All right, here we go! I have been meaning to write something like this ever since it got announced that Akesaka Satomi, the original seiyuu of Shirokane Rinko, would retire from being a seiyuu of this franchise due to hearing problems. I never had the chance to do so because of real life but here we are now…

One might wonder why I am not writing and publishing a Kokoro-centric oneshot for today as it is Kokoro's birthday… while I could give the excuse of "I am not too confident in depicting Kokoro" (which is not false), it is also my birthday so I can do what I want. And I chose to write this oneshot.

Disclaimer: I do not own BanG Dream! Girls Band Party. Nor do I, in any way, shape or form, intend to pretend that I do. The cover image is by your's truly, though, after basing it on Neo-Aspect Rinko (the nightmare of tiering that event…).

~~~ "I knew that something was wrong…" ~~~

"And that is how Rinrin and Ako defeated the big boss monster!" Ako exclaimed proudly whilst waving her arms in the air animatedly, eliciting a smile from Rinko who was sitting beside her and a laugh from the brunette she was talking to. Ako was not done just yet, though, as she picked up right where she had left off, "You should have seen Rinrin in action, Lisa-nee! She was all cool and calm and collected and then she… she… um… well… she made things go BOOM and such. It was really awesome!"

After a grinding two-hour practice session in the studio, the members of Roselia had agreed on a fifteen minutes break to get some fresh air and clear their minds a little. Ako, Lisa, and Rinko had decided to leave the building altogether and were now seated at the café right outside the studio.

As Rinko was sipping her glass of hot milk and listening to Ako recount the adventure that the two of them went on the previous night, she thought she heard a bell go off. Rinko turned in the direction where she thought the sound came from but didn't see anything. Pushing the thought to the back of her mind in favor of not looking off and worrying her friends, Rinko turned back to the conversation at hand in time to see Lisa's cheerful response to Ako's story.

"I am sure Rinko was awesome," Lisa said as the laugh from earlier was still very much audible in her voice. Placing her hand on Ako's shoulder and turning to look at Rinko, the bassist of Roselia added, "Come on, let's go back inside before Yukina or Sayo start scolding us for staying out so long. Or worse… both of them."

"But Lisa-nee… it's only been twelve minutes…" Ako whined as she rested her chin on the table they were seated at. Rinko saw this and was about to try and comfort her friend when Ako spoke again, "Can't we stay out a bit longer?"

"You can if you really want to, but Sayo seemed like she won't stop until we finish this song," Lisa said as she put a finger on her chin, reminiscing how vocal the usually cool, calm and collected Sayo had been earlier. The silence that Lisa had created had its intended effect as Ako whimpered in her arms, so Lisa took advantage of this and struck again, "You wouldn't want to be on the receiving end of Sayo's wrath for taking forever to return to practice, now would you, Ako~?"

"All right all right," Ako finally relented before she allowed herself to be guided off by Lisa. The two of them had already taken enough steps for Lisa to be able to hold the handle of the door leading to CiRCLE when Ako realized something. Turning her head around she called out to the person she saw standing there, "Are you coming, Rinrin?"

"Ah, right… I'm sorry…" Rinko added that last part softly as soon as she knew that she was within hearing distance of her two bandmates. Then, slightly louder, she added, "Let's… let's go."

~~~ "But I was too scared…" ~~~

"All right, that is enough for now," Yukina called out after a practice session that seemed to have lasted forever. The moment the words left her lips everybody but Sayo and Yukina herself slumped down on the ground while letting out a sigh of relief. Yukina, on the other hand, took this opportunity to turn to Sayo, "Sayo, how was that last one?"

"Let's see… Minato-san's vocals were a bit off-pitch, please lower it a little to more properly synchronize with the instruments," Sayo said and Yukina nodded in understanding. Sayo then turned to Ako and gave her comments on the drummer's performance, "Udagawa-san, I cannot believe I am saying this but your drumming lacked power, especially towards the end. This could be due to exhaustion, but regardless the cause please keep this in mind for the future."

"Roger, Sayo-san!" Ako said as she waved her arm in the air to show that she had heard her, too tired to do anything else. It was also because of this that she allowed her hand to fall down on the ground with a thud as soon as she finished, landing only centimeters away from her face.

"Imai-san, your performance was good but try to add a bit more power in your bass as well," Sayo addressed the band's bassist with something that could very well hint at a small smile before she elaborated, "If Udagawa-san's drumming is to become more powerful they will surely drown out your bass playing if it remains at this level. We need to compensate for that by increasing the bass' power accordingly."

