chihiro guessed.

"Sis, please be nice, okay…? Please?" Fuyuna begged Moriuchi-san. "Kiyomi-chan! Izumi-senpai! And…" She trailed off, making eye contact with Chihiro.

"... Chihiro's my name."

Aki and Sorae also introduced their names for Kiyomi. This time, Chihiro noticed a tremor in Sorae's voice that wasn't present, not even when she first met Moriuchi-san yesterday.

"Can we go inside already? I want air-con." Kiyomi groaned.

"Ah, a weakling…!" Izumi declared as everyone headed inside with slight hesitation.

The group of seven walked into HorizoN, Chihiro spotting two girls sitting at a table in the lobby area, both with guitar cases. "Aika-chan, Etsuki-chan!" Kiyomi and Fuyuna separated themselves from the girls of Chihiro's band and went over to greet their own bandmates.

One of them, who Chihiro recalled as the sweet but aggressive vocalist, smiled at the new people. "So you're Izumi-senpai's friends!" She said. "Well, I'm Aika Nakano, ECL:PSE's vocalist and bassist - Both at once, for your info."

'I would use 'friends' lightly.' Chihiro thought as she scanned the shoulder-length blonde girl, with sideswept bangs and a braid on top. Aika looked to be the stylish, popular type, what with her simple but mature outfit of a yellow shirt and a pleated brown skirt. Really, it just seemed like she was trying too hard to please somebody.

The tomboyish girl beside Aika spoke. "I'm Etsuki Oshiro. ECL:PSE's guitarist." She glanced at everyone, her reddish-brown hair in a high ponytail swaying behind her. Etsuki had on ripped jeans and a black t-shirt with what was likely ECL:PSE's logo on it - talk about self promo. To Chihiro, the guitarist gave off delinquent vibes.

Everyone made their introductions. Chihiro had to say her full name this time, as if just "Chihiro" wasn't bad enough. She always hated hearing her own name, full version or not. She didn't want to make a bad impression on the strangers though - at least they were all a year younger than her.

After Etsuki got the key to a studio room, ECL:PSE confidently walked towards their room, the five girls behind them trailing after. Sorae was dragging herself even more than usual, stuck next to Aki, whilst Moriuchi-san was completely unaffected. Chihiro wondered if they were going to be fine.

the nine girls entered the studio, a pang of worry struck Chihiro. Even though it wasn't the same room as yesterday - comparably bigger than usual, actually - it didn't feel right to be in a place that carried such a tense feeling. 'Although…' Chihiro glanced at everyone from her own band, 'none of us are wearing our uniforms anymore. Maybe I can trick my brain into, like, not worrying so much… or something.... ugh, what am I thinking?'

"Let's see… since we've got Izumi-senpai's band with us today, and they asked us for help…" Aika turned to her bandmates. "I feel like we should do something special?"

Kiyomi's hand shot up enthusiastically. "Have a show!!" She eyed her older sister proudly.

Izumi eyed her back with irritated amusement, muttering so that only Chihiro could possibly hear, "Tch, show off."

On the other hand, Aika seemed delighted. "'Kay, sure! Then I guess we can play like usual… except we won't excuse mistakes now~."

"… And since when do we let those slide?"

"You get the point, Etsuki."

Aika put her hands on her hips and Chihiro's worries washed away for a second as she had a terrible, no good flashback to when she first saw ECL:PSE's live show that one time and met Izumi right after. Just thinking about it made her go deaf.

The underclassmen set up their instruments as quick as lightning, and while Chihiro was no weather expert, she could imagine that was a premonition of the storm over the oh-so-dark horizon…

The five older girls watched, standing by the wall - Izumi plopped herself on the bench but the point still sits - and soon ECL:PSE had a great dark storm cloud looming above them, then--

Clack, clack, clack, clack, Kiyomi's drumsticks counted.

