AMBiTiON/Story/Ch. 7

## Chapter 7 - Meaningless Dance

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The 10PM sky was dark, Chihiro's room only illuminated by the fairy lights strung up on her bedroom walls like fireflies. She laid on her bed, hair untied, scrolling through suggested videos on her phone in search of something to watch.

Chihiro couldn't shake away the euphoria as she recalled receiving praises for her singing just that afternoon. Chihiro was so glad it was finally her time to shine, but weirdly enough… it didn't feel right.

Her whole life had been nothing but apathy, ignorance, and most likely hatred from other people, and yet the same people kept uttering hypocritical nonsense about how everyone deserved their moment of praise. After so many years of the limelight being unjustly taken away from her, it was only fair that Chihiro had the chance to have her revenge and take back from others what was dedicated to her! So why was she so uncomfortable when she finally got what she wanted? Well, it didn't matter.

Through Chihiro's planned exploitation of her bandmates, surely she was only restoring "the fairness"? Finally, it was her turn to be appreciated, as inherently strange as it felt. 'One day,' Chihiro thought, 'one day I'll be famous and leave everyone I've known in the dust.' And if her bandmates reached stardom alongside her, good for them, but by the time it happens Chihiro probably couldn't care less.

'Oh?' Chihiro, having zoned out with her thoughts, found a familiar sounding video title at her fingertips. 'Isn't this that 'MagiGal' anime Sorae was obsessing about? They have the first episode uploaded.'

Curious, Chihiro tapped the video and watched it. Though the classic kids' anime are fine, she felt uncomfortable knowing SOME anime out there were associated with nothing but societal castaways and shut-in people. But, in naive hopes of connecting with Sorae, Chihiro watched the episode.

It was about the story of a blonde, spray-tanned-looking popular girl who, despite being weighed down by the stigma of being a Cool Kid, aimed to help others in need. Immediately Chihiro couldn't identify herself with the girl and started to hate her - surely she was being helpful for nothing but reputation... But she continued watching.

The girl encountered a weird introvert being bullied, and after helping her out, the strange girl revealed herself to be from a magical family lineage and offered to give the popular girl access to magical spells in exaggerated gratitude.

Becoming a duo, the two went around helping others with "inner monsters", as dubbed by the show. Their first mission was to help an ugly girl convinced she would be hated by the world forever. The introvert pointed out that it could be true, which Chihiro agreed with, but the popular girl transformed into a magical girl and yelled something strange about "the heart shining more than the skin". A physical manifestation of the ugly girl's self hatred appeared as some gross monster but the popular girl fought it off with her powers. And with that, end.

As the gentle ending song played, Chihiro could only feel confused at the message. Was it not right that the ugly girl could be hated forever? Was it wrong to pay attention to her looks? After all, appearance can say a lot about the person. It was just being safe about meeting someone new and making sure it wasn't anyone untrustworthy, was it not? And plus, what a cliche moral!

However, now more curious and a bit dedicated, Chihiro searched for more episodes, only to find nothing. 'Maybe I can ask Sorae where to find them.' Chihiro planned, but was too embarrassed to ask it directly on the four's group chat, and too timid to make a new, private chat with just her and Sorae. 'Since it's Friday, I guess I'll have to ask after the weekend.' She decided disappointedly.

"Hmhmm~, Happy June~." Izumi hummed to herself, sitting on a bench at school and eating her lunch. Though she was still alone at Haneoka, the thought of meeting up with her new bandmates again made her feel less lonely. At least she got to see Hiro-tan everyday after school.

They had gone to Live House HorizoN last Friday, three days ago. Izumi took care of the expenses that time to make a good impression on her friends, and by "taking care of the expenses", that did mean asking her mom for next month's allowance. It earned a sarcastic "Oh, you finally made friends?" from her mom but, oh well, Izumi was used to that kind of off handed comment from her. The woman always preferred Kiyomi anyways.

Nonetheless, even if Izumi hadn't paid for it herself, she was sure her friends would have been okay with that. It'd been a long while since Izumi trusted someone like that, and three whole people were even more out of the ordinary.

To be honest, she really wasn't sure what made her agree to join to begin with. All it took was a weirdly serious motivational speech from Hiro-tan, and Izumi ended up here. Who knows, the first-year could have been lying back then! But Izumi didn't want to believe that, so she tried not to.

She felt a surge of thrill as Izumi remembered their plan - "Let's meet up every Friday from now on!" Aki-yan had announced. Izumi wasn't quite sure why it had to be a grand announcement, but she was enthusiastic nonetheless. "Hnnm!" Izumi buzzed excitedly, rambling under her breath, "Band time, yay yay--"

"Takimoto-senpai."

Izumi went ghost quiet and snapped her gaze up at the moss-green-haired girl standing before her. Her eyes were dead serious, staring back at Izumi.

