Yui rubbed her eyes and walked out of her bedroom. The living room furniture was left in the same state as the night before, but outside the windows, the world wasn't. A thick layer of white, as if someone had frosted the streets like a cake, slowly blew past. The apartment felt noticeably chillier than it had the night before. It was only eight o'clock. Yui reached for the light switch, hoping for a better view of the goings on. The radio could be heard from Ritsu's room.

"A low lying fog is sweeping the city today. Temperatures will be colder than usual, so bring a sweater. People are advised to stick close together, as visibility has been significantly reduced. Weather reports are uncertain on when the fog will lift, as the cloud system is still hovering over Kyoto. Now, in other news, the..."

"It's amazing..." Yui said, pressing her face to the glass, "Everyone, wake up!"

"Yui's up early?" asked Mio as she roused from her slumber and walked into the room, still dressed in her bunny pajamas.

"Geez, it's cold," said Ritsu, following right behind. Ritsu had yet to slide her headband on, letting her naturally wild hair throw itself in all directions, "What time is it?"

"Good morning, everyone," said Tsumugi in a singsong voice, looking ready for the day despite such short notice. Triton's master does not follow the same rules as us.

"It's fog!" Yui exclaimed, "I've never seen fog like this. It's like our apartment is floating on the clouds."

This is what they call "Fluffy Fluffy Time."

"Guess we'll have to cancel storage practice," Ritsu said. "Hey, Mio, what's wrong?"

Mio was burying her head in the couch. She had covered her head with a pillow, ignoring what Ritsu was saying. Ritsu yanked the pillow off and looked at her friend. Mio's face was pale, as white as the clouds outside. Ritsu laid her hand on Mio's shoulder. She was shivering, and her pupils had shrunk.

"Are you cold?" Ritsu asked.

"I'm scared..." Mio said, "I can't see anything. What if there's someone out there and they tap me on the shoulder and then..." she let out a small whimper, "I can't hear anything, I can't see anything..."

"Mio, it's our apartment, there's nothing out there we don't already know," Ritsu said, "When's this fog supposed to clear?"

"They don't know," said Tsumugi.

"Relax, Mio, I'll be with you," Ritsu said, "Friends?"

"Friends..." Mio said, sitting up and embracing Ritsu far too tightly.

With the fog's cold arms embracing our apartment, time became disoriented. We couldn't disturb the neighbors, and the fog prevented us from going anywhere. Tsumugi was the one to jump start the members of Houkago Tea Time from their doldrums by returning to an old pastime, their third favorite thing after music and tea. Photography. She pulled out a camera from within the kitchen drawer, and pointed it at Mio and Ritsu. Though the morning fog had dimmed the apartment, her face was blushing bright red.

"Stay like that," Tsumugi said, "This is a shutter chance! I'm not letting it get away."

Mio placed her hands further up Ritsu's arms. Her pajama pants slid against the couch, moving her lips closer to Ritsu's face. Ritsu, unbalanced, felt her hands move up Mio's shirt and onto her chest. Ritsu felt her fingers squeeze against the fabric of Mio's pajamas and into the pillowy skin beneath. The warm feeling that had been on her face ceased.

"Mio," Ritsu said, "What are you eating?"

"You can stop touching..." Mio said, shaking. She turned to Tsumugi, "Hurry up and take the picture already!"

Click. The light flashed before Mio and Ritsu's eyes, capturing them at a moment of awkward passion.

"Mugi, let me see the camera," Yui said.

Yui ran to the fridge and pulled out a box. She opened it up, revealing a slice of strawberry cake from the night before. The apartment tenants were shocked. That an uneaten piece of strawberry cake could still exist defied all logic. Yui zoomed out the camera's eye, hoping to capture every swerve in the frosting and some of the condensation dripping off the thawing strawberry. She salivated at the thought, a little nagging voice in her brain wanting to forgo the photography session and eat the cake.

"Closer...closer..." Yui said, zooming in.

The camera's lens impacted itself against the frosting at the edge of the cake. Splort.

"Oops," Yui said, shrinking back, "Sorry, Mugi." Tears were starting to well up in her eyes. She knew that any camera Tsumugi owned wouldn't come cheap.

"It's okay," Tsumugi said, never losing her smile, "I'll wipe if off. It's only a little frosting."

Tsumugi reached into the frosting that the camera had left an imprint in, scooping some of it onto her finger.

"Do you want to help me clean it up?"

Yui obliged, sucking on Tsumugi's finger with gusto.

Hours passed, and the fog did not lift. The camera had been abandoned on the kitchen counter when lunchtime rolled around. Yui indulged in a large bowl of rice. She looked out the window, wondering if the cat from yesterday would stop by again. The smooth sound of an engine was heard outside. The mail truck had arrived. Houkago Tea Time looked amongst themselves uncertainly, trying to mentally decide who would be the one to walk out into the fog and retrieve the day's mail.

Mio was right out.

Ritsu, wanting to stay by Mio's side until the fog cleared, was also right out.

Tsumugi, wanting to watch Ritsu stay by Mio's side and hopefully join in herself, was furthermore right out.

"Yui!" spoke the three, as if one mind.

"But I don't want to," Yui said, "What if I get lost?"

