This wasn't really a request but this was brought up in passing in the BanGDreaming! Discord a handful of days ago, and I thought it was cute so here we are. Before we start, however, this was more for me to try and experiment with something; as you will probably notice, the writing style of this oneshot is vastly different from any of my other Bandori chapters that I have up at this point in time.

The cover image is the girls-of-focus of this oneshot with their casual outfits in a place known as Academy City from Toaru Majutsu no Index. No particular reason why Academy City is chosen.

Disclaimer: I do not own BanG Dream! and since I also used an image from it, I also don't own Toaru Majutsu no Index.

It was a bright and sunny Saturday, with the mild summer breeze being just enough to keep the temperature at a comfortable level. Enough so, at least, for the city streets to be crowded with people walking around. Whether they were just casually strolling around or were hurriedly walking to a specific place, all kinds of people were present outside.

Among the many people who were making their way through the streets was a certain pink-haired girl. The seemingly sixteen-year-old girl was in a cheerful mood, humming quietly to herself as she was looking at all the beautiful displays in the stores.

She wasn't able to afford any, unfortunately, as she had yet to receive her paycheck from her part-time job and her parents were overseas on a business trip. As a result, asking for money from them was not an option for her, either, and this left her with very minimal funds. Even so, Uehara Himari took her time enjoying window shopping.

Himari was dressed for the occasion, having asked her close friend Udagawa Tomoe for advice on what to wear. With the drummer's help, Himari had chosen her outfit of a black-colored long-sleeved shirt under an amaranth-colored dress. Despite Tomoe's suggestion, Himari had decided against letting her hair down for the day, instead tying them up in the signature low pigtails that she usually wore.

Things were actually looking up for the bassist of Afterglow and she was in a good mood; her grades had been slowly but surely improving to where she was comfortable with not failing her classes, the live performance that they did just the other day was a great success, and she had managed to make an appointment with her senior to spend the day with today. There was only one problem that Himari was facing now…

"Where is she?" Himari wondered out loud as she looked around her trying to find that familiar face in the crowd. Himari wasn't used to this part of the city yet, rarely coming here as she genuinely didn't have any reason to do so, so now she felt quite helpless in this unfamiliar area.

Himari took out her phone and re-checked her messages, hoping that she was in the right place. Navigation was never one of Himari's strong points, something that was brought up on more than one occasion by a certain guitarist at Himari's expense, but even Himari was certain that she was in the right place.

After several minutes had passed and Himari still saw no sign of her senior, Himari decided that she might as well look around a little bit more now that she was already here. She was about to head off when she heard her name being called.

"Himari-chan!"

Himari turned around on her heels when she heard the familiar voice behind her. Much to her delighted surprise, the person who had called out to her was exactly who Himari had wanted to see.

Her senior of one year was running towards her, a purse in hand and bright pink hair bouncing merrily as the girl ran. The seventeen-year-old rising star was wearing a cream-colored sweater and a skirt that rustled in the gentle breeze.

"I'm sorry… I'm so late…" the pink-haired girl, Maruyama Aya, panted when she finally reached Himari's side, both of her hands on her side to help ease the throbbing pain there. As Himari just stood there, helpless and unable to help her senior in any way, Aya slowly but surely regained her breathing.

After half a minute since she arrived, Aya gave Himari a proper apology, "I'm sorry, Himari-chan. Hina-chan wanted to take a couple of pictures with that statue just outside CiRCLE and we ended up staying there much longer than we thought we would. You didn't wait here too long right, Himari-chan?"

"Oh no, I just got here too," Himari said, telling a white lie because she did not want to worry Aya even more; Himari knew how worried Aya could get at times. Instead, Himari decided to respond to something that Aya had said about a statue, "The statue of the big dog?"

"Dog?" Aya asked, sounding genuinely surprised to hear that when her mind suddenly clicked and she understood what Himari was saying, "Is that a dog? Hina-chan always called it a lion…"

This reply from Aya caused Himari to giggle uncontrollably for an extended period of time, the laughter becoming bad enough that Himari had to hold herself up by the pillar beside her. Aya watched the younger girl with a look that bordered between amusement and concern but didn't stop Himari's giggling fest. In part because she had no idea how.

"S-So, anyway…" Himari trailed off a couple of minutes later, wiping the corner of her eye that still had the remains of a tear in it before turning back to her senior, "Why did Aya-san ask to meet up here of all places?"

"No reason at all~," Aya said with a smile, somewhat disappointing Himari in the process through her way of answering. Aya saw this in time, however, and decided that she would just get straight to the point, "There is actually a really nice café here that I wanted to go to with you, Himari-chan. Shall we?"

"Lead the way, Aya-san!"

And with that, the two girls left the area with Aya leading the two of them off into the unknown.

Several hours later, Aya and Himari were both very exhausted from all the walking and window shopping that they had done, but neither girl seemed to be feeling disappointed at the result of the day. As a matter of fact, both girls were radiating a bright aura from them, laughing cheerfully amongst the two of them on many occasions.

While Aya had insisted for Himari to at least buy something today, assuring the bassist that she would cover the cost as a way to apologize to Himari for making her wait, Himari refused. Himari did not feel comfortable accepting free money from Aya, even though Aya had said for the forty-second time that it was all right.

Despite not buying anything, Himari was having a great time. Aya's presence by her side was both reassuring and calming, and it wasn't until today that Himari truly understood why Aya did so well as an idol. There was something about Aya that made people want to follow her lead, and Himari was no different.

Aya, on the other hand, was enjoying the fact that Himari was great company for her to do window shopping with. After Himari had convinced Aya that she really didn't want to buy anything, Aya had relented and decided against buying anything, either. This led them on a seemingly random spree of window shopping that only ended when Aya remembered that she was supposed to bring Himari to a café.

