AMBiTiON/Story/Ch. 6

## Chapter 6 - Rendevous

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Another week passed since the addition of Izumi and Ishizawa. Although Chihiro still wasn't sure about letting the latter join, after being shown Ishizawa's sketches in her just-as-messy notebook, Chihiro felt a little more relaxed about the fact that the girl might actually be of any use. In terms of her interactions with the new recruit, however, that had yet to improve. So far, Chihiro had just begrudgingly tolerated her scaredy-cat upperclassman, all thanks to Aki's contrastingly friendly presence.

"Hoshime-san? Satou-san?" As it was for the past week, Ishizawa came to class 1-C to meet Chihiro and Aki for lunch break.

"Ishizawa-senpai, hey!" Aki greeted, while Chihiro stayed quiet.

"O-Oh, actually, I wanted to say…" Ishizawa began. At the sound of something important, Chihiro started paying attention. Was she leaving? Chihiro kind of hoped she was leaving.

"Um, you guys can call me by my first name."

'Just that? How boring,' thought Chihiro, disappointed. Aki, on the other hand, seemed overjoyed. "Ah, okay then, Sorae-chan!"

Sorae smiled. "T-Thanks, Hoshime-san."

"That's Aki to you!" Aki smiled back, before turning to Chihiro. "Are you gonna let her use your first name too, Chihiro-chan?" asked Aki, purposefully not using her nickname.

"U-Uh, sure... Sorae." Chihiro responded, looking at the girl with unkempt hair.

Sorae sighed, relieved. 'Did it seriously take that much effort?' Chihiro asked in her head. 'I knew this girl was a shut-in loner, but dang.'

Sitting in their usual spot, under a tree in the courtyard, Aki mumbled under her breath. "What was I gonna say… right!" She glanced at Chihiro, then Sorae, "Guys! Y'know how I've always been busy after school?"

"Yeah?" Chihiro leaned over to glance at Sorae's reaction. The girl didn't seem to be as sure of what was happening, triumphantly noted Chihiro.

"Well, guess what! Ah'm free on Friday after school, so let's go do somethin'!"

That's… an accent?

Well, it didn't matter. Chihiro perked at the news. Other than meeting with Izumi, she didn't do much after school. It was about time Aki finally got to hang out with her.

"Oh, then I should tell Izumi," commented Chihiro.

"Right, we haven't met Takimoto-senpai yet!" Aki realized aloud, "I wanna meet her."

"She wants to meet you too," responded Chihiro, "she's been going all 'Neat! Cool! Super!' every time I mention you."

Aki chuckled. "Takimoto-senpai sounds fun. Then it's settled!" She declared. "Let's do summin' on Friday!"

Sorae spoke for the first time in a bit, "... What do we do?"

"I think... we should meet up somewhere we can play our instruments." Chihiro suggested. "We're here to be a band, but we can't even play anything." Although that was part of the truth, in reality Chihiro just wanted to see how skilled everyone was in their respective instruments, so she could gauge how quickly her band could start getting some progress. 'Thank god I chose to do vocals,' she commented silently, relieved, 'so I'm not part of their mess.'

"That's definitely a good idea, but where'd that be? Are rehearsal places a thing…? Those four don't talk about it much..." Aki murmured, in thought. Then she smiled, a bit embarrassed, "Looks like we hit a dead end."

"... U-Uhm, Chihiro-san," Sorae said, finally addressing Chihiro directly, "isn't Takimoto-san's sister in a band? Would Takimoto-san know anything?"

Caught off-guard by Sorae talking to her, Chihiro stammered, "I-I could ask her, once I see her after school."

Aki winked at Sorae, "Nice call!"

Once the decision was made, the three's conversation became boring as usual. Chihiro couldn't place her finger on it, but she felt weirdly excited about Sorae talking to her. Despite the pink-haired girl not being very talkative or interesting, of course. Probably just triumph over getting the newcomer's approval or something. 'Anyways,' Chihiro thought, 'I wonder how Izumi will react to the news.'

"What!! Seriously, I finally get to meet them!?"

"Shut up a little, will you? We're on a train!"

"Hey, you're the one that told me to be myself," Izumi pouted.

