Musician's toy
The season of fallen leaves was at its prime, and at this time the scenery was painted with the glorious colours of the golden leaves and the red momiji. The coldness of the weather was not yet severe, and all in all it was another beautiful and gleeful day at the grounds of the Sakuragaoka Girls' High School. The stillness of the wooden corridor gave the place a peaceful atmosphere, and the sound of one's steps in the silence would bring to feeling comfort and engage in quiet reflections.
At last, the bells rang with their distinct low-pitch sound - a very welcome sound for all students, indeed. For the girls of the Light Music Club it meant the arrival of an afternoon of all things fun and delicious; by far their favourite thing of the day, everyday. One of them, however, was not in high spirits for a time of slacking and sweet-driven indulgence, but of hard work and diligent practice. The little Azusa Nakano carried the case which contained her cherry-red Fender Mustang like a heroic soldier would carry his trusted, well-kept rifle, and hurried towards her battlefield. When she arrived at the club room, to her surprise three girls were already inside. The fair and lady-like Tsumugi Kotobuki was the first one in sight, as she stood in front of the cabinet organizing some dishes she had brought specially for that day, though it wasn't a special one in itself. In her delicate hands the clattering of dishes sounded more like the melody of xylophones and the strings of the dulcimer, so much different to what it would be in the clumsy hands of some of the other girls in the club. The sight made the junior sigh in admiration, and for a second she forgot that tea dishes usually meant wasting away the whole afternoon, never even unpacking their instruments for practice.
Speaking of clumsy, by the way, looking at the rest of the room she saw at one corner the club president Ritsu Tainaka lying on the floor in the weirdest fashion - heads up, straight legs to the wall - reading a boys' manga and laughing loudly. President though she was, she was a hard one to look up to, indeed. Right beside her, the bass guitar player Mio Akiyama stood by the window in silent contemplation, enjoying the quality of the autumn scenery. Those two made a most contrasting duo indeed.
"Good morning." Said little Azusa, for she had not seen them yet that day.
One by one the girls noticed her by the door and greeted her in their warm fashion. Quietly saying "excuse me" she entered, and immediately started setting things up - amplifiers, guitar stands and cables, and lastly she pulled out of its case her Mustang guitar and let rest there, like a banner which read: "Here we play".
"Azusa-chan, look!" said the voice of the keyboardist Tsumugi, which was sweeter than honey, as she showed the junior a piece of bright, blueish dish which shone like mother-of-pearl. Azusa's eyes sparkled when she say the beautiful tea-cup, and she couldn't help but saying "Ah, Mugi-senpai's dishes are so wonderful!".
The club president's laughter had died down for a while, and a quiet, comfortable mood had installed in the room, which lasted for several minutes. But it was soon afterwards that with a loud wooden TAP TAP TAP the mood was spoiled. The windows of the club room door let only see a brown-haired forehead adorned with two yellow clips. Even through the door came the sound of panting of the girl who rushed up the stairs. The clumsiest of the clumsy had arrived. As she opened the door sounded the shout that was the final blow to that fine atmosphere:
"Aaaaaazu-nyan!" came running, arms wide open, the guitarrist Yui Hirasawa. After she had hugged and fondled with and carressed the embarrassed junior to her heart's content, she put her guitar case to the wall and sat on the floor with a long sigh of feigned tiredness. One couldn't know if the red that coloured Azusa's face was due to shyness of being treated like a pet kitten or if it was the strenght of the seniors hugging arms; either way, she didn't feel quite comfortable.
"Yui-senpai, please stop! Also, if you arrive late like this just to slack off, I feel we will never get to doing any practice." Protested Azusa.
The girls were by that time already used to her complaining, and at most times it was pretty much ignored as if it were not more than background noise. This time, however, it was as if a fire inside had been ignited by something they knew not, and they couldn't ignore her enthusiasm. Though each of the girls were engaged with attention to their own affairs and would not let go of them so easily on such a comfortable day, the little Azusa was more insistent than ever, and with unusual stubborness wouldn't have anything but what she came for: playing music. No tea, no cake, no sweets and no chit-chat would divert her resolution. She started setting all the equipment by herself and tuning her guitar, and when she was all set up, the sound of the strings as she played the chords of their band's songs rang with such lively vibration that it almost didn't even seem that her guitar was not yet plugged to the amplifier. Upon seeing her playing so earnestly by herself, the rest of the girls couldn't help but be moved and compelled to join her, and all at oncethey looked at each other with smiles on their faces and went to their instruments, without Azusa having to say a word.
As she was already all hyped up, the junior guitarrist started playing the first chords even before the drummer had made the count to four with her sticks. They were used to starting with the easiest, most popular tunes, and the standard everyday choice was of course the school favourite Fuwa Fuwa Time. The usual intro, which started with Yui playing the lower and heavy-distorted power chords, was of course very punkish and cool, but starting with Azusa's sharp and high-pitched guitar gave the song a new and distinct sound, and all the girls appreciated the little girl's display of skill. The rehearsal continued for some time, and on that day Azusa was really on a roll, for she wouldn't miss a single note, her playing not being far from perfect, though she would never brag about it. It was a good influence to whe other girls, inspiring them to try doing their very best, and in the end it was as good a rehearsal as it could be.
There's something not so good about rehearsals that go without any problems, though: just when you're getting the most fun out of it, it's already over. Their setlist was still so short that it took them no more than a few minutes to be finished with it, and by then they had other songs to work on, so it all ended very quickly. Before anyone could say anything about tea or sweets - and the little Azusa knew it was the first thing which would happen when the practice session came to a close - she rushed to saying:
"Erm, I think we should try playing Fuwa Fuwa Time one time again. There are still some things I want to experiment, and we still have to work on the two guitars on the five people version [gonin ver.]. My playing is sill pretty much sloppy, it must be because I'm so new to the band". It was not true at all, actually, because she was already a member of the band for more than half a year, and her playing had been on point almost from the start. The request surprised the girls, who felt no problems with how she sounded (it was rather the other guitarrist the one who sometimes caused some problems, actually, and even she had been quite fine for some time now), but since they were all plugged in and set, it wouldn't be such a bother to play one more time, even at the cost of a few minutes of precious tea-time.
"One, two, three, four" counted the cheerful drummer Ritsu. This time they would play like it was meant to be played. The sound of Jaka-Jaka-Jan was already so familiar to them that it was like it came not from memory which instructed their hands and fingers, but straight from their hards; the lyrics meant not only their original meaning, but were a magic speech that evoked all their memories of the joy of playing together as a band, and more than that, as true friends.