"I understand," Lisa nodded as she began packing up her bass in her case. As she did this, Lisa watched Sayo in her periphery move towards Rinko for Sayo's final comment.

"Shirokane-san, your performance was good as well except for a part where you were half a beat too slow," Sayo began as she turned to Rinko. Expecting a reaction of some sort, even if only in the form of a small nod, Sayo was surprised to see that Rinko continued to stare at her with wide eyes. Starting to feel a little unnerved by this, Sayo tried to break the uncomfortable silence in a shaky voice, "S-Shirokane-san?"

"A-Ah, I'm sorry!" Rinko cried out suddenly, her eyes hinting at something dawning on her. Soon after this strange reaction, Rinko grabbed her bag and rushed out of the door without looking at anyone. She did manage to say something that sounded like she was not feeling all that well, but she had already left the studio by the time anyone else had the chance to ask her anything about it.

"That… wasn't very Rinko-like…" Lisa breathed out as she stared at the door Rinko had run out from. Without missing a beat and letting her curiosity guide her, Lisa turned to Ako and asked, "Say, Ako, have you heard anything from Rinko about her not feeling well lately?"

"No, Ako has not…" Ako admitted with a sad look on her face. The short drummer seemed to have recalled something, however, as she added soon after, "But Ako has noticed Rinrin acting less cheerful than usual. Ako has never asked Rinrin about it, though, so Ako does not know."

"Rinko…"

~~~ "I ran and ran from my fears…" ~~~

About half an hour had passed since Rinko ran away from her friends and comrades of Roselia and she was currently finding herself somewhere in the middle of the city center. She had been so engrossed in trying to run away that she did not pay much attention to where she was going… and now she was lost.

As Rinko was trying to find her way again in the sea of people, all the while trying to remain as calm as she possibly could be in a situation such as this, she saw something that she had not been expecting. Leaving the café on the other side of the road were two people Rinko knew only too well.

"So what do you think of that strawberry parfait?" Himari asked her friend as the two of them entered the outside world and shielded their eyes from the harsh sunlight. As soon as she had seemingly recovered from this she added in a cheerful voice, "I think it was pretty good."

"It was all right," Moca shrugged as she adjusted her hoodie to fit her more comfortably. Almost nonchalantly, Moca added, "I think I liked the parfait from that other café more."

"Well, of course, that one was from—" Himari began her response with a bright smile when she stopped abruptly. Before Moca could take note of this or even take advantage of this opportunity, Himari pointed to somewhere off in the distance and asked, "Isn't that Rinko-san?"

The next thing that Rinko knew was happening was that both Himari and Moca were making their way towards her, wading through the sea of people almost effortlessly. Rinko did not know if this was because they were just better at traveling in crowds than she was or if it had something to do with how everybody jolted away from Moca as if they were shocked, but either way, it did not matter. Rinko had been spotted and it was too late to try and run away now.

"Hi, Rinko-san, fancy running into you here of all places," Himari greeted Rinko with a cheerful wave as soon as she was within hearing distance of her senior. Moca, on the other hand, remained standing behind Himari as she looked at Rinko with a careful look in her eyes.

Rinko did not respond to Himari's cheerful greeting, or at least not in the same way. Or even in a way that Himari would have expected her senior would respond. Instead, Rinko grasped both of her upper arms, turned around and ran off without saying a word. This left Himari and Moca all alone, one visibly more confused than the other.

"What's wrong with Rinko-san…?" Himari asked as she looked in the direction that Rinko had run off to. A weird sound that seemed like it was somewhere between a gasp and a laugh could be heard from Himari's side, prompting Himari to turn around, "What's so funny, Moca?"

"Moca-chan was just wondering how Afterglow managed to stay strong this long when we have a leader like Hii-chan," Moca said with a teasing smirk adorning her features as she took a step or two forward. Ignoring the indignant cry from her friend, Moca added in a much more serious tone, "Anyone would be able to see that something was wrong with Rinko-san, and if you looked well enough you would also see what is bothering her. Hii-chan's just blind."

"So I can't read the mood very well, that's no reason for you to keep teasing me about it!" Himari cried out. Quickly seeing that this would not have an effect on Moca, Himari decided to shrug the jab at her pride off and move to a more serious matter, "So what is it that is bothering Rinko-san?"

"It's just a hunch, but based on how she was acting just now…"

~~~ "Not realizing that my fears had already caught up to me…" ~~~

Moca separated with Himari not long after they had run into a running Rinko in the hopes of being able to find her faster this way. So far, their efforts had been in vain as they had yet to find a trace of the keyboardist, but Moca had managed to run into someone else.

