THE LIGHT MUSIC CLUB SMASH THE SYSTEM
"And this is "The Return of the Durruti Column"!" announced Ritsu Tainaka, holding it up for her friends to see. The four other girls gazed with curiosity at the object in the Light Music Club President's hand.
"It's certainly a notable piece of artistic history," said Tsumugi Kotobaki.
"And a ground-breaking one at the time," added Mio Akiyama.
"Something that's still remembered to this day, as well," said Azusa Nakano.
"Hey, would anyone like another of these yummy cup-cakes?" asked Yui Hirasawa, raising the rapidly emptying plate from the middle of the table they were all sitting around. Through the large Music Room window behind her, the blue skies and white clouds of a warm spring day could be seen.
"But, Ritsu, in spite of all those things, why exactly are you making us read a French comic strip from forty years ago about Spanish anarchists from seventy years ago?" went on Azusa. She twisted the long black hair in one of her plaits nervously around a finger as she spoke. "What does that have to do with us at Sakuragaoka High School today? The school festival is in a couple of weeks. Shouldn't we be practising for our concert, not reading some manga?"
"She has a point, Ritsu," said Mio.
Ritsu slammed her hand, and the hastily-produced photocopy in it, down on to the table, making the fine bone-china teacups and teapot rattle. "You guys! Don't you get it? This is politics! Revolution! Social justice! These things are all way more important than the things we've been writing songs about up till now! All that cute girly stuff – we've got to start getting real! Haven't you ever heard that rock n'roll is three chords and the truth?"
The rest of the Club glanced around at each other. This was looking like a pretty serious case of unusual behaviour by their President, and they wondered whether she was going down with a cold again or something.
"Actually, that's country music. Riichan, perhaps I should check your temperature…" said Tsumugi. She tried to remember whether there was a thermometer lying around somewhere in the Music Room. Or would she need to go to the school nurse?
"Ritsu, I tried reading all those pages on Wikipedia you mentioned last time," said Mio. "You know, about anarcho-communism and anarcho-syndicalism and anarcho-primitivism and anarcho-transhumanism…and I think they're all written by weird American shut-ins who never leave their bedrooms! None of that stuff makes any sense! They just think of an abstract noun and put "anarcho-" in front of it!"
Yui giggled. "I fell asleep on my laptop before I even got to the end of that first page! It was so long and boring…"
"Yui, you probably fell asleep before you could get through the first paragraph!" growled Ritsu. "I'm telling you, everyone, we need to start getting more serious about this!"
"Then why don't we just spend more time practicing the songs we've already got?" said Azusa, with a shrug.
"I know what this is all about," said Mio. "This is all to do with those new transfer students, isn't it, Ritsu?"
"N…no, it isn't!" stuttered Ritsu back, but now no-one was listening. Attention had switched away from her to the new students, the latest topic of school gossip.
"What, you mean that blonde girl, Kaede Akamatsu, and that boy, what's his name…they're both in your class, aren't they, Mio?" asked Yui.
"Yeah. His name's Shuichi Saihara, and everything about both of them is really mysterious. If you try talking to them, they won't tell you much about where they live or what schools they went to, or anything at all about their lives. I mean, I tried talking to Kaede myself and all I could find out is that she can play the piano."
"Ooh, perhaps she would be interested in joining us!" said Azusa.
"We don't need another keyboard player in this band!" snapped Tsumugi. She was feeling a bit defensive on the subject; some other students had already mentioned to her that Kaede was a really good pianist.
"She won't be interested," said Mio. "Remember the school Debating Society? The club everyone who did Yamato-sensei's history class always joined?"
"Oh, yeah," said Yui. "Nodoka went to a meeting once. They were trying to get her to join too. She told me all about it and it sounded so boring. All these pretentious nerds making pompous speeches about whether Barack Obama did or didn't deserve the Nobel Peace Prize. Didn't all their members graduate last year or something?"
Mio nodded. "Exactly. Well, now Kaede and Shuichi have revived it, except they don't want it to be about debating, but about activism. Like, going on demonstrations and opposing the government and…stuff."
As if on cue, everyone turned back to Ritsu, who blushed with embarrassment. "So, are you worried that Kaede's club is going to take attention away from the Light Music Club?" asked Mio.
"No! Well… yes, I suppose so. Look, you can see how much interest those two have caused already, just by doing what they've already done. It's cool to be radical these days. Just look at the news – it's full of people protesting against the recession, Occupy Wall Street and all the rest. Maybe the kids here will prefer to do that than come to watch us, and then…" Her words faltered, and her eyes started to fill with tears.
Yui leaned across the table and hugged Ritsu around the shoulders. "Don't get upset, Riichan – we won't give up on this Club, no matter what!"
Azusa joined in the hug from the other side. "That's right! We have to stick together, like we always have. It's not like you to be so pessimistic. I'm sure things will work out fine."
Ritsu wiped her eyes with the back of a hand, then flung an arm around each of the two girls. "Thanks, guys! But we have to move with the times. Like the Beatles. When everyone in England started growing long hair and going on about peace and love and all those things, they started writing songs about it. Well, that's what After School Tea-Time has to do as well!"
