Characters: Marimo Hatanaka, Seiichiro Suzuki, Hitomi Ninagawa, & Nayuta Kusanagi

Café Buono!: God of Rock (ロックの神様)

"They won't know what's coming! We'll show them all just how gutsy we are! They'll see, everyone'll see, even God will see how awesome our music is!"

A girl with dark hair rubbed her temple in irritation, as she said to the hyper girl running around screaming, "Ninagawa-san, please, shut up." The girl who said this was Marimo Hatanaka, a normally kind girl. She wore the typical Seiyo Academy uniform for girls, only with a vest instead of a blazer. In her fourth year at Seiyo, she performed the piano accompaniment for the choir.

The girl that was shouting, Hitomi Ninagawa, stopped. She twirled around and faced Marimo, saying, "Sorry, but I'm just really excited that you guys let me join you! I'm also so looking forward to showing those jerks just how good we are." Hitomi Ninagawa wasn't a student at Seiyo. Her brown hair was pulled into pigtails with pink hair-ties, and she was a huge fan of Utau's singing.

"If 'how good we are' means singing with piano accompaniment as some other kid stands by and tries to keep up with those two, then yeah, we're awesome." The speaker of this pessimistic sentence was Seiichiro Suzuki, Amu's biggest fan.

The reason why Seiichiro was so upset started a week prior, when Marimo asked Seiichiro to be in a band with her. The reason for this was that the school-wide band, that Marimo was a part of, was disbanding. Too many people were leaving, and too few people were left. As such, Marimo got the idea to recruit members for a different band, a smaller band.

Being a pianist, Marimo asked Seiichiro to join and play guitar for the band, since he was her best friend, even though he knew nothing about playing guitar. Hitomi Ninagawa came to join the band when Marimo and Seiichiro heard her singing Utau's "Heartful Song" at the park. She became their band's lead singer.

However, the remaining members of the school-wide band criticized Marimo for her idea, treating her like a traitor to the school-wide band. The school-wide band teacher agreed, but the choir teacher reassured Marimo that the idea was fine.

They just had a few minor issues: They had no other band members, they had no songs, they didn't sound good at all, and they had no idea what they were supposed to do.

In response to Seiichiro's comment, Hitomi crossed her arms and gave Seiichiro a glare before saying, "Oh come on, wasn't this your idea? If you keep on being that pessimistic, what you're saying will actually come true!" The three were currently in the garage of Marimo's home, instruments lying around.

Marimo's demeanor was timid as she asked quietly, "But how is the band going to work if we don't have any other band members to play drums, and write songs, and stuff?" She muttered quietly under her breath, "God's going to have to bless us with a miracle for this to work…"

Hitomi fixed her pigtails and smiled, "So that's what you're worried about? Don't worry, I know some people who would be glad to help us."

Seiichiro looked confused, since he couldn't think of anyone that would help them, and asked, "Who?"

Hitomi took a seat and replied, "I know this girl, Nayuta Kusanagi-chan, she's a complete UFO nerd, but a killer bass player. And Takuya Nakagura-san, a well-known kid magician, knows how to play the drums. He even goes to your school. All I have to do is contact them, and we'll be an awesome rock band!"

Hope glittered in Seiichiro's eyes as he asked, "Really?"

Hitomi nodded, "Yeah. I totally would've said sooner, but you guys were so quiet."

Marimo was still uneasy as she asked, "What about songs? I'm not good with rock." Marimo could write songs on her piano, but she couldn't do the rock genre. The reason why they were forced to do the rock genre was when they asked for advice on what genre to do, the teacher had suggested rock in order to make an impression.

Hitomi waved it off and said, "Oh, I could totally ask my older brother about that."

Seiichiro checked the calendar and said, "That sounds great! If everything goes smoothly, then we can enter the talent show in two months!"

Marimo sighed with relief. She thought to herself, "Seems like God really will protect us…"

It was two days later, and they were gathered at Marimo's house to practice. Nayuta and Takuya had agreed to Hitomi's request to be in the band. Hitomi's brother, however, refused to help them write a song. Instead, he had given Hitomi a cover song that they could practice.

In the garage, Takuya was practicing the drum part for the song. Nayuta was helping Seiichiro go through the guitar book, while Hitomi attempted to memorize the lyrics for the song.

Marimo opened and went through the door connecting the garage to the house, she carried a tray of snacks in her hand and said to the others in the garage, "Hey, everyone, I have snacks!"