Suddenly the band burst into a wild tempest of noises, led by Etsuki's guitar. Chihiro smiled exasperatedly and leaned over to see their unawareness, their poor eardrums about to be decimated, except for Izumi who knew the drill already. The sounds would surely be louder than a mere drill, though.

Aika's face was dim as her voice started up, a bit whisper-y but quickly evolving into something so filled with energy and emotion that Chihiro imagined she was singing it herself. Once again, Aika had done a 180°. It wasn't as scary as Chihiro predicted it would be, but perhaps she was, at that point, desensitized by the handful of weird concert videos she'd watched online...

ECL:PSE had progressed to the pre-chorus by now when Chihiro noticed something unfamiliar.

The echoing voice of Aika reverberated, and although an invisible spotlight beamed on her, although the band's rhythms and melodies propped her up on the main stage… The blonde shot a glance at Etsuki.

They shared a brief, understanding look, and as Aika went on with her bassline and vicious vocals, Etsuki, cool as ever, turned to face Fuyuna. Even Kiyomi shared her meaningful cyan gaze with them, though being the drummer, she sat in the back in a blind spot. 'Why make the effort to connect with Kiyomi there?' Chihiro couldn't think up an answer. 'Why bother?'

The brown-haired girl thought she could see a colourless thread hanging between the girls of ECL:PSE. It was her imagination, right?

What WAS that?

Before she realized, the middle-schoolers' performance was already over. Aki made one step forward, Sorae sticking right by her. "That was so good!"

"Yeah yeah~!!" Izumi agreed, jumping up from her spot between Moriuchi-san and Chihiro. She then turned a glare onto Kiyomi, "Except for her," She smirked.

The younger sister retorted, "Oh, okay." Kiyomi returned the glare, "If I'm so bad, you wouldn't want me to teach you how to play then, would you?"

"I have sister privileges, you're obligated to!!"

"Do you have the privilege to shut up?" Walking up to the second-year, Kiyomi gave Izumi a good whack on the head. Chihiro expected them to start a fight, but judging by Aika and Fuyuna's relaxed expressions and the light atmosphere, apparently not. She wondered why this argument wasn't as tense as, well, THAT™ from yesterday.

"Kiyomi-chan, don't bully Izumi-senpai~..." Fuyuna shyly spoke, making to intervene but not very concerned about it either.

"C'mon, Fuyu-yun! Remember your training! We have to speak up for ourse--"

Her long red ponytail swaying gently after her, Etsuki nonchalantly hit Kiyomi on the head as some sort of compensation, the other hand in her jeans' pocket.

"We're not here for a contest to see who can have the most petty argument," Etsuki coolly looked over to Aika, "Are we going to be teaching these people stuff or what?" The guitarist pointed a thumb towards the five older girls.

"Oh, yeah!" The sweet blonde girl smiled as if to act all cute. "Hey, what instruments do you guys play?"

Quickly, Aki told her about their band roles, but there wasn't really much to say to begin with. Especially not when they were hardly a band, not in sound, not even in communication. Aika nodded and soon the nine girls were seperated into tiny groups, being taught - or rather, TRYING to be taught - how to play the instruments. Chihiro noticed Fuyuna squeezing her older, more stoic sister's hand, as if to tell her something.

"You're seriously too lax on them, Aika." Letting out an exasperated sigh, Etsuki shook her head and murmured, "Doesn't matter if you say you wanna be less responsible or whatever."

"Wonder how many times I'll hear that from you, Captain Etsu," She responded with a joking tone, "acting cool and all that."

As the vocalist and vocalist exclusively, Chihiro didn't exactly have anything too brand new to learn - for now - so she decided to take the chance and look around at what everyone else was doing. Aika was occupied with helping the nervous Sorae play bass guitar, anyways.

Izumi and Kiyomi were just messing around with each other, with either one of them trying to get back on track but the sisters repeatedly getting distracted. 'They're probably more alike than they want to think,' quietly commented Chihiro.

Since Aki already had a good knowledge of piano - way too good, in fact - it seemed Fuyuna just let her go off by herself while the young girl paid close attention to how her sister was doing instead.