Tsumugi still wasn't convinced. "Do we really have to get into politics, though? My Dad is helping fund the campaign of one of the candidates for Mayor this year. The guy and his advisers keep turning up at our house for meetings. Yuck, he's a creepy weirdo with horrid yellow teeth, but Dad'll still be so annoyed if he finds out his daughter and her friends are singing songs about smashing the state and hating rich people. I mean, we are rich people!"
Ritsu hastily detached herself from the cuddle. "Don't worry, Tsumugi. We'll just have to be…a bit subtle about it. And it's not like your family are responsible for any social injustice anyway. They're all so nice!"
"Then, that's settled," said Yui. She poured herself another cup of tea. "Now we really must finish off these cup-cakes."
"I had a nightmare about being back there again last night," said Kaede to Shuichi. They were waiting for the other members of their new club to turn up, in an empty classroom, after school hours. They sat side by side on the low podium that the teacher's massive old wooden desk was placed on, facing the rows of desks for students.
"Back in the Academy?" asked Shuichi. It was a redundant question, really. After surviving the Killing Game, where else would one ever have nightmares about but that place? She nodded. "Who were you dreaming about this time? Kaito? Gonta? Kirumi?"
"Himiko," said Kaede. "She's the one I feel worst about. She had the mind of a child. Of course, she would easily be panicked into trying to kill the most suspicious-looking person, just to end the nightmare, and easily reveal her guilt. And then in the end, it turned out she wasn't even Rantaro's real killer. She didn't deserve what happened to her. And we made it happen."
"None of us deserved what happened to us in there, Kaede," Shuichi said, gently. He took her hand in his and squeezed it.
"Didn't we?" said Kaede, a hint of bitterness in her voice. "But we volunteered for it, didn't we? Isn't winning the Killing Game what we all most wanted to do? Those audition videos of ourselves we found…"
"We don't even know if they were real or not. Look, we've been over this so many times…"
She pulled her hand out of his grip and gave him an angry look. "That's not the point! I know what the rational arguments are, but right here, right now, they aren't what matter! All I know is that I might have volunteered to murder people and that everything I think is real about me might be fake. I don't even know who my own parents are. And I know how that makes me feel. Don't try to logic me out of that, Shuichi!"
She got to her feet and agitatedly strode over to the window, her violet eyes looking blankly out over the empty playground outside it. Shuichi followed her there.
"I'm sorry," he said, placing his hand on Kaede's shoulder. "I know it isn't easy. I was there too. I have my bad days and my bad dreams just like you. But what really matters is the people we are now, not the ones we might have been, and what we're going to do, not what we did."
Kaede sighed. "No, I'm sorry. It's just my raw nerves. You probably don't deserve having to spend your time as my unpaid therapist. At least if Maki was still with us you wouldn't have to do it alone. I wonder what she's doing now?"
"Well, where else can we go for support if not to each other? You do the same for me, all the time. But the important thing is that we do what we promised. Travel back in history, and change it. End the Killing Game before it can begin. For us, and for all the others who suffered through it before us. As for Maki, I'm sure she took her share of the money and bought her old orphanage just like she said she was going to."
The money had come from the highly successful robbery of a safety deposit company popular with Japanese media executives and their wives that the trio had carried out not long after their escape from the Ultimate Academy. Kaede and Shuichi had struggled over the decision to do it, but everyone's future plans required money. Especially those involving time travel back to 2009 and living there for an extended period.
Kaede stared back out through the window. "Do you really think we can manage it? I used to believe that if people only worked together and co-operated, they could achieve anything. Now, I'm not so sure…and as for changing history…"
"Kaede, we must do it. Or at least try. Right now, there isn't a video game about a group of teens with unusual talents who get locked in a school and forced to kill each other. It doesn't have fans who love it so much they make it become real. It must be possible to stop those people coming into being."
She sighed. "Are you making any progress with your investigation?"
"Ah, not really, I'm afraid. We already know that Team Danganronpa were originally called Dangan Software, but I can't find any company with that name in the current databases. Maybe they're still just a couple of guys in a bedroom somewhere."
The sound of feet and voices approaching down the corridor could now be hears, and Kaede and Shuichi hurried back towards the podium.
"Well, here come our Footsoldiers of Hope. If only they knew they were that," said Kaede. As the new club members opened the classroom door, she put on her brightest and most optimistic smile. "Hello, everyone – welcome to the School Politics Society!"
Mio stared at the spiral notebook on the bedroom desk in front of her, her tongue protruding slightly from between her lips as she concentrated. She sighed heavily. Writing lyrics was not easy, and the rest of the band tended to leave a lot of it to her. Sure, Ritsu, Yui and Tsumugi were happy enough to bring cakes to the Music Room, go shopping for instruments, hang out, go to the beach and (when all else failed) even practice playing a bit, but where were they when songs actually had to be written?
"Tea-Time girls sing and shout!/Tea-Time girls throw the government out!"
She stopped, stared at what she had written for a few seconds, and then crossed it out with a decisive sweep. Those lines were so bad. Worse, they sounded a bit like a rap interlude in a pop song.