"Awesome" and "Thanks" were some of the responses as the four other band members gathered around a makeshift table to eat the snacks.

As the others dug into the snacks, Marimo asked, "So, how's practice going?"

"Terrible," Seiichiro replied. The kid was frustrated that he couldn't understand how to play a guitar.

Takuya said while his mouth was full, "I'm having some trouble with the drum part, but I think I'll have it down… eventually."

Nayuta simply shrugged as she ate, saying, "Haven't started."

Hitomi threw her snack back on the tray in frustration as she complained, "The lyrics are so hard! I can't understand them, much less memorize them."

The band was a sensitive topic for Marimo Hatanaka. The pianist was terrified it would fail. Marimo buried her head in her hands as she said in despair, "This band is such a disaster! Maybe I shouldn't have started it…"

Seiichiro tried to comfort her by saying, "No, I think we just need some more practice, it's not like we'll just magically get it right away."

Marimo inwardly sighed. She thought to herself, "I hope you're right, Seiichiro-kun… Otherwise, I might lose faith in God, or at least his influence over rock-related things."

A week later, the band was practicing in Marimo's garage again. Seiichiro had given up on learning the guitar, and was just trying to learn the song, to no avail. Nayuta winced beside Seiichiro as each note that came out was threatening to damage her ears.

Hitomi was sitting on the floor, and was taping back together crumpled and ripped up pieces of paper. She had ripped up the paper of the lyrics in frustration last practice, and only decided to put it back together at that moment.

Takuya was sitting at the drums, but he wasn't playing them. Instead, he was on the phone, speaking to someone.

Inside the house, Marimo was preparing a snack in the kitchen. Her father entered the kitchen to get a glass of water, and asked his daughter, "Hi, how's practice going?"

Marimo shook her head as she said sadly, "Not well at all."

Marimo's father asked in concern, "What seems to be the problem?"

Marimo sighed and said, "Seiichiro-kun has difficulty learning the guitar, and everyone else just can't get the song we're learning."

"Why don't you try a different song?" Marimo's father suggested, "There's some in the attic back from when I was a music teacher if you want."

Marimo's eyes lit up for the first time that week as she said, "Really? Thanks dad!" She gave her dad a kiss on the cheek and rushed to tell her friends. In her head she silently added, "Thanks God…"

Marimo, Seiichiro, Nayuta, and Hitomi sifted through the boxes in the attic of Marimo's house. When Marimo had gone into the garage to tell the others of the news, Takuya had already left, saying he got an offer for his magician career. In other words, Takuya quit the band to be a magician again.

Seiichiro opened up a box and found folders inside. He took out a folder and found sheets of music. "Hey you guys," Seiichiro said, "I found it!"

The others rushed to his side, and took a look into the box, each taking out a folder. Each folder contained sheet music for each instrument (guitar, drums, bass, singer, and piano) for one song.

Marimo held up the one she had and asked, "Hey, how about this one?" She looked at the title and read, "It's called, 'Lucky Aura'."

Hitomi looked at it and instantly shook her head, "No, it's too pop-y and you'd be the only one who would have to play anything." Hitomi took the one she had and showed it to the others, asking, "Hey, how about the 'Color of Tears'?"

Nayuta disagreed and said, "No, we don't have the instruments for that."

Seiichiro held up his and asked, "Hey how about this one? It's called, 'Guts'."

Nayuta took it and read through the music. After a moment, the others were watching as Nayuta read it in silence, with a serious look on her face. After a bit, she smiled and nodded, "This could work! It's not entirely difficult, but it has a heavy emphasis on the guitar…"

She trailed off as soon as she saw the look of despair on Seiichiro's face, but quickly added, "But, it's not a big deal. I can cover the guitar for you, and Hatanaka-san can do the bass part for me on her keyboard. You can do the drums. It's simpler than the guitar for the other song."

Hitomi asked Nayuta, "What about lyrics, Nayuta-chan?"

Nayuta skimmed over the lyrics before saying, "The song's relatable, so it won't be that hard to remember. But, we'll definitely have to change some things to fit the theme of our band, especially the title."

After she said that, Hitomi walked over to read the lyrics for herself and then smiled, "Yes, this could really work!"

As Marimo and Seiichiro read the song, the two smiled in happiness. The two shared a hug as Marimo thought, "You've really blessed us with a melody that'll rock the talent show… Thanks God… of Rock…"