After her little jam session in the studio room, Shizuka had checked up on all the equipment there and gave maintenance to whichever needed it most. Once she was done with that, she hurried out of the studio and went to a room that held many more rental instruments, returning the guitar she borrowed. With the instrument returned, she walked out the room and saw Afterglow entering the building.
"Ah! Shizuka-chan! Heya~!" Himari greeted.
"Good afternoon, Shizuka-san," Tsugumi also greeted.
Shizuka bowed at them in her own greeting.
"What are you doing in that room?" Tomoe asked.
The girl took out her notepad and wrote, "I was checking on the equipments."
"Equipments? You have instruments that can be rented out here?" Shizuka nodded in response to Tomoe's question.
"This is quite rare. The live house we usually go to don't have instruments to rent," Moca stated.
"They do. We just never bother to ask for a rental since we have our own instruments," Ran corrected.
"Is that so?"
"Yes, it's so." Ran turned back to Shizuka. "I know we're here early, but any chance we still use the studio?"
Shizuka nodded and wrote "Studio Room 4" and pointed down the hall.
"Okay. Thanks," Ran thanked, as she and the rest of Afterglow headed to their room.
"Later~" Moca waved.
Shizuka waved back and walked out the live house to the cafe, where Marina was handing a pair of ice cream to two customers.
"Thank you. Come again," she said, as the two left with their treats.
Shizuka approached Marina and tapped her shoulder, getting the manager's attention.
"Oh, Shizuka-chan! How was your break?" the manager asked.
The mute gave her a thumbs up in response to the question.
"I see. That's good to hear. PoPiPa and PasuPare finished their joint session for the day. I know it's only the first day, but it looks like the joint practice is going well. At least from what I could tell when they left. Next is Afterglow and Roselia..."
Shizuka noticed a worried expression on her guardian's face and wrote, "What's wrong?"
"Ah, nothing's wrong, per say. It's just those two practically already clashed on the very first time they met. I'm just not so sure if things will be okay today..."
Shizuka could tell how worried Marina was, and she couldn't blame her. Even she knew how prideful the two bands seemed, especially the vocalists.
"Would you like me to observe them?" Shizuka offered.
"Huh? Are you sure?" Marina asked back. "I don't know... I think it will be okay to leave them be. But... if they get into an argument big enough to decide to not enter the event..."
Shizuka knew how worrying the situation was for Marina, and wrote, "I'll be okay. I'm sure their joint session won't be that bad."
******
... How wrong and naive the part-timer of CiRCLE was...
"I keep telling you, there's degrees to this whole merit system of yours," Ran argued with Yukina.
The vocalist of Roselia simply sighed at her words and said, "And I keep telling you, I'm not saying you are not good performers. I don't know how many times I've said this."
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.
(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.
The action baffled both bands. They knew how shy she was, but to this extent? Or was it something else? As far as Roselia knew, not even Rinko would cower in fear if approached by a stranger. At least, not like how Shizuka was doing it.
"Shame on you three~" Moca said to Ran, Yukina, and Sayo, breaking the silence.
"Huh? Why just us?" the guitarist of Roselia questioned.
"Because you should learn from Tomo-chin. She knows she's in the wrong for getting involved in the argument, and even went to comfort the poor staff. Even though she got rejected before even trying. You three should learn from her."
The trio of prideful musicians couldn't argue against Moca, especially not when they were seeing Afterglow's drummer trying to comfort the shy, frightened, crying girl.
"... I'm uh... I'm sorry," Ran spoke first.
"I apologize as well," Sayo followed.
"Same here. Sorry," Yukina said.
Both Lisa and Moca nodded in satisfaction.
"Besides, we all heard each other's performance, didn't we? I don't think we need to have this sort of argument then," the bassist of Roselia then said.
"That's true. Ran was all 'it's so incredible! I think I'm going to cry!'" Afterglow's lead guitarist stated with a tease.
"Hey! I did not say that," Ran denied.