Mio had once told the band that if they ever started putting hip-hop parts in the songs, she would take her bass over to the Jazz Club and stay there, especially if they asked her to do the rapping. As no-one had ever even considered doing those things, they'd all looked at Mio like she had lost her mind, but she still thought it'd been a point worth making. She'd rather spend an evening alone in a darkened room watching "Ringu" than rap in front of a crowd.
Mio's mobile phone, also lying on the desk, jerked abruptly into noisy life. The current ringtone was "Jailbreak" by Thin Lizzy. She scooped up the phone.
"Hi, Mio here."
"Hi, Mio-chan, it's Yui! How's the songwriting getting on?"
"Slowly. If Ritsu is going to insist on changes in artistic direction like this, I really think she should do more to help out with them."
"Aaaww, Mio! I feel so bad for you! Can I help at all?"
"That depends – can you think up words that scan, rhyme, make sense and fit in with that guitar riff you were doing the other day?"
"Er…not really."
"To be honest, that's what I expected. Anyway, what are you up to?"
"Oh, I'm doing my maths homework," lied Yui, who at that precise point was lying on the floor staring at the glow-in-the-dark plastic stars stuck on her bedroom ceiling. She had taken out her maths homework, looked at it with blank, distressed eyes for about ten minutes, then decided she was too tired to work and it would be much better to tackle all those equations in the morning when she'd had some sleep. She could probably knock off the whole lot in half-an-hour then! "It's really hard! Ui's busy washing up the dishes because Mum and Dad are away again, so they've left her in charge."
"Your little sister is so responsible," sighed Mio. "Any other news?"
"Well, yeah, actually. Remember how worried Ritsu was by Kaede and Shuichi's new Politics Club? Well, Nodoka went to their first meeting, and…"
"Doesn't Nodoka have anything to do nowadays but attend meetings of clubs she isn't even in?"
"Well, she's on the Student Council, so I think she feels obliged to show support for newly-formed ones. Anyway, apparently Shuichi said at one point that we should always question authority, not just accept it blindly, and one of the boys asked whether that included his authority as Club President. Just to be clever, you know. Shuichi said it did, but Nodoka caught the look on Kaede's face, and it was scary. She protects Shuichi like a tiger, Mio. It's so weird, as if they've been going out for years, even though they aren't supposed to be a couple."
Mio sat back in her chair and glanced randomly over at a Pokemon poster on the opposite wall.
"That's not so weird. There are lots of girls who have crushes on guys but the guy hasn't realised yet. Boys can be pretty oblivious, you know."
"Yeah, like you've dated so many guys, Mio. You're a real love expert!"
"Oh, be quiet!" said Mio, blushing so furiously she was glad Yui couldn't see her. "I haven't noticed them exactly lining up to declare their love for you either, Little Miss Sarcasm!" She yawned. "It's getting late, Yui, and I want to finish these lyrics if I can."
"OK, well, I should probably finish my homework," said Yui, truthfully. "See you tomorrow, Mio."
"See you."
Mio shut her phone, and glanced down at her notebook again with despair. Then, suddenly, it occurred to her – if Kaede was the big expert on political activism, and a pianist, maybe she was the one to ask for help with writing this song.
Mio would speak to her tomorrow.
As this was a conversation Mio would rather not have with the rest of the class around, she decided to track down Kaede at lunch-time, and took Azusa along with her. There would be strength in numbers, she thought. Kaede turned out not to be difficult to find. She and Shuichi were sitting on one of the benches in the yard, the one under the big cherry tree, both of them eating packed lunches. Yui had been dead right about them acting just like a couple.
"OK, remember," muttered Mio to Azusa, as they walked over, "just let me do all the talking." She was trying to do her best to sound determined and decisive, although her heart was pounding in her chest and her mouth was dry.
"Right!" replied Azusa.
Shuichi spotted the two dark-haired girls approaching from half-way across the yard. He turned to Kaede.
"Looks like we've got company," he said. "Who's that girl with Akiyama-san?"
Kaede swallowed the rice ball she had been chewing. "I don't know – I think I recognise her face from around, but I don't think we've met. What do you think it's about? Do they just want to chat or…"
"No, it's not that. That purposeful step means she wants to talk business."
"Always the detective," smiled Kaede. "And stop making it sound so dramatic! "We've got company" and "talk business"! It's just high school, you know."
Well, so was the Academy, thought Shuichi. Probably best not to say that, really. Instead, he called out: "Hello, Akiyama-san, do you and your friend want to sit down with us?"
"Thanks, Saihara-san," replied Mio, walking up to the bench. "This is Asuza Nakano, from the year below us. She's in the Light Music Club with me, and she plays guitar in our band, After School Tea-Time."
"Hi!" said Asuza. They sat down next to Kaede and Shuichi.
"Hi, Nakano-san!" Shuichi smiled politely. He had heard of After School Tea-Time. Some of his classmates raved about going to their concerts like old guys talked about seeing Cheap Trick play at Budokan, although honestly they did sound like just another lame high school band. Mind you, if it really was true that the lead singer flashed her knickers "like, at the end of every performance!", he could see why they might get a following, even if only of what the late Tenko Chabashira would have called "degenerate males."