Meanwhile, the mature Etsuki fared with Moriuchi-san better than Chihiro would have expected. "Put your left index finger here, on this line. That line's called the first fret." Chihiro overheard Etsuki calmly explaining. Whenever Moriuchi-san seemed to mess up, Chihiro thought she could hear the green-haired girl muttering what were either harsh criticisms or just plain insults to herself.

"Nosing around?"

"Wah--! Oh, it's just you, Aki-yan…" Chihiro sighed.

The keyboardist smiled. "Hehe. I'm lookin' too." She glanced at everyone else in the room. "Wasn't their show cool?"

"Well, more like their warm up, but yeah." Chihiro would have expected the others to be at least somewhat taken aback by the sheer noise, but she figured some miracle girl like Aki could handle anything.

The keyboardist had something to say. She sensed it.

Aki continued. "Oh, hey, remember when we had lunch together for the first time? I mentioned going to see a live show together but we never got the chance."

No, that wasn't what Aki wanted to bring up… "Was there even a point to going in person? Could've just watched a video on the internet."

"There is a point!" Aki insisted enthusiastically. "Apparently it's no good if you watch a recording, rather than in real life! Plus," she smiled with a finger to her chin, "I wanted to try hang out with you."

Chihiro was a bit taken aback by that reason, almost reddening up - what a bad reason. "Welp, now we have free admission," shrugged Chihiro in joking apathy.

"More like a family and friends discount, 100% off! 'Cause Izumin and Kiyomi-san are sisters."

"So are Fuyuna-san and Moriuchi-san." The vocalist mentioned. "... Kinda weird coincidence that she and Izumin are related by sibling friendship like that."

"That was on purpose, wasn't it?" Aki recalled. "Izumin mentioned it on the chat, I think. Moriuchi-san knew Izumin was with us, and then she decided to join because Kiyomi-san and Fuyuna-san are both in ECL:PSE."

Now it was getting warmer. Chihiro eyed Moriuchi-san, strumming the guitar with a red pick. "Then again, hardly feels like she's with us. She's only talked to me once, and that was when she told me her name..."

"Yeah… So how do you feel?"

There it was. But without context, Chihiro was still confused. "About…?"

"About what happened yesterday."

"I thought no one was gonna mention it - wasn't even that big a deal."

"True." Aki suddenly had a wistful look on her face. "Well, even if it's not, it doesn't feel right to avoid it. Like something bigger might happen if we do. Anyways, I guess I can't shut up just because I feel so guilty over it happening."

Chihiro was even more confused, perhaps even shocked. She had never heard the cheery Aki talk so negatively before. "I-It's not like you knew it would happen."

"Right. Even with that aside…" Aki's gaze drifted onto Moriuchi-san, attempting to play Etsuki's jet black guitar. "I don't know, I'm worried for Moriuchi-san - About what she's doing here. I get a sense that she's supposed to be with us, but she-- we're going about it wrong." The keyboardist murmured. "And I'm worried about Sora-chin. She was scared to begin with, so you know, not helpful! Izumin's avoiding it at all costs. And you, Hiro-tan… I think you're trying to pick a side."

"O-Oh… huh." Chihiro simply said in reply. In her mind, she tried to comprehend that. 'Am I? Isn't it obvious whose side I'm supposed to be on? … What kind of decision do I have in this mess that would be hard to make?' Her life had always been so bland that even the choices she could make were black and white. In what universe would she for once be stuck between two choices that actually concerned her wellbeing?

Aki forced a smile to show on her face, turning back to Chihiro, "Welp, whatever happens, I guess I'll have to do my best to fix the problem!"

Feeling weirdly comforted and puzzled all at once, Chihiro forced a smile back. "Mhm."

She glanced back at Aika, recalling how confident the blonde was, instructing the rest of ECL:PSE. And recalling that strange presence of an invisible thread.

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## Trivia

* Two special artworks of the members of ECL:PSE are displayed in this story.