"Ahaha~ Ran's not one for showing her true feelings, huh? Kind of like our Yukina. We might actually have more in common than we thought," Lisa stated.
Yukina blushed slightly at the claim. "That's... I'm not... Look, in any case, we're only aiming for the very top. We'll do whatever it takes to get there."
Those words, once again, got Ran annoyed. "How many times do I have to say it? Our music is the best, already! Bar none!"
"What are you getting angry for, Ran~? You heard them play, and it was cool, right? Let them be them, and us be us," Moca advised.
Ran didn't want to admit that Roselia's music was quite amazing, but even though, she could not deny that they were. "... I suppose..." she said.
"Ahaha. I guess we really are similar, huh," Lisa stated.
"You think so?" Himari asked.
"We all take pride in our music being the very best, and we don't let anyone change our minds. I guess it's like a belief. We're all performing music based on our own beliefs, right?"
"That would explain why we keep getting into fights," Tomoe said, rubbing Shizuka's head in comfort.
"I suppose it would..." Sayo admitted.
"People who share that thinking are always going to rub each other the wrong way. So I think this joint practice is a perfect chance for us to get over all that," Lisa explained.
"Yeah, she's right," Tsugumi agreed. "I already feel like you've all made an impact on me!"
"They sure are impactful..." Ran admitted.
"Hey, you okay now?" Tomoe asked Shizuka, who seemed to be starting to calm down some and nodded in response to her question. The red-head drummer then placed a gentle hand on the part-timer's head and said, "There, there. It's okay now."
"Shizuka-san really is shy, isn't she?" Ako stated. "Even shyer than Rin-Rin."
"That's true. I even heard from Kasumi that Shizuka-chan took a few minutes to mentally prepare herself before she met us and asked us to attend the event," Himari pointed out.
"And that's a surprise how?" Sayo dared ask.
"Well..." Himari approached Roselia's guitarist and whispered in her ear. "She was apparently standing out our door those past few minutes."
Sayo's eyes widened at this. If the girl was taking time to prepare during work hours or in the restroom, it'd be one thing. But for the staff to prepare herself right out the doors leading to the band she was to meet and scout... She didn't know what to say. "O-Oh... I see..."
"She got used to us after we played a song for her, though," Tsugumi added.
An idea came to Lisa's head upon those words. "Hey. Since we don'e know where to really start with this practice session, how about we start with doing another pair of performances? This time for each other," she suggested.
"What's with the sudden suggestion?" Yukina asked.
"It's not sudden. We have to start somewhere with this joint practice, and we might as well play another round of music with each other to get a good feel of each other's beliefs. And here, we get a better closeup in listening to the other band's song."
'And if what Tsugumi says is true, then maybe playing a bit of music together can also help calm Shizuka down a lot more,' Lisa mentally added. She would've said it out loud, but wasn't exactly sure if two of her bandmates would truly agree to do a performance solely for that reason.
"That is true," Sayo agreed. "Perhaps a second performance will make things a lot easier to understand for them."
"I'm game," Tomoe said.
"In that case, if you don't mind, Afterglow will start first," Ran insisted.
"By all means. Go ahead," Yukina said.
Ran was happy with the arrangement and called to her drummer. "Tomoe. Grab your drumsticks."
"Okay, Ran," Tomoe responded, taking her position by the drums.
"They're not bad, don't you think?" Lisa said to her bandmates, while Shizuka applauded to their performance.
"I suppose they have some level of seriousness. Skill, on the other hand, is..." Sayo spoke.
Before she could finish, Ako shouted, "Yeah! Onee-chan~! So cool~!"
"I thought they were... pretty good," Rinko admitted.
Yukina said nothing to their comments, as Ran approached her.
"Well? Still think our sound isn't enough?" she asked in a challenging tone.
"On the contrary, while you do have the experience, given that you girls are the oldest formed band from what Ako told us, I cannot say that your level of music meets our expectation," Yukina answered, much to Ran's annoyance.