"So…are you guys enjoying your lunch, then?" asked Mio.
"Yes, thanks," said Kaede. Mio had hoped for a bit more than that. What should she say next?
"Mmm…those rice balls look great. You know, really…rice-y…" Kaede and Shuichi threw Mio a surprised look. Azusa, swiftly spotting the signs that her friend was about to dry up, decided to step in before it could get any more awkward.
"Akamatsu-san, the truth is – we came to ask for your help."
"Hey, I was leading up to it gradually!" said Mio, indignantly.
"My help?" said Kaede, surprised. "Why do you need my help?"
"Well, our band is trying to get a bit more…political," said Mio. You know, make our music a bit more gritty and realistic. But I've been trying to write some songs on that theme and well…they just aren't good enough!"
"And since you and Saihara-san set up the Politics Society, and you're a pianist, we thought you might be able to help," added Azusa.
Now Kaede and Shuichi were gazing at the two girls like they'd both suddenly sprouted extra heads.
"But I've never written pop songs before, or played in a rock band!" protested Kaede. "I'm a classical pianist. I like Chopin and Debussy. It's really not the same thing at all as what you do."
"You wouldn't need to worry too much about the musical side of it," said Mio. "We can do all that. But we need someone who can help us with themes for the songs and inspire us with ideas for lyrics, because that's what we're struggling with. And, well, I thought it would be fun for you. You can meet the other girls in the Club, Akamatsu-san. They're a great bunch. And they don't take the whole thing too seriously, either."
"Hold on, though," objected Shuichi, "if you don't take being in a band too seriously, why are you putting so much effort into writing these songs?"
"Well, we have a concert coming up soon," replied Azusa. "But most of the time it's pretty light-hearted. We are the Light Music Club, after all."
Shuichi could almost hear the voice of his old friend Kaito Momota yell dramatically "What the hell does Light Music even mean anyway? That's not a real thing, you liar!" But he caught himself before saying anything. He had to stop treating perfectly normal school interactions like everyone was on trial for their life. Kaede should make the decision on this, if it was her help they wanted.
Kaede was silent for a moment. "OK, I'll help you out."
"Oh, thank you so much!" Mio and Azusa burst out in unison. Then they hugged each other. Then they hugged Kaede, who cried out, "Hey!" as she almost disappeared from sight in a flurry of arms and flying black (and blonde) hair. Good God, the kids at this school really were over-the-top with their emotions, thought Shuichi. Maybe he should have reacted like Kaito after all.
After some moments, things calmed down again, and the girls were able to agree on a time and place to meet.
"Maybe at your home, Akamatsu-san?" Mio was still dying to find out more about the transfer students.
"Ah…er, sorry, that won't be possible right now…it's being redecorated and it's really messy. We're all living out of suitcases!"
Actually, Kaede and Shuichi's current home was a hotel whose management thought they were a young married couple called Nagato who had had to leave their house for six months for major building work to be carried out. Explaining all that to her new friends would be a bit much. There was also the small question of the wads of cash with which the safe in their wardrobe was tightly stacked.
Eventually, they agreed to meet at Mio's home that evening, and Mio and Azusa left happily. Shuichi stared after them from the bench.
"Are you sure about getting into this?" he said. "I mean, we have our mission…"
Kaede exhaled. "Look, Shuichi, I know it's important, but not everything needs to be about that. I believe in our mission, but…we're still teenagers. I'm still a teenager. I need to be normal, and just do some fun things for a change. And so do you."
He was silent for a while. "Maybe you're right."
"Well, that was all pretty quick and painless in the end!" announced Mio from her desk.
She had spent the evening closeted in her bedroom with Kaede, Azusa and Ritsu, who never usually had much to contribute on the songwriting front but had insisted on coming over to "help out" this time. Mio would normally have resisted her old friend's request, but it seemed only fair that Ritsu should get to meet Kaede, and vice versa.
Ritsu, ensconced on the yellow duvet top of Mio's bed whilst Kaede and Azusa sat on the blue-carpeted floor, hadn't actually helped much with the songwriting. However, she had brought doughnuts, made tea and turned on her full charm for the outsider, and that was all that had been necessary. In return, Kaede had decided she should open up a little, and revealed some of the fake life history that she and Shuichi had concocted together for when that sort of conversation would became absolutely unavoidable.
Her Dad was a sales rep, her Mum an airline stewardess (to make it plausible that neither would be available at any given time) and the family had recently moved into the area, hence the transfer of schools and the redecoration.
Kaede felt very uncomfortable lying so hard to what did indeed seem to be a nice bunch of girls. It was not a great way to start a friendship. But what kind of truth could she have told them about her family if she had wanted to? Anyway, they hadn't pressed her too hard on the details, except those of working as a stewardess. Those seemed to fascinate Ritsu, and Kaede had fortunately read a lot of back-issues of the JAL in-house magazine, just in case. "This isn't the Killing Game anymore. This isn't the Killing Game anymore," she kept thinking to herself. "They aren't looking to trap you in your lies and trip you up."
