Music for the Silence

Music Introduction

"Forsooth. Never have I ever met a little kitten whose name fits their very being. To have such a fated name... is so fleeting~" Kaoru complimented.

As she said that, Rimi's face turned red.

"Wow! Rimi-rin's gone bright red! Are you okay?!" Kasumi asked.

"I-I have?! I wonder why..." the bassist of PoPiPa wondered.

"You don't have a fever, do you?" Kanon asked.

"Rimi-rin?! A fever?!" Kasumi gasped in worry.

"Oh, you poor thing... Such a sweet, young girl is surely afflicted by one thing and one thing only... The ache of love," Kaoru said, causing Rimi's blush to deepen.

"A-Ahh, what do we do? S-Someone! Call an ambulance!" Kanon cried out.

"No, no, Kanon-san. Just calm down," Misaki told her, already knowing the true cause of the PoPiPa's bassist's action.

In the Afterglow section, one of their members stared at Kaoru with a gaze quite similar to Rimi's.

"S-Seta Kaoru-senpai... is actually here!"  Himari lightly squealed. "She's so amazing~"

"They sure are free-spirited over there," Tomoe stated, staring at the two bands crowding over Shizuka.

"Maybe a bit too free-spirited," Tsugumi said, noticing how uncomfortable the mute was, as she slowly snuck away from them.

"Okay. Time to save her~" Moca sang, making her way to Shizuka.

"Wait, Moca!" Ran called, only to be ignored by their guitarist. "... She actually left."

"That's kind of rare for Moca to do that," Tomoe pointed out.

"She does often go off at her own pace, but even that just now is unlike her," Himari stated.

It was then, Moca came back with Shizuka in tow. "I have returned~"

When they returned, Moca released her grip on the part-timer's hand, in which Shizuka then took the time to write on her notepad. "Why am I here?"

"That... we don't know ourselves, really," Tsugumi answered. "Moca, why did you drag Shizuka-san here?"

"Because she reminds me of Ran back when we were kids," the guitarist answered.

The vocalist/other guitarist of Afterglow was taken aback by the response. "Huh? Like me?"

"Don't you remember, Ran? When we first met, you were so shy and quiet~"

When Moca said that, Ran got flustered. "Wha-?! Moca! What do you think you're saying?!"

Unfortunately, the rest of Afterglow found it interesting.

"Actually, Moca-chan might not be wrong," Tsugumi said. "Back when Suzuki-san asked us to attend the event, we got off-topic and she tried to get our attention. It kind of reminded me back when we were kids, and Ran-chan and I tried to remind you guys of any important errands we were doing whenever you were distracted by other things."

"Oh yeah! I remember that!" Himari exclaimed.

"Now that you mentioned it, the other day I was out with my sister, and I saw her interacting with Hello, Happy World! She tried to... well, get their attention and clear up some misunderstandings, or something like that. It kind of reminds me of Ran when she tried to remind us of something important back when we were kids," Tomoe stated.

At those words, both Ran and Shizuka were embarrassed. Ran for having her past exposed to the mute, and Shizuka upon hearing that someone else saw her silly struggle in trying to 'speak' to Hello, Happy World! The part-timer noticed the vocalist's expression, wrote something on her notepad and passed it on to Ran.