Monday.
Tomori went to school as usual.
Arriving at her classroom, she greeted her classmates and sat down, pulling out her small box of band-aids and her markers.
Drawing on band-aids—animals, insects, and little designs—was one of her few hobbies besides collecting stones.
Her classmates were used to it. If someone tripped or got a scratch, they knew they could get a "cute bandage" from her.
But today was different. Her canvas wasn't the standard strips, but the large square bandages. Her seatmate and Anon, sitting behind her, barely glanced at them.
She just got a larger canvas, they thought.
If Taki saw them, she would have turned bright red... Those aren't 'canvases'! Those are the plugs for the live show!
But Tomori had a bigger mission today than drawing.
She was distracted all morning.
Finally, lunch break arrived.
Anon was about to ask her to eat, but before she could speak, Tomori stood up with a look of iron resolve and walked out.
She didn't go far. She stood in the hallway, scanning the crowd for Sakiko Toyokawa—the girl who had made her "human," her white moonlight.
Soon, she spotted her. Sakiko was holding a bento, looking for a quiet place to eat.
Sakiko was about the same height as Tomori—petite and delicate. But unlike Tomori, who was the class "mascot," Sakiko radiated a cold, "stay-away" aura. She was nothing like the angel from Crychic.
Tomori followed her quickly.
She had seen Sakiko since the transfer, but they hadn't spoken a single word.
As they moved away from the classrooms, the noise of high school life faded, leaving only their rhythmic footsteps in the quiet hallway.
Sakiko stopped in front of the music room. Since leaving the manor, the school music room was the only place she could touch a piano.
She didn't open the door. She turned around and pierced Tomori with a sharp, icy gaze. There was no trace of her former warmth; she looked at Tomori like a total stranger.
"Takamatsu-san. Did you need something?"
Hearing her formal name made Tomori's heart ache. Her lips trembled. She took several deep breaths before finally forcing the words out.
"Saki... I... my band is performing at Ring this Thursday. Will... will you come?"
Tomori hadn't asked Mutsumi to invite her. She decided to do it herself. This was her band, her live.
"..."
Sakiko never expected those to be the first words spoken between them.
"Are you here to flaunt your new band to me? Don't bother."
"No, it's not that! I... I just..." Tomori stopped.
She wanted to say she didn't want Sakiko to worry, but she remembered Rin's warning: Sakiko's pride is all she has left. Telling her that would only hurt her.
"Even if you're mad, even if you hate me... Saki-chan... please come!"
Tomori bit her lip, looking at Sakiko with pleading eyes. She couldn't explain it, but she knew if Sakiko heard her sing, she would understand her heart.
"I won't be going."
Sakiko shot her one last look, opened the door, and walked inside. Tomori didn't follow, nor did she leave. she stood by the door.
A moment later, the sound of a piano echoed from the room.
Music conveys emotion. The same piece played with a different heart sounds different. Tomori could hear that Sakiko wasn't actually angry.
She'll come. Sakiko will definitely come!
The piano piece was never finished.
Sakiko hit a wrong note and stopped, her mind a mess.
The word "band" felt like it belonged to a previous life. Since Crychic fell, she hadn't spoken to anyone except Mutsumi.
Hearing Tomori had a new band made her feel a storm of emotions.
Mutsumi had told her Soyo was obsessed with rebuilding Crychic... she didn't know if Soyo was with Tomori, but Sakiko was both happy they had moved on and pained by the damage she had caused.
What hurt most was that she simply had no time or energy left for music.
Sitting at the piano, she closed her eyes, took a few steadying breaths, and pulled out her phone.
"Hello, Supervisor? This is Sakiko Toyokawa, the part-timer."
"What is it?" A moment later, her boss's irritated voice came through the speaker.
"It's about this Thursday evening. I'd like to request the shift off..."
"Impossible. Someone already took Thursday off. If you don't show, we'll be understaffed."
Sakiko was cut off before she could even finish. Back when she was a lady of the manor, she never would have tolerated such tone.
But she wasn't a lady anymore. She was just Saki-chan, the part-time call center rep.
"But... I have something very important that night."
"Important? You were underage when you started, and I only let you work because you were persistent. Is anything more important than your job?"
"It really is important..." Sakiko bit her lip, suppressing her frustration.
"Fine. What could be that important?"
"I..." Sakiko hesitated, but eventually spoke. "My friend's band is performing..."
Hearing this, her boss exploded. If it was a family emergency, fine. But a band performance?
"Request denied. You're just a part-timer. Have you forgotten who trained you when you didn't know a thing? If the show is more important than your job, then go. But don't bother coming back, and don't expect to see a single yen of your back-pay!"
The line went dead.
Sakiko stared at the phone, tears sliding silently down her face. She didn't dare sob loudly; she just shook with quiet, ragged breaths.
"Uu..."
This was the first time she had cried since leaving home.
Delivering newspapers in the rain before dawn, being yelled at by customers and then berated by her boss for being clumsy, picking up her blackout-drunk father from the police station and mopping up his vomit...
She had never imagined her life would be like this. She had worked so hard to learn how to clean and how to work... no matter how hard it got, she hadn't cried.
But now, she couldn't hold it back anymore.
After crying for a long time, Sakiko took a few deep breaths and gripped her phone. Even if I lose my job, I'm going!