"So, we've completed three new songs now," said Mio. " "Smash The System", "Youth Stand Up!" and that one in G-sharp that we can't agree on a…"
"I say it's called "Ourselves Alone!"" broke in Ritsu.
"Well, I still prefer "Soldiers of Destiny," said Azusa.
"That sounds like a terrible shojo anime, I've already told you!" countered Ritsu.
"Well, Tainaka-san, you don't have to call it anything if you can't agree," said Kaede. "Just rehearse it, play it to the audience and they can decide to call it whatever they want."
"That's a great idea!" cried Ritsu. "You're so clever! Why do you never come up with ideas that good, Mio…OW!" A rubber ball thrown with deadly accuracy flew across from the desk to the bed and hit Ritsu in the middle of her forehead, on which the contusion that seemed an inescapable part of their relationship promptly started to form. "What did I do to deserve that?"
"You know exactly what," replied Mio. Kaede stifled a giggle. Honestly, all these girls were kind of eccentric sometimes, but at least they were having fun. God, how welcome to be somewhere where a bump on the head was the worst violence you saw! And where "craziness" was being "a bit intense about your school rock band"!
"OK, do we need to do any more writing?" said Ritsu. "I think we've got enough political songs here for the concert. I mean, it's not as if we won't be playing all our usual songs as well. You have to give your audience your greatest hits, or they complain. Just look at Van Morrison."
"No, I think we're fine," said Azusa. "Thanks for your help, Akamatsu-san. You're pretty good with lyrics. I'd have never have thought of something like "They try to turn our hope into despair/And make us believe that we no longer care" myself."
Kaede gave a slightly strained smile. "Oh, I once had a pet goldfish that died very suddenly…and that's sort of what I felt about it at the time."
Everyone cooed sympathetically about the fate of the wholly imaginary piscine. Then Ritsu's Nokia started ringing.
"It's a text from Yui," she announced. ""Just got back from cleaning the corridors after school. Wish I'd put more work into that maths homework!" Yui never changes!"
Everyone laughed, including Kaede, who had heard what amounted to "Yui Hirasawa: The Highly Unauthorised Biography" during the course of the evening.
"Really, we shouldn't joke about it, though," said Mio. "She'll end up as a NEET if she doesn't put in more effort. I feel sorry for her parents and Ui sometimes."
"Ah, I have confidence in Yui," said Mio. "When she really has to, she can buckle down and study hard. It's just…it takes a lot to make her do it."
Kaede glanced at her watch. "Well, I had better get on my way soon, or I'll miss my bus back." She felt a pang of disappointment. Maki aside, she'd been starved of sympathetic female company since her time at the Academy. Well, maybe even during it. She could do with a bit more of it. But the Light Music Club members hadn't asked her to join, she knew they already had a keyboard player and she thought she'd done a pretty good job of persuading them that as a pianist, she was more Glenn Gould than Elton John.
Actually, perhaps not Glenn Gould. Myra Hess? Vladimir Horowitz? Oh, never mind.
"Well, see you in class tomorrow," said Mio. "And thanks for all your help!"
"And you will make sure you come to see us at the School Festival, Kaede-chan?" said Azusa, anxiously.
Ritsu had been pondering things over the course of the evening. No-one wanted to offend Tsumugi, but getting Kaede to help in this way and then leaving it at that seemed – well, a bit rude. They should extend the hand of friendship.
"You know, Kaede-chan, you should definitely pop over to the Music Room and join us for tea some time. We…practice after school most days."
"Well, I wouldn't want to get in the way of you practising…" said Kaede.
"Oh, you really needn't worry about that," said Mio, almost to herself.
"…but I might come and have tea with you sometime, and I'll definitely come and see the concert." She stood up and smiled. "OK, guys, I'll let myself out. It's been a fun evening!"
Shuichi stared down at the manga being gripped in the sweaty hands of the young man standing next to him. On its eye-searingly bright cover was a drawing of a teenage schoolgirl with blonde hair, enormous, round mauve eyes, thigh-length socks and a grin with a slight edge of madness to it. She was wearing a tartan skirt that went just about past groin level with thigh-length socks, and winking at the reader, whilst thrusting her disproportionately large breasts in their general direction.
"That's "Swimming Heroine Tamiko-Chan"," said Hitoshi, the sweaty, bespectacled teen. They were standing together in the Manga and Anime Club room. It spent most of its time as a storage annexe to the school's audio-visual room, meaning there was one or other TV and DVD player in there all the time, and plenty of shelves for storing CDs and DVDs. Someone had stuck up a poster of the cast of Haruhi Suzumiya. It was unacceptable not to have strong views on which of the girls was the best.
Shuichi had had his doubts about the Manga and Anime Club all along, especially when its President had told him that "The first rule of Manga and Anime Club… is that you do not talk about Manga and Anime Club!", and all the other members seemed to find this totally hilarious. However, he was trying to take Kaede's approach of finding fun things to do to heart. And Hitoshi was a member of the Politics Club too.
"She's got…a very impressive chest, Hitoshi-kun," he said.