"Izumi-chan, TPO." Chihiro pointed out before thinking, 'Not to mention that was a white lie.'

Izumi grinned, charged with eagerness. "Oh my god, I can't wait to meet them~!!" Her energy then fizzed away momentarily as she asked, "Where are we going, anyways?"

"That's what I wanted to ask." Chihiro recalled what Sorae asked her to do. "We wanted to go somewhere we could play our instruments, but we don't know a place like that."

Staring at Chihiro, Izumi casually cocked her head to one side. "What, you didn't know Live House HorizoN had rehearsal studios?"

"Uh, what?"

Leading the way, Chihiro couldn't help but be contaminated by Izumi's excitement. The girl talked about Friday as if it were the last day of school.

Sorae was more paranoid than the others. "What if we get there before her? What if she misses the train? What if--"

"Haneoka is closer to the station than Hanasakigawa, so she's always there before me. And judging from how excited she was, she wouldn't let anything make her late." Chihiro reassured. Seeing how anxious Sorae was constantly, Chihiro imagined her stomach must be chewed into rags by all the butterflies that lived there.

The three stepped onto the train station platform, and Chihiro immediately found Izumi standing where she usually did, watching the stairs to the platform intently. Upon spotting Chihiro and the two new people behind her, Izumi jumped up in front of them like a small dog, the skirt of her Haneoka uniform swishing after her.

"Chihiro-chan! Oh my god, are those your friends!?"

"Izumi-chan, calm down, you're gonna scare them off." Chihiro exasperatedly said, "Guys, maybe an intro?"

Aki stepped up first, "I'm Aki Hoshime. Nice meeting you!" She gave a friendly smile, then stepped aside. "Your turn, Sorae-chan."

Sorae, previously cowering behind Aki, jumped. "U-Um! I'm Sorae Ishizawa! It's nice to meet you, Takimoto-san! Wait, senpai? Wait--"

Staring at Sorae, Izumi laughed. "What's with that, Sorae-chan? Just call me Izumi!"

"C-Chan…?" Sorae echoed, red-faced.

Aki seemed unfazed by Izumi's energy. "Hehe~, got it, Izumi-chan!"

"Ah." Chihiro watched as the train arrived. "Izumi-chan, Aki-yan, Sorae, train's here."

As the train screeched to a stop, Izumi stared at Chihiro, then Aki. "Aki-chan, did she just call you Aki-yan?" She asked.

"Oh, yeah. I guess it's a nickname. And I call her Hiro-tan!"

A humorously betrayed expression crossed Izumi's face, "No fair, Hiro-tan, Aki-yan! I want a nickname! No, I NEED one!!"

"M-Me too…?" Sorae admitted shyly.

"Hey, you first, Sorae-chan! You have a nickname already or something?" Izumi turned to Sorae as the four boarded the train.

"Wha? Um, I mean, when I was little I was c-called Raa-kun… but--"

"Okay, Raa-kun!"

"Are you actually gonna call me that…"

Completely ignoring Sorae, Izumi demanded. "Raa-kun agrees with me! Now I want a nickname too!"

Aki stared at the short second-year with a contemplative look, "Hm… I'll call you Izumin! And maybe I should call Sorae... Uh, Sora… Sora-chin!" She decided.

"Hmm~, very subtle, very sophisticated. My legal name is now Izumin!"

"S-S-S-Sora-chin…??" Sorae blushed once again.

Watching the ordeal go down, as well as feeling the train begin to move, Chihiro thought to change the subject. "Uh, hey, this is fun and all, but maybe we should talk about that rehearsal studio and stuff?"

"Oh right. So Hiro-tan would probably use a mic, Izumin plays drums, and Sora-chin plays the bass guitar. How do we get the instruments?" Aki inquired, looking at Izumi.

The short girl winked at Aki and smiled. "Leave it to Izumin!" She announced cryptically.

The brief train ride to their station was filled mostly with the excited Izumi yapping like a small chihuahua, and confused questions about the activities of a band from everyone except for her. When there was downtime in their conversation, Izumi repeatedly whispered, "I'm in a band. Band. A band! Band stuff. Music. Band!" Kind of unfunny, but Chihiro had to admit it was much less boring being with the three other girls.