And that was how the two high school girls ended up sitting in the newly opened Ruru Café. The interior of the café itself was both very reminiscent of and very different from the Hazawa Café that both girls frequently visited. Various abstract paintings were placed on the walls and the tables and chairs were covered with velvet-colored cloth as a gentle and calming melody that Himari could not quite place was filling the café.

Looking around, Himari had to admit that she was very impressed with the café as a whole, making a mental note to invite her childhood friends to this place in the future.

"So, Himari-chan…" Aya trailed off right after the two of them had ordered and the waitress had left them alone. Aya waited for a bit until she was certain that she had Himari's full attention before she continued, "Are you enjoying today?"

"Oh yes, a lot! Thank you again for inviting me to spend the day with you, Aya-san," Himari bowed her head slightly, but even that was not enough to hide the wide grin that was still plastered on her face. A grin that did not go unnoticed by Aya, whose face lit up after seeing it, before Himari continued, "Had it not been for Aya-san, I would probably never have come to this part of the city."

"I-Is that so?" Aya couldn't help but chuckle at Himari's response, not having expected that. Even with Aya knowing how much Himari dislikes going around on her own, Aya would have thought that Himari could at least have asked her bandmates to go with her…

'…Unless,' Aya thought with a gulp, already not looking forward to the possible answer that she might be getting from asking this. And as Himari's senior of almost a year, Aya knew that she shouldn't be pushing Himari into a position where Himari could be feeling uncomfortable.

Despite this, however, Aya's curiosity was just too strong to try and suppress.

"How about the other members of Afterglow? Couldn't you ask one of them to come with you?" Aya asked, speaking slowly and carefully so she could cut off her entire question if she felt like Himari didn't particularly like it. Thankfully for Aya, this did not seem like it was the case so Aya continued, "You know, to try and find new places together."

"I tried… several times…" Himari whined, putting her head on top of her arms as she rested on the table. With an exasperated sigh, Himari explained, "But they're always busy with one thing or another. And even if they weren't, I don't even know how much they would enjoy doing what we did today…"

"I see… I'm sorry to hear that, Himari-chan," Aya said in a soft voice, genuinely feeling bad for her junior. She knew that Himari's friends were busy, remembering the day when she visited the place Eve worked part-time at and subsequently met Tsugumi quite strongly, but this was a lot worse than Aya thought it was.

"But it's still all right though, Aya-san," Himari's surprisingly cheerful voice caught Aya's attention, a bright smile playing on Himari's lips, "There are a lot of other things that I can still do with them, and I can always ask if Aya-san has time if I want to go window shopping again, right?"

"Of course, Himari-chan! As long as it doesn't clash with my schedule with Pastel*Palettes," Aya said with a small smile, but Himari simply nodded that she understood. Feeling somewhat relieved, despite not knowing why she was worrying in the first place, Aya added, "We are supposed to have a live next month, so we will probably be busy preparing for that."

Himari was about to open her mouth to say something in response, but it was at that very moment that the waitress came to their table and brought with her their orders. Himari had ordered an ice chocolate after Aya had said that this café was famous for it and Aya, who couldn't make up her mind in time, decided to get the same thing.

Aya just ended up looking at the impressive glass in awe, appreciating how beautiful it was. Only after Himari had grabbed her own glass and held it up high into the air did Aya notice what Himari was doing.

"To the success of Aya-san's lives!" Himari cheered, looking at Aya expectantly for far too long until Aya understood what was expected of her. Hesitantly, almost as if she was embarrassed it took her so long, Aya picked up her own glass and raised it up against Himari's.

"And to the success of Himari-chan's lives whenever that might be," Aya said, seeing Himari grin in response to her words. Then, with a deep breath, Aya went on to add one last sentence, "And to our friendship!"

"Ei, Ei, Oh!" Himari cheered her signature cheer in response to what Aya had all added.

The two girls somehow ended up locking eyes together before they both broke into a laughing fit simultaneously. Luckily for both Aya and Himari, neither of them spilled their drink as they managed to put the glass down securely on the table first.

The rest of their afternoon was spent with mindless small talk between Aya and Himari, the topic somehow always gravitating towards what they have been doing lately and sharing stories about their friends and bandmates. It was only after the manager of the café came to their table to inform them that the café was closed for the day that either girl realized how much time had passed.

Aya and Himari paid the shared bill, gathered all of their belongings and hurried outside again where the scenery of the streets had changed now that it was nearing dusk. And while the setting sun was basking everything in a beautifully warm orange light, the two girls knew that they couldn't stay around to enjoy it.

Both Aya and Himari had to be up early the following morning, Aya for a Pastel*Palettes meeting and Himari for band practice with Afterglow, so this is where they said their goodbyes.

"Today was very nice and I really enjoyed it," Himari said, bowing slightly in Aya's direction, "Thank you so much for spending the day with me, Aya-san!"

"Don't mention it, I had a lot of fun today too," Aya smiled, trying to wave off Himari's words of gratitude but silently greatly enjoying hearing them. With a wave, Aya said her final words, "Until next time, Himari-chan! And don't forget that you and all of Afterglow are invited to the Pastel*Palettes live!"

"I'm already looking forward to it!" Himari replied, patting her pocket that was holding the five tickets that she had gotten from her senior earlier.

Now that they've said their goodbyes, both Aya and Himari started to make their way back home. Unfortunately, since their homes were effectively in the opposite direction, this was also where they went on their own way.

And with that, the two girls each took their own separate path, feeling content and satisfied after a day spent with the other. But even though the paths that they were walking was different, they knew that one day they would meet again.

It would only be a matter of time.

Writing this was a lot more fun than I thought it would… I hope that you all enjoyed it as well, leave a review telling me what you thought, and until next time! Take care!