"Well, admittedly, that's what most people notice first, but if you're a true fan you soon learn to tune that out and concentrate on the complex plot and impressive character development…"
"Well, Tamiko-chan does look very developed…"
"Plus her boobs are relevant to the plot. She uses them to help her float better whilst swimming, which helps her win national championships with the school team…"
"…do breasts actually work that way?"
"…whilst coping with the problems that arise when you're part of a love triangle with your older brother, who's a reincarnation of a magician from the Heian Era, and a cross-dresser who's also a part-time demon hunter. Not to mention her best female friend and fellow swimmer has a crush on her."
"…I'll tell you the truth, it all sounds a lot…"
"In this chapter, everyone goes to the beach, Tamiko-chan's bikini top falls off and a guy accidentally falls into her breasts. You won't believe the comedy they manage to get out of that."
"You're right, I probably won't," thought Shuichi to himself. He didn't want to offend Hitoshi, though, since he seemed a decent guy. There was a brief, but awkward pause.
"To be honest, though, I prefer robot anime really," concluded Hitoshi.
Shuichi smiled. "I can't deny it, robots are pretty cool."
It was a few days before Kaede was able to get along to a Light Music Club meeting. By then, the School Festival was drawing ever nearer and preparations for the concert were reaching frenzied heights of activity.
"Does anyone want another slice of chocolate cake?" asked Yui.
"Mmm, yes, please!" said Ritsu.
"It's so delicious, Yui-chan, did you make it yourself?" asked Kaede.
"Oh, no, my sister Ui made it. I'm afraid I'm not very good at baking. It's so funny, I once got my flour mixed up with my icing sugar when I was making cakes. When I eventually took the baking tray out of the oven all I had made were extremely thin, sugary wafers. I said we should feed them to the dog, but Mum said we would be arrested for animal cruelty."
Everyone laughed.
"We should be practising," said Mio.
"We'll do that in a minute," said Ritsu. "Tsumugi, how's your Dad getting on with that pet politician of his?"
Tsumugi sighed. "Oh, him. I wish he'd just get elected Mayor or lose, and be done with it. As it is, he's around at our house constantly and I have to be nice to him. Now I know what it must have felt like to be courted by an old man for an arranged marriage in the olden days. He's still creepy and his teeth seem to get yellower every day. Everything he says is completely boring but I have to pretend I find it interesting. And the other day me and my sister had to serve him and all his hangers-on tea in our kimonos."
"Why would he want to drink tea from your kimonos…OW!"
Mio had hit Ritsu on the head again.
"Wow," said Kaede. "Your Dad really must think highly of this man."
Tsumugi eyed Kaede cautiously. She still hadn't quite overcome her concern that the others would ask Kaede to join the band and play keyboard, even though Ritsu and Mio had assured her that Kaede didn't want to. She was nervous about those new songs too. Her Dad was bound to hate them. He wouldn't be at the concert, because of a business trip on the day of the School Festival, but someone might still spill the beans to him…
"I think it's just for the sake of his company, Kaede-chan. The Kotobaki Corporation wants to develop some land on the edge of the city for industrial use. It isn't designated for that in the city plan, and to change that will need the Mayor's support."
"Politics is so complicated," sighed Azusa.
"Oh, who cares about it?" shrugged Yui. "Just a bunch of boring old guys in suits sitting around talking endlessly about things no-one's interested in!"
Kaede shook her head. "I can't agree with you there, Yui. You know, someone once said that the greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist. Well, the greatest trick politicians ever pulled was convincing everyone politics is very boring and you shouldn't be interested in it. Once everyone believes that, no-one bothers keeping an eye on what they get up to. The whole point of the Politics Club is to educate people, so that doesn't happen. You should come along sometime."
"Oh, come on, Kaede," pouted Yui. "Don't preach at us. You're talking like my Mum – we're all just high school kids here. We should be enjoying ourselves, not sitting around having boring discussions about stuff no-one's interested in."
"Actually, we should probably be practising our set," said Mio, not that anyone paid any attention.
Kaede's face flushed bright red. "It…it isn't boring!" she responded. "And it is important – you'll realise that one day!"
"Now you really do sound like my Mum," said Yui, with a giggle. "Are you sure you aren't an old lady in disguise! Kaede, the old lady!"
"Come on, Yui-chan, knock it off!" said Ritsu, a slightly alarmed tone in her voice. She didn't want this to develop into a serious argument.
OK, get a grip on yourself, thought Kaede, who didn't want to start an argument either, even if Yui was being a bit of a brat. Don't react to this. She thought back to those times she'd been just about to go on stage for a concert, the momentary surge of panic and how she'd been able to suppress the emotion and do what she had to. Well, perhaps or perhaps not, but anyway thinking about it seemed to work and her head cleared.
"Well, you're entitled to your opinion, Yui," she said, finally. "But it certainly looks as if politics is causing problems for Tsumugi, so maybe we should be all be worrying about those."
Tsumugi was touched by her concern. "That's so nice of you! But don't worry, I'm sure I'll be able to deal with for as long as it lasts." She wrapped her arms around Kaede's neck. "Let's just drop the whole subject. I don't want to think about it any more than I have to."