Chihiro noticed a dark-green-haired girl in Haneoka's uniform watching Izumi. She chose to not point it out.

"So… what now?"

The four aimlessly stood around in one of the studio rooms of Live House HorizoN, wondering what to do.

It was a relatively small room, with walls of sunset-orange and pale, glossy wooden floors. There were some music equipment already available - a drum kit, a mic, and some amplifiers. Other than a bench with cushions near the door, there wasn't much else in the place.

"Don't worry your little heads off! I got this." Izumi walked up to a telephone attached to the wall. "Take your bags off, for we shall commence... the Waiting Game."

The three did as she told.

Confidently, Izumi blabbed something about music equipment into the phone, then with a 'k-chk', she placed the phone back where it was. "Now we wait!"

"Wait, how'd you know what to say?" Chihiro stared at Izumi.

"I used to tag along with my sister to ECL:PSE's band practices and I watched what they did."

"So did you actually know what they said?"

"Nope." Izumi replied, a proud look on her face. "Don't look at me like that, it's fine~!"

The short girl went to place her bag on the bench, where they made a pile of bags, when something seemingly caught her vision.

"Raa-kun?" Izumi called.

"E-Eh?"

"... Is that a keychain of Akari Ryutsuki from Majika MagiGal?"

Chihiro and Aki watched as, at the speed of light, the previously soft-spoken Sorae whipped around to run up to and directly face Izumi with the most aggressive interest in her bright amber eyes, like a car's headlights in the night as it's about to run some poor deer over.

"You watch MagiGal?! Since when? Which part? Which episode? Did you read the manga? Do you play the game?! Add me on the game!!"

Izumi seemed unbothered by the suddenly talkative Sorae. "Oh, I only watched one episode."

"Aw." Disappointed, Sorae backed off...

Before getting fired up again. "Izumin!! What other anime do you watch?!"

"Wildrider KoKo and Seven-C!"

"Holy crap, you watch KoKo too? Which part?! I'm on part nine!"

'Who would've imagined the shut-in was an anime fan,' sarcastically thought Chihiro, but Aki seemed delighted. She clapped her hands together. "Looks like we found Sora-chin's talkative side, huh?"

"D-Does no one think it's weird that Sorae started screaming like this…?" An exasperated comment escaped under Chihiro's breath.

They watched Sorae and Izumi talk about anime for a solid two or three minutes. Sorae enthusiastically yelled about her favourite shows, "The manga was so good, right?! But the anime adaptation was absolutely on point! Especially in part five when the--"

The door was suddenly opened by two employees, one of them wore a guitar case on her back and carried another, while the other had a keyboard. Sorae froze and slowly turned to the women, whilst Izumi looked over unfazed.

Realizing they interrupted an odd conversation, one of the employees smiled and leaned all the equipment against the wall by that entrance at the speed of light. "Here's your equipment. I'll leave you to it!" The door then shut as if nothing happened.

The room was silent for a second before Sorae started to emit a weird whining, which could only be described by Chihiro as a bad microwave impression. The second-year dropped to the ground, curled into a ball, whispering, "Ah… Never again…"

"Huh, thought the employees weren't supposed to leave. Whatever, stuff's here!" Izumi skipped around the dejected Sorae and hastily checked out the delivery. Chihiro and Aki came near.

Zipping the cases open, there was a keyboard, a black bass guitar, and an electric blue guitar. Sorae hesitantly got up and heaved up the bass, while Aki lifted the keyboard with ease and began to set it up. Chihiro and Izumi stared at the guitar, left behind like an ugly child at the orphanage.

"Why's there a guitar?"

"...Ohh~. Oops." Izumi took the guitar and set it on the bench. "I told 'em to bring one."

"... Why?"

"'Cause that's what ECL:PSE always told them, before they got their own instruments. I'd come along sometimes and I heard them enough times to copy what they said!" Izumi smiled proudly. "But now that I think about it, maybe we do need a guitarist?"

Chihiro stared at the guitar. "Huh. So, can we try playing something now?"