"Sorry about that, Lisa-san," Moca said sheepishly as she offered her hand to her friend and senior who was sprawled on the ground. Lisa accepted it and allowed herself to be pulled back on her feet, and Moca added in her usual tone, "What is Lisa-san doing all the way out here?"

"I was actually on my way to Rinko's. She hasn't been acting like her usual self and we've started to get worried about her," Lisa said as she quickly dusted herself off. Once she had made sure that she was clean, Lisa gave Moca an apologetic smile, "I'm sorry, Moca, but I don't have time to chat with you right now."

With that said, Lisa took her purse and was already on her way again before Moca had enough time to respond. What surprised Lisa, however, was the fact that she was not the only one who was walking this way; Moca was putting up a good fight in keeping up with her.

"Lisa-san left before I could tell you," Moca said, her breathing heavy as if she was already out of breath trying to keep up with Lisa. Lisa saw this and slowed down enough for Moca to walk beside her at a more comfortable pace, something that Moca was very grateful for. Taking a deep breath, Moca continued, "Hii-chan and I actually ran into Rinko-san just now, but Rinko-san ran away faster than Ran usually does."

"I see… and where is Himari now?" Lisa asked as the two girls sidestepped a young girl walking her dog with her parents. As soon as she was walking beside Moca again, Lisa added, "Wouldn't Himari be with you if the two of you were together just now?"

"We decided to split up so we could try and find Rinko-san faster," Moca said casually as she tucked away a stray strand of hair behind her ear. When Moca saw the look that she was getting, she quickly added, "I'll tell her that I have found her when we reach Rinko-san's house."

"You sure have grown a lot, Moca…" Lisa muttered to herself as she eyed her friend with a fond smile. Unfortunately for Lisa, this did not go unnoticed, but Lisa shrugged off Moca's following question by simply stating that there was nothing wrong.

"Say, Lisa-san… where is Rinko-san's house?" Moca asked Lisa once the two of them had put the hustle and the bustle of the city center behind them. The two girls were now standing in front of the largest house that Moca had ever seen, and Moca was not one to keep her curiosity hidden, "And why are we waiting in front of this mansion? Don't we need to hurry and get to Rinko-san's place as fast as possible?"

"Moca, this house is Rinko's house," Lisa said with an amused smile, one that only widened when she saw the look on Moca's face. Lisa did not have the luxury to imprint this sight into her memory for later, however, and she was well aware of this. In a much more serious tone, Lisa addressed Moca and added, "Moca, listen. I know that this is selfish of me to ask but please let me do the talking with Rinko. Rinko is not very good at talking with new people and, no offense, that includes you."

~~~ "I know it is already too late for me…" ~~~

"Rinko, it's me! Lisa! Can I come in?" Lisa called out as she knocked on the door with all of her might. After getting the guarantee from Moca that the guitarist would stay back while giving Lisa the opportunity to talk with Rinko, Lisa had started to try and call for Rinko to open the door. Unfortunately for her, however, this was met with little to no effect.

As Lisa was doing this, Moca was standing a few steps away from her and wondering whether she should try and stop the brunette or roar with laughter. Before Moca could decide what to do or allow her body to decide for her, the door swung open and Lisa almost punched the person on the other side in the face.

"Ah… Rinko, um…" Lisa trailed off when she saw that she had almost made the situation even worse by hitting the person she came here to help. Not knowing how to pick up where she had left off, Lisa ended up clearing her throat awkwardly and scratching her cheek sheepishly before saying the first thing that came into her mind, "So, um… how have you been, Rinko?"

Rinko did not respond to Lisa's question, at least not directly. Much to the shock of Lisa and Moca, all that Rinko did was wrap her arms around herself and look at Lisa with wet eyes. The heavy and painful silence ticked on by until one of the three of them finally broke it.

"Rinko! What's wrong?!" Lisa cried out as she took a hurried step forward and about to grab Rinko by the shoulders. Lisa realized too late that this was a mistake when Rinko took three hasty steps back, "Rinko…"

"I know that Moca-chan promised to stay behind, but could you please allow Moca-chan to get involved now~?" Moca asked in a cheerful and surprisingly playful voice for the situation at hand. Moca had already walked up to stand by Lisa's side before Lisa even had the chance to say anything, so Moca added, "Just leave this to Moca-chan~."

"Moca, what are you doing?" the question had already left Lisa's lips before she could help herself. Knowing that Moca would already have heard her anyways, she added, "Do you know what is wrong with Rinko?"

"Moca-chan has an idea~ but Moca-chan sure is thirsty… Rinko-san, may Moca-chan get some water?" Moca turned to Rinko as she asked the question, making sure that Rinko knew that the question was directed to her. Much to Lisa's disappointment, Rinko did not respond to Moca's question at all, but this did not seem to demotivate Moca at all; as a matter of fact, Moca seemed like she was happy about something. Without missing a beat and slouching down a bit, Moca added in a whine, "Moca-chan's feet are killing me. Say, Rinko-san, can Moca-chan sit down on the nice couch over there?"

Once again, the only reaction that Rinko was giving that made Moca and Lisa know that she acknowledged their presence at all was the widening of her eyes as she looked at them. Moca only nodded seriously before she turned to Lisa, "Lisa-san, can I borrow your phone for a bit?"

"My phone?" Lisa echoed as she watched Moca walk up to her. Lisa was about to ask Moca what was happening when she saw the look on Moca's face. Recognizing the look all too well, Lisa dug through her purse to try and find her phone before handing it to Moca with a small nod, "Here you go, Moca. I hope you know what you are doing."