These girls really were into all the touchy-feely stuff, thought Kaede. The irony of a girl called Tsumugi featuring positively in her life did briefly occur to her, but she suppressed it. What the hell, when in Rome…Kaede reached out and hugged Yui, who hugged her back.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to offend you," they both said, more or less simultaneously, as all three of them swayed momentarily in their chairs, frozen briefly in mid-glomp. Then Azusa's voice cut in:-
"Come on, everyone – we really do need to practice now."
When the day of the Festival finally arrived, the school hall was full for After School Tea-Time's eagerly anticipated set. Kaede and Shuichi found themselves seats near the back, with Hitoshi and a few other guys from the Manga and Anime Club. Hitoshi and Shuichi had spent the evening before round at Hitoshi's home, where they had commandeered the TV to marathon some episodes of Mobile Suit Gundam 00. They were still eagerly nattering about their favourite bits of what they had seen, and how they should get together again soon and watch the rest of the series.
Kaede, who had not had chance to see much of the Light Music Club since attending their meeting, was wrapped up in her own thoughts. Did the members all think she was weird after her tiff with Yui? Or had they really forgiven her now? She surprised herself by how much she felt the need to be accepted by this oddball group of amateur musicians, but she did. She'd told Shuichi about what happened, and he'd said not to worry – but, honestly, what did a boy, even a boy detective, know about how girls thought about these things.
She was so preoccupied with all this, that she barely noticed how quiet most of the Manga and Anime Club, who were not used to girls being prepared to sit near them, had become. Well, all apart from the Club President, who boomed out, "This hall's really crowded and hot. Thanks, Obama!" and got the usual sycophantic chuckles from his closest cronies.
Meanwhile, there was a slight kerfuffle back-stage, where Mio was arguing with Sawa-chan about the latest set of costumes the Light Music Club's adviser had prepared for the band.
"I'm not performing dressed as a maid again! It's so embarrassing!" she protested. At that precise moment, she was lined up next to a nurse, two magical girls and a miko. "I always wanted to be taken seriously as a musician! How can I go on stage dressed like I'm in some idol group made up of anime girls?"
"Well, too bad – I spent six months designing and making these, you know," replied Sawa-chan. "And you're on in a minute, so there's no time to change now anyway! Now just get out there on stage and kill 'em all!"
Hearing this, Nodoka took it as her cue for an announcement, and scooted out in front of the curtain.
"Ladies and gentlemen, Sakuragaoka High School Council proudly presents…the moe-ment you've all been waiting for! You wanted the best, you got the best! The hottest band in the city…After School Tea-Time!"
The audience rose to their feet as one, and according to reliable witnesses, the resulting cheer was noticed by hard-of-hearing octogenarians in an old people's home a mile away.
"Hello, Sakuragoaka!" yelled Yui into the mic. "After School Tea-Time are here to bring the noise, so let me see some hands! We've got new songs, and we'd like to thank Kaede Akamatsu for helping us write them and generally being cool! 1…2…3…4!"
As the band launched into the first song, "Light and Fluffy Time", everyone standing around her looked at Kaede, who was blushing with pride and gratitude. They'd remembered! Shuichi took her hand in his and squeezed it gently.
"You see, it's your moment too," he shouted, over the thunder of drums and the roar of guitars.
After the performance had finished, everyone spilled out of the hall and on to the immaculately manicured lawn in front of it, chattering excitedly about what they had just seen. Lines of colourful stalls set up for the festival ran across the lawn, and lots of visitors who hadn't been interested in seeing the band were milling around them.
"Wow, that was a lot more impressive than I thought it might be!" said Shuichi. "Those girls actually can play!"
"Well, why did you think people here all said they could?" asked Kaede. She paused a second and added, "Hold on…did you think they were just popular because boys thought they were sexy or something? Ugh, that's so typical for a man!"
Shuichi flushed and looked at the ground. "What? Me? No, never, I…I…you surely can't believe I would think that way!" His girlfriend's scornful look was uncomfortably reminiscent of the one he'd usually been given by Tenko at the Academy.
Kaede was unconvinced. She punched him playfully on the shoulder. "I know you! Shuichi Saihara, you really are the world's worst liar!" There were times she couldn't believe he'd actually saved people's lives on a couple of occasions by lying convincingly.
"That ten-minute long cover of "My Generation" by The Who at the end was…well, I certainly wasn't expecting that," chipped in Hitoshi. "But I thought there was a good mix of the old songs and the ones you helped with, Kaede. Those are pretty angry – almost like punk or something."
"Oh, I think Mio wanted to do that cover," said Kaede. "She told me she loved the bass part for the song."
"I dunno, I thought the new songs just invalidated the old ones," said another Anime Club member. "I mean, those pop tunes were like the whole After School Tea-Time canon before, and now they've just been swept out of existence!"
"Well, I liked the new songs, but there should have been more of them," said another. "It was just too predictable – if you'd been to one of their concerts before, you already knew they were going to start with "Light and Fluffy Time" and put "Don't say "lazy"" somewhere in the middle. And…"
"Yo, Takashi, I'm happy for you and I'mma let you finish, but After School Tea-Time just played one of the best concerts of all time! Of all time!" interrupted the Anime Club President, to loud hilarity.
