She lived a horrible life for too long. After what happened with her last foster parents, lawyers had found a will left behind by her mother, stating she already had a godmother who would take care of her should something happen to her parents. Howe...
As promised, when Roselia arrived for their joint practice with Afterglow, Shizuka had gone with them. At first, the newly arrived band thought it was funny for the silent staff to come along, when Marina said it was to ensure if practice will go well for the two bands. Blunt as it may be, thankfully one Roselia member understood the intention and managed to convince the rest to let Shizuka come along. ... which may be a mistake.
"Ahh... It's only been 10 minutes and they're fighting..." Lisa sighed.
"They're already on Round 3 by my count~..." Moca added.
"Wh-What should we do? We have to stop them..." Tsugumi said.
Tomoe agreed to this and called out to the two vocalists. "Calm down, both of you. We're supposed to be practicing together."
Unfortunately, one member from the other band didn't take those words so well...
"We're completely calm. If your vocalist would just relax and listen to what we're saying, it wouldn't come to this," Sayo retorted.
That ticked Tomoe, as she glared at the bluenette guitarist. "You saying this is Ran's fault?"
"Uh-oh..." Himari groaned out.
"Tomo-chin won't let this one go~" Moca said.
"You may have the best skill, but we have the best sound, no matter what anyone says. Anyone just caught up on 'skill' doesn't understand rock," Ran said.
"It all sounds to me like you're jealous you don't have the skill in the first place," Sayo begged to differ.
Shizuka wanted to stop the argument from worsening any further, but even if she did write 'STOP' in big, bolder letters, she knew the girls were too into their argument to do so. And she wasn't feeling at all confident in getting between them to ask for a ceasefire. If anything, all the arguing was frightening the child, as she slowly thought back to times when her foster parents had arguments, arguments she tried to mediate... only to receive a painful end of them all.
Thankfully, someone stopped the two sides for her. "Okay! That's enough!" Lisa called out. "Yukina, Ran, stop it! You too, Sayo! Tomoe!"
That snapped one of them out of it. "Sorry..." Tomoe apologized.
"It's true that Roselia and Afterglow have completely different goals, but what good does it do to fight over it?"
"Yeah, well, they started-"
Lisa placed a finger on Ran's lips, silencing her. "None of that either, thank you! 'They started it', 'she said', enough! Look! You're making poor Shizuka-chan cry over there."
At those words, the arguing band members turned to their silent guest, who flinched and trembled under their gaze, tear forming in her one visible eye.
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(A/N: Quite like this)
"Ah, it's true! Sorry. Come on, don't cry," Tomoe instantly comforted. As she approached, however, Shizuka tilted her hat down, concealing her eyes, and cowered in fear.