Wary, the short girl responded with a standoffish tone. "Who are you and what do you want?" The energy that Izumi was previously radiating got forced into her chest by the sudden appearance of the stranger. Izumi narrowed her eyes.

"Do you mind if I sit beside you?" The stoic girl asked, her voice betraying no emotion.

"Go ahead." Izumi shifted aside so that she could be further away from the untrustworthy girl.

Her skirt flowed as she sat down on the bench. From the stranger's green tie and skirt, Izumi deduced that the girl was a first-year. If she was a second-year student like Izumi herself, she would have blue instead.

Examining the stranger up close, she had long, dark, moss-green hair with a hair bun on the back of her head. Her skin was snowy pale. She looked at Izumi with her chestnut-brown eyes and said, "My name is Mai Moriuchi."

Izumi didn't dare say anything out of line, for fear of saying something stupid in front of the strict-seeming stranger named Mai Moriuchi. "And you know who I am?" She questioned.

Moriuchi nodded, "You're Izumi Takimoto. Class 2-B. Your younger sister, Kiyomi Takimoto, is in class 3-A from the middle school."

Hearing her heart pound and ears make static with the silence between them, Izumi stared at Moriuchi, who emitted a creepy aura. Izumi wasn't sure if she wanted to know how the girl got all that information.

"... Where did you get all that from?"

"By any chance, is your sister in a band?" Moriuchi seemed to have completely dodged the question and presented another piece of info.

"Yeah?"

"Perhaps you know of her friend, Fuyuna Moriuchi."

Izumi took a few seconds to recall, 'Fuyu-who? What?' Until she remembered the times Kiyomi would call, "Fuyu-yun!" Her eyes widened.

"Uh, wait, you're Fuyuna-chan's older sister?" With a bit of shock in her teal eyes, Izumi asked whilst staring at the stranger.

Moriuchi nodded once again. "With that being said…" She continued to stare Izumi down, but with slightly more intensity in her reddish-brown gaze.

"Would you allow me to join your band?"

Izumi stared right back into Moriuchi's eyes, "What band?" She hoped to deter the girl by faking unmoving confusion. The confusion was, in fact, movable.

"Forgive me for the directness, Takimoto-senpai, but you know exactly what I'm talking about." Moriuchi had not moved much for the past minute or two, but she raised a hand to her face and began twirling her hair. "Last Friday. On the 3:30 train. You were with three other girls heading to a rehearsal studio, were you not?"

Now put off by the fact that Moriuchi had witnessed her with her guard down and "being herself", Izumi nearly felt her face go hot with humiliation. She prevented it by telling herself not to do that.

"Hmph… You want to join my band?" She let a tiny, smug smile appear, finally acting more casual than before. "Too bad. You're outta luck. Gotta ask the band leader, not me..."

Izumi was about to go with that excuse when she suddenly remembered the leftover guitar from the rehearsal studio.

She had copied what the girls of ECL:PSE would have said, word for word. Back then Izumi would get bored and tag along with Kiyomi to their rehearsals, to the middle-schooler's dismay, and since they didn't have their own instruments at the time, they'd always rent at the studio instead. ECL:PSE's vocalist-bassist along with their guitarist had part-time jobs so it wasn't too bad. Plus, HorizoN was actually quite a new studio in those days, so their prices for things were cheap enough... And thus, Izumi unknowingly rented a guitar! But if their band truly needed a guitarist, then perhaps…

"... Unless you can play the guitar. Hey, Moriuchi, can you play the guitar?"

"No."

"Heh. Too bad, you're outta luck, gotta ask the--"

"But I'll be willing to learn it, so long as you let me join your band."

Izumi ceased her tomfoolery and stared at Moriuchi. She hoped to find some hint that it was a joke, but as it had been for their entire conversation thus far, the forest-haired girl was stone cold and absolutely, utterly serious. 'She actually means it,' Izumi thought, bewildered, 'she's actually gonna take the risk just like that.'

"Well, well. If you insist." Izumi accepted the offer. "Say, do you take the train home?"

Moriuchi nodded her head yes.

"Now you'd be in luck. I meet my friend and leader of the band everyday after school." The short, curly-haired girl smirked. "Mind if I fetch you from your classroom when the dismissal bell rings?"

"I don't mind. My classroom is 1-A," Moriuchi replied.

Looking over the strange new girl once more, Izumi felt as if she were more trustworthy all of a sudden. She wondered why, but didn't linger on the thought. "Then it's settled!"

Moriuchi got up from the bench, her hair flowing behind her. "I'll be taking my leave now."

"Oh? 'Kay. See you 'round, Moriuchi~." Izumi waved a lazy goodbye to the first-year as she walked away.

She watched her leave, before the bundle of energy in her chest escaped. Izumi squealed in happiness and grabbed her phone, ready to text everyone about their all-new addition.

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