Katawa Shoujo - Akira Satou Route

Act 4-6 Crisis

He seems to get distracted by someone in the audience, however, as he soon drops everything he's doing to offer a wave and a hearty laugh in... our direction?

I look across the table to find Akira waving back with something of a grin.

"You know him?" I ask, trying to strike up a conversation.

She glances back at me with a surprised look, as if she had forgotten that I was here. "Oh, yeah, him. We wound up in a few classes together when I was back in college."

"Small world, huh? You're pretty good at running into people." I reply, unable to hold down a chuckle of my own.

"It's just the location." She answers, pausing for a moment to flag down a serving girl and make a request for a glass of scotch. "Everyone winds up here, somehow. Then again, it's not surprising to find him here, since his dream back in school was to start a freelance jazz band."

My reply is delayed as the man on stage gives a few announcements and quickly introduces each person on the stage, from the three trumpet players to a short girl on bongos. After a short applause, he cues off the first song before taking a seat between two other saxophones, each of them differing in size.

The lights dim and the first number begins with a huge kick, musical notes reverberating off of every wall before slowing into a calm, easy-going tune led by a trumpet player.

"A freelance jazz band? Maybe you could have hopped in with them. I could imagine you playing a saxophone."

Her heel taps to the beat of the song, a wistful smile appearing on her face. "I was almost in a jazz band, actually. Back when I was still an aspiring musician."

My mind is soon filled with my mediocre attempts at learning to play guitar back during my first year in high school. "I think we were all aspiring musicians at some point."

"It's just what music does to people." She responds, glancing over at me every so often while she watches the band. "I'm not gonna claim to be some big appreciator of the arts, but music is part of what being a person is. It comes with your personality or your taste in food."

"Hell, I'd say it's a lot like food. Food for your ears." She adds with a smile.

"I've heard some things that could be considered an acquired taste, yeah." I reply with a chuckle.

She gives a short 'hah.' "Yep. Helps to keep a balanced diet. Good thing there's no such thing as fatty music, at least."

"You could count death metal, maybe. I can imagine too much of that stuff killing you."

"Hah. I've never really been a fan of metal. There's some good stuff out there, but it's not really something I try to listen to all the time." She says, probably trying to call up some examples in her head. "I had another friend my second year of high school who wanted to start a band. 'Metal Town' or something like that."

"Well, Lilly tells me you aspired to be a lot of things back in high school as well." I reply, setting my elbow on the table and leaning into my hand.

Her shoulders drop as she lets loose a relaxed sigh. "That was so long ago."

My lips curl up in a smirk at the memory of that conversation. "Yeah. I bet you would have made a great cheerleader, though."

"I was just trying out for the hell of it. If anything, I only would have gotten serious for the swim team." She responds with a dodgy expression, glancing off in the other direction as if to dispel the thought. "Besides, it's not like my father would have let me go through with it. We had a very strict 'no fun allowed' policy growing up."