~~~ "I thought it would be better like this…" ~~~

"After Moca and I arrived at Rinko's place, I couldn't get Rinko to talk with me, but Moca managed to do so easily," Lisa explained to the other members of Roselia, helping them catch up to what had happened the other day in their go-to family restaurant. As Lisa had expected, the news had hit the other three just as hard as it had hit her, if not more so, and so she remained quiet to let her friends think about this.

It was Sayo who broke the silence first.

"Why didn't Shirokane-san tell us about it?" Sayo wondered out loud as she looked away in a grimace, the realization that one of her comrades had been hurting without her knowing only now starting to settle in.

"According to Moca, Rinko didn't want to worry us about this," Lisa explained as she played around with her phone in her hands, more as an excuse to do something with them and help hide the fact that they were shaking. After taking a deep breath to try and calm herself down, Lisa added, "Apparently, Rinko's hearing has been bad ever since a few months ago…"

"Ako!" Yukina called out when the purple-haired drummer had jumped from her seat and wanted to make a beeline for the door, but somebody had stopped her in time to prevent that.

"Ako, it is no use going to Rinko now," Lisa said in a surprisingly calm and even tone, but her hand that was holding Ako by the shoulder, as well as her own voice, was giving her away. Taking a deep breath to try and calm herself down, Lisa added, "What we should be doing now is to think of something we could do to help Rinko."

"Lisa-nee…" Ako breathed out before accepting her fate. With a defeated nod, Ako walked back to her seat and sat down with a pout, "Ako can't sit still knowing that Rinrin is hurt."

"Believe me, Ako, none of us like this," Lisa said as Yukina and Sayo nodded to show their agreement. With a sigh, Lisa turned to Yukina, "Do you have any ideas, Yukina?"

"None that come to mind directly, unfortunately," Yukina admitted before she took another sip of her drink and let her thoughts wander. After some time had passed, Yukina turned to Lisa and asked, "You said Aoba-san managed to get Rinko to talk, correct? How did she do that if even Ako was unable to do so?"

"Moca was talking with Rinko over the phone. Not through a call or anything but with texts," Lisa said as she recalled how easily Moca had managed to talk with Rinko after Lisa had lent Moca her phone. Knowing that she couldn't be wasting any time reminiscing about this, Lisa turned back to her friends and said, "So if we can find a way for Rinko to talk to us through chatting, we would at least be able to talk with her for now."