"Sure~." The short girl ran to the drums and, picking up the drumsticks left on top of it, hit the hi-hats violently. "I can't play anything since my sister refuses to teach me, so what about you guys?"

Sorae spoke, "Um, I learned this from the internet." She began to slowly play the song Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, strumming the bass strings hesitantly. Hearing the music, Aki joined in with her keyboard on the piano setting, improvising by scattering little intricate details among the notes. Nearing the song's ending, Izumi tapped her foot on the bass drum pedal to the beat. Rather unimpressed, Chihiro thought, 'Just Twinkle Twinkle Little Star? That's pretty basic.'

As the three finished the song, Izumi looked accusingly at Chihiro, "Hiro-tan! Why didn't you join in too?"

"W-Was I supposed to?" Chihiro was simply standing by the bench awkwardly. "At least let me try and turn on the mic first." She walked up to the microphone, which was wireless, and turned it on. Meanwhile Sorae, realizing she had forgotten to set her own bass up, apprehensively went to the bass amp. Chihiro wondered how they were going to be a band if they were already so unsure about just setting up the equipment.

After testing her instrument's sound, Sorae looked up at Chihiro. "Should we try Twinkle Twinkle Little Star again…?" Chihiro nodded.

"I can start the song!" Volunteered Izumi. "On three, we start."

Nervously Chihiro glanced around. Her heart pounded with every thought of singing in front of her bandmates. She could only imagine the consequences of messing up…

"Ya ready? One, two…"

"Twinkle twinkle little star, how I wonder what you are. Up above the world so high, like a diamond in the sky..."

Chihiro's voice was shaky with anxiety, but she held on. It was embarrassing hearing her own voice echo so loudly. Whilst the piano notes from Aki laced her voice like sweet intricacies, Sorae's bass guitar sat underneath it alongside Izumi's drum and hi-hat which she apparently added, accompanying her voice warmly. Chihiro became aware of every squeak or whisper she had sprinkled on by accident, only wishing the brief nursery rhyme would end quicker than it already did.

"... Twinkle twinkle little star, how I wonder what you are."

The auburn-haired girl sighed as if a battle had just been won. She felt her cheeks turning hot from shame.

"Hiro-tan! That was good~!"

"Eh?" Chihiro turned to face Izumi, hard to see sitting behind the drums. "It's true!" Aki chimed in, her eyes glittering as she praised Chihiro, "You're good at this!"

Wordlessly, Sorae gave a tiny applause, a total of five claps. The other two joined in on the clapping, with Chihiro watching and getting more flustered. She couldn't decide whether to feel shy or feel proud. Whichever was the case, Chihiro's heart lifted, fluttering with joy. This was the kind of approval she had always wished for.

And yet it felt… gross, somehow, to imagine herself in the limelight. It defied something.

"Uh, thanks…?" Chihiro accepted the compliments gratefully but unsettled, her feet pointing inward as she placed her hands behind her bashfully.

"Guys, we still have 12 minutes on the clock, what next? Since I rented 20 minutes."

"Uhm, let's-- Wait, r-rent?!" Sorae jerked around to face Izumi with a terrified look on her face. Chihiro also looked at Izumi in slight shock.

"Nothing in life is free, young one."

"Not that~!" Aki frowned. "We could've pitched in and split the cost!"

"Eh, maybe. Anyways, maybe you should bring your own bass next time, Raa-kun~!" Izumi grinned nonchalantly.

Sorae pulled at her disorganized hair, stressed, "Y-Y-You could've told us earlier…" Meanwhile, Aki was already getting her grocery money or whatever and forcefully handing it to Izumi like a grandma at a family reunion, only less discreetly.

Watching the situation, Chihiro felt a smile spread over her face in humour. Even if she wanted to take advantage of these people, at least it didn't feel that way for them.

The girl opened the door to her house, her long dark green hair flowing behind her.

"Sis!" A younger, although similar looking girl greeted her older sister.

"Fuyuna." The mature girl acknowledged, her gaze stoic as always. "Say, that friend of yours… Kiyomi Takimoto-san, was it? Doesn't she have an older sister?"

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## Trivia

* Sorae's initial 3\* card is displayed in this story.