"Hey, Kaede, perhaps we should go and find something to eat?" said Shuichi, quickly. There was really no need to inflict these guys on her for an extended period. Kaede happily agreed.
The members of After School Tea-Time, exhausted, sprawled together like dozing puppies in a heap on a battered old couch that someone had left back-stage.
"I'm so tired I can hardly think," murmured Yui. Her voice was a bit hoarse, having taken a bit of a battering on some of the angry political songs.
"You'd better not get too tired," said Sawa-chan, wandering past on her way out. "You'll have to get started soon if you're going to get the instruments back to the Music Room before dawn!"
"Ugh, why don't we have roadies to do this for us yet?" grumbled Mio. "We should start charging for entry to the next concert."
Ritsu was still buzzing with the adrenaline from having pulled off the challenge she had set herself. Eat your hearts out, The Clash and Rage Against The Machine! "They try to turn our hope into despair/And make us believe that we no longer care!" she sang to herself. ""Smash the System" really went well," she said. "I think we should try and get Kaede to do some more co-writing. Maybe she can do pop lyrics too."
"Maybe!" said Tsumugi. In her heart, she would rather have stuck to the pop songs – perhaps Ritsu would let the politics slide now they'd managed to do it once. "But, anyway, we should try and get her to join if we can. Or just come along for tea again. Even if she doesn't actually play with us, she can contribute – and she seems nice, too." There was general assent to that.
"Shame that Shuichi seems to have fallen in with all the otakus in the Manga and Anime Club, though," added Mio, and there was general assent to that too. "He always seemed much too sensible for that."
"In six months, he'll probably decide he wants to marry an animu, you know, and that'll be the end of it for them," said Azusa. "I've seen it happen a thousand times. He'll end up living in his bedroom and having one-sided conversations with figurines."
"Well, all the more reason Kaede might need some friends," said Ritsu. "Now stir yourselves, you lazy lot, and let's get that gear shifted!"
A few days later, Kaede was lying on the bed in their hotel room, watching TV. There are two kinds of hotel rooms in this world – cheap, bare and uncomfortable and the fussily overdone kind that look like a cross between a grandmother's sitting room and a high-class brothel. This one was in the second category.
Shuichi had gone off somewhere on his own after school finished, saying he needed to do some research. A reporter on the evening news was talking about Japan's continuing sluggish economic growth, and Kaede started wondering about how long they could continue to live off the money from the robbery, and what they would do once it ran out. It didn't sound as if getting work would be easy, and she really wanted to avoid having to commit more crime if possible. It wasn't as if they had the moral excuse now. And what would they tell the hotel staff once their six months of "waiting to get the house renovated" were over?
Her stomach growled. She wondered about giving Shuichi a call to check when he would be getting back, as she didn't really want to go off and eat without him. She had intended suggesting they go to a noodle bar she'd found in the town centre, since they were both pretty sick of the hotel restaurant by now.
Suddenly, there was a click as the key turned in the lock, and Shuichi burst in. He was carrying a file of papers under one arm, gesticulating wildly with the other and he looked excited.
"Kaede…Kaede…I think I've found it! I think I might have made our first big breakthrough! You've got to see this!"
She jumped up off the bed and walked over to him. "Well, first, can we please shut the door, because we don't want half the hotel knowing about what we're doing?" She shut it.
"Oh, right. Sorry," said Shuichi. He hung up his cap and jacket quickly and threw the file of papers down on the bed where they could both see them. "I've been down to the local planning department," he explained. "I remembered you telling me about Tsumugi and her dad and that politician he has in his pocket. I thought it all sounded pretty corrupt, maybe a good story to stir up indignation with in the Politics Society. But I found more than I was expecting."
Shuichi opened the file, as they both bent over it, and opened up a photocopy of a large blueprint. "This is a plan of the industrial estate that the Kotobaki Corporation wants to build. Each unit has the name of the tenants they've managed to get to express an interest. And look at this one here." He pointed to one of the smaller units on the plan, marked "Dangan Software."
"Oh my goodness!" said Kaede.
"I think it must be a very new start-up right now, just beginning operations," said Shuichi. "This will be its first proper base, and if I'm right, this is where it's going to develop the first Danganronpa game. Right on our doorstep."
Kaede smiled. "That's fantastic news, darling! We were stumbling around trying to find our target, and, finally, here it is. Now we know where to concentrate our efforts."
"Yeah," said Shuichi. "Of course, we still have to work out how we stop them making the game. It's not as if we can just start picketing at their doors because we say they're going to make a game that'll lead to people dying in the future…As someone would say, we've still got a ways to go."
"You know what, Shuichi – we can worry about all that later," said Kaede. "At least we've made some progress. Let's celebrate!"
She threw her arms around him, and he returned the hug, and they kissed long and passionately.
"Phew!" he gasped, when the clinch was over. "That was…quite intense!"
"You can thank the Light Music Club for the hugging practice," she laughed. "Perhaps I need to stick around there!"