"It would not be that easy, Imai-san," Sayo said with a serious look on her face, looking at Lisa with a scrutinizing gaze before she realized what she was doing. With a soft sigh and the utterance of what sounded like an apology, Sayo elaborated on what she was saying, "It was not just the fact that Shirokane-san could not hear us that caused her feelings of distress. There is something else as well, and if we are so foolish to ignore that then we will not be making any progress at all."

~~~ "And that was when you were there…" ~~~

Two months had passed since Rinko had first started to reveal that she had problems; problems that she could not handle herself and problems that she did not wish to be burdening her friends with. She did not spend that time doing nothing, however, nor did she spend it alone.

"Thank you for doing all of this for me, Moca-chan," Rinko typed on her phone, tilting the device in such a way that Moca would be able to see it without a lot of effort on her part. As soon as she knew that Moca had read it, Rinko took her phone in her hands again and began typing away rapidly, "But do you really think that this is a good idea? I have run for so long without telling them anything. I am sure they would be really mad at me after everything I did."

"Please don't worry about a thing, Rinko-san; Moca-chan is sure that everything will work out somehow~," Moca showed her phone with a smile something that, much to Moca's relief, seemed to be able to help Rinko feel more at ease. Without hesitating even a little, Moca scrolled down on her phone a little to reveal the next part of her carefully written-out message, "If anything happens to you, Moca-chan will jump in and protect you~!"

Upon reading this, Rinko had to cover her mouth with her hand in what would have been a soft giggle. While seeing this silent action did put a smile on Moca's face as well, it also managed to leave her with a pang of hurt deep in her chest. Moca tried to not let this show too much, however, fearing that it might ruin the small boost in mood that Rinko seemed to be having.

"I will leave it to you then, Moca-chan," Rinko showed her phone with a smile, one that managed to help ease Moca's worries as well. The two of them then continued to walk in silence, something that was not extremely difficult to do but this silence felt different. It felt nice and calm, and both girls knew this.

Far too soon for either of their tastes did Moca and Rinko arrive at the agreed meeting place. It was here that Moca started to pick up on the worries that her senior was feeling, and without a second thought she grabbed Rinko's hand and squeezed it gently. Moca felt Rinko stiffen at the contact but before long she returned the gesture, telling Moca that it was appreciated.

Moca then watched Rinko take a deep breath before she placed her hand on the door in front of her and pushed it open, stepping inside the building that she had been avoiding all this time.

When the door had swung open, Rinko had shut her eyes tight in an effort to protect herself from seeing what was on the other side. When she didn't feel anything, she slowly opened her eyes and had to cover her mouth with both of her hands to try and stifle the cry that threatened to escape her lips.

Inside CiRCLE were the remaining four members of Roselia, each holding the others' hands and standing in a half circle. This alone, however, was not what caused such a reaction from Rinko; it was the fact that they were all wearing a shirt with Rinko's face on it and that Lisa and Ako, who were standing on either end of the line, were holding up a banner that said 'Welcome back, Rinko!'.

At this point, Rinko had dropped down on the floor and hid her face in her hands, preventing anyone from seeing her true reaction. After some time had passed and even Sayo had walked up to Rinko's side, Rinko finally lifted her head and, for the first time in over two months, opened her mouth to speak.

"Thank you…"

~~~ "Thank you for being there." ~~~

"And so Ako-chin came up with the idea that we should do something like this for Rinko-san," Moca finished explaining as she lowered her phone and looked up to see Rinko's reaction. Having looked up in time to see Rinko wipe the corner of her eye, Moca began typing away again, "We decided that this would be a good idea to help welcome you back to where you belong, Rinko-san."

"Aoba-san," Yukina's voice broke through the air and caught Moca by surprise. When Yukina was sure that she had Moca's full and undivided attention, she spoke again, "In the name of every member of Roselia, thank you for everything that you have done for Rinko. We are in your debt."

"There is no need to be so formal, Minato-san," Moca said in what was almost a sing-song kind of voice. Stifling a chuckle after seeing the look on Yukina's face, Moca added, "I am sure that if the situation were to be reversed and something were to happen to someone at Afterglow that you would not hesitate to help them out, either. Right, Minato-san~?"

"Eh… Ah… You… are not wrong, Aoba-san…" Yukina finally relented as a rosy tint adorned her features, something that Lisa was not above bringing up. Shrugging Lisa off as if her earlier comment did not even occur, Yukina added in her usual serious voice, "Do not tell anyone in Afterglow that I said that, Aoba-san. Especially not to Mitake-san."

"Too late~," Moca said as her thumb chose that moment to touch the screen and send the message to the Afterglow group chat. Narrowly avoiding Yukina's wrath with the help of Lisa, Moca took her phone again and typed away… after she had assured Yukina that it was to Rinko, "What are your plans now?"

After every one of Roselia had finished reading what Moca had written down for Rinko, they all turned to look at Rinko with bated breath. It was clear that they were all wondering the same thing and would have gone and asked Rinko themselves had Moca not beaten them to it.

"I want to continue… and I will work hard to make up for everything I made everyone go through because of me!" Rinko's typing had slowed down considerably, but everybody knew that Rinko could not be surer of herself anymore. Facing her smiling friends, Rinko showed what she had just added, "And I want to keep going and play music until the very end with everyone!"

~~~ "Thank you for saving me." ~~~

And that wraps up this oneshot! It turned out a whole lot less angsty than I thought it would be, but eh… saving up the angst for TFGOA 2.0, am I right~? I hope you enjoyed it, please leave a review telling me what you thought, and until next time! Take care!