"You're still saying that?!"
Before things got ugly, Lisa intervened between them. "N-Now, now! No fighting, you two. Afterglow showed us the true extent of what their capable of. Now it's Roselia's turn."
Roselia nodded in agreement to their bassist's words and grabbed their own instruments, while Afterglow stepped down and watched them perform.
As if the song the other day wasn't good enough, this song Roselia was performing completely outranked that other one. Ran and the others were left speechless throughout the whole song.
Soon enough, the song came to an end, and Yukina approached Ran. "So? How was our music?"
That snapped the red-highlighted girl out of her stupor, as she responded, "Well... it wasn't half-bad."
"Ran is all tsundere again~" Moca teased.
"N-No I'm not!"
"I thought this before, but Roselia really is amazing," Tsugumi stated.
"You... think so?" Rinko asked.
"Totally! I thought you were awesome last time, but today was even more so~!" Himari complimented.
Rinko blushed at the comment. "Um... thank you."
"Sis, Sis! Did you watch me perform?!" Ako asked Tomoe.
"Of course I did! You were awesome, Ako!" she complimented.
"All right~! By the divine power of the music god residing within me, it was... uh... It was easy!"
"I'm sure it was." Tomoe turned to Rinko. "You're Shirokane-san, right? I didn't get the chance to say it before, but thanks for always hanging out with Ako."
Rinko blushed at her thanks, and stuttered. Thankfully, her best friend spoke for her.
"Rin-Rin's always helping me out with stuff! I can count on her for anything and everything!"
Sayo, on the other hand, noticed someone missing in the room. "Hm? Where's Suzuki-san?"
"Shizuka was summoned by Marina-san~," Moca answered. "Apparently, it's lunch rush now, and Shizuka's cooking skills were needed. She really wanted to stay and listen to the rest of your song, though."
"Shizuka-san's meal really is good~!" Ako stated.
"I'll say. I'm really surprised she isn't working in a cafe or a restaurant," Tomoe said.
"My mom would definitely scout her out if she knew about her," Tsugumi stated.
"Ahaha... I can somewhat see that happening," Himari agreed.
"That's enough. If I recall, we are here for practice. Not to-"
Next the group knew, a stomach growl was heard.
Tomoe let out a small laugh at that. "Haha. Did all this talk about food make you hungry, Ako? Then again, you were drumming away like crazy back there," she said.
"Hm? That wasn't Sis?" Ako asked back.
"Could that be... Hi-chan~?" Moca accused.
"That wasn't me!" the pinkette bassist denied.
Lisa had a good idea where the sound came from. Rather than naming names, though, she said, "Well, all this talk and reminisce of Shizuka-chan's food is making me hungry~ And it didn't help that we put on quite a show for you girls."
"Imai-san?" Sayo questioned.
"So! How about we grab a bite at the cafe? We need the energy of we're going to play our instruments the rest of the day. I'm also curious as to what Shizuka thought about our show. Sure she didn't stay and hear the whole thing, but she heard some."
"That's true... And since she is a staff here in charge of the event, I'd like to ask make some requests on the lighting and sound," Yukina said, much to Afterglow's surprise.
"Eh? You want to ask her that now?" Himari questioned.
"Of course. The sooner we get that resolved, the better rehearsals will be."
Ran felt a bit iffy at those words, in which Lisa sensed.
"N-Now, now! We best hurry on out, or there won't be enough seats for us," she instantly said.
"I want to see if she can make some ramen!" Tomoe exclaimed.
"Me too!" Ako agreed, and the two sisters already rushed out.
"A-Ako-chan!"
"Tomoe! Wait for us!" Himari called, as she and Rinko went after the two sisters, with the rest slowly following.
In the back of the group, Sayo approached Lisa. "Imai-san."
"Hm? What is it, Sayo?" the bassist asked.
"Well, uh... thank you."
Lisa responded to her thanks with a wink.