"The apartment's right where you left it," Ritsu said.

"Be brave, Yui," Mio reassured her.

Yui bundled up in her scarf and mittens, opening the door of the apartment. As it closed behind her, she was even more impressed with the fog from outside than she was from in. The sun, beginning its descent across the sky at this time, filtered through the clouds, creating rainbow colored halations before Yui's eyes. Carefully, she descended the steps of the apartment complex. She could feel the water droplets pounding against her jacket, walking through the constant drizzle to reach the mailbox at the street's edge. She looked back to the apartment window to see if her friends were looking for her, but by this point, the apartment was out of sight.

Yui reached the apartment mailboxes. She opened the girls' mailbox, hearing its familiar squeak. There wasn't much in the mailbox. It was near the end of the week, and anything important would have arrived earlier. Yui couldn't make out who the envelopes were from, and decided to check when she returned to the apartment. The walk back was the same as the walk out, only with Yui being extra careful not to drop the mail or slip on the steps. She took the stairs slowly, and hugged the wall like a chimp until she could see the plate of apartment room 202.

Yui walked back inside, took off her shoes and coat, and set the mail on the kitchen counter. Yui slumped onto the recliner. Mio, knowing that Yui wouldn't read the mail after a weathering that experience, took it upon herself to sort through the postal contents. Insurance offer. Junk mail. A letter addressed to Houkago Tea Time from Pony Canyon. Another insurance offer.

"Mugi!" Mio shouted, "I thought you weren't using your family's connections anymore. What's this doing here?" Mio showed the envelope to Tsumugi, close enough for her to see the shininess in the ink.

"The Kotobuki Company deals with music stores, record labels are outside our scope. I haven't suggested anything like this to father lately..." said Tsumugi, tilting her head.

"Record label?" said Yui and Ritsu, turning their heads, their eyes sparkling.

"I'll tell Ui!" shouted my master.

"I'll tell Sawa!" added Ritsu.

"Can we open the letter first?" Mio retaliated.

The point of the letter opener slid into the top of the envelope. Mio pulled out the folded paper and started reading. The letter looked official, bearing the watermark of Pony Canyon's offices.

"Dear Houkago Tea Time,

"I am Masaka Yumeno from Pony Canyon's publicity department. We're always interested in finding the latest bands and singers and giving them a chance to appear on stages outside of Japan. One of our interns was at your university's jazz festival a few days ago when he heard the students talking about you. Your sound is impressive. It's familiar and comforting, but well crafted. Your talent is imperfect, but with studio support, you could be fine tuned to take Japan in a few years. That is why we would like to make a proposal.

"Amateur Night at the Budokan is coming up soon, on April 2nd, and we would like to have you and another band perform under our sponsorship. The details need to be finalized, so please have a representative from your band call us in order to clarify the arrangements, if there's anything you would need or if you wish to decline our offer. Though this letter is addressed to the four of you, we have heard there are more members of your band? Please get in touch with them if you can. This is a once in a lifetime chance, so please send us a response as soon as possible.

"Signed, Masaka Yumeno
"Pony Canyon Marketing Executive."

"I was hoping it would be someone bigger, like Geneon," Ritsu said.

"Lantis would be nice too," said Yui.

"Perhaps Victor Entertainment..." said Tsumugi, "Victor. It's a nice name."

"That's not what's important right now," Mio said, "Do you understand what this means? Our dreams have returned on white wings! We don't need to go to the Budokan, the Budokan is coming to us. That makes me think of a song. White wings, filled with sugar dreams and rainbow halations...I need to get writing."

"To Pony Canyon?" asked Ritsu.

"No," Mio said, "I don't know the first thing about business! I meant new song lyrics. How long do we have?"

"April 2nd," Tsumugi said, "Three months. Leave it all to me, girls."

I was resting in my master's bed, and only overheard the conversation from underneath the covers. Elation was in the air. It's the dream of every instrument to be played at such a venue, and we would be getting that chance. The voices of my companions could be heard from the neighboring bedrooms.

"Nice going, Gitah!" said Mellow Yellow, "Your resell value's going to shoot way up, man!"

"We're getting resold? We're not good enough?" said Elizabeth nervously, "That's what happened to Lady Sawako's guitar, isn't it? I don't want to go back there. It's dark and our entire history will be forgotten and Mio's scent is still on me, there's no way she'd really do that, is there..."

"Calm down, Elizabeth," Triton interrupted, "We are not going to be sold off like a common garage band instrument. We may be a little rusty, but our masters need us now, more than ever."

"Tokyo, the city of lights," I said wistfully, "If we can sell out there, the world will become ours. Do you really think we can do it? 'Fuwa Fuwa Time' might be getting kind of old for the audience, so we need to reinvent ourselves..."

"You're as panicky as Elizabeth," Mellow Yellow laughed, "Relax, man, it ain't gonna get easier from here."

"I can hear our masters talking," said Elizabeth, "They're saying something about Mustang's master."

"Mustang? So he's still got it going on?" said Mellow Yellow, "That newcomer put most of us to shame. I bet he's forgotten all about us."

"At the jazz festival, Yui told me that she heard his voice," I said, "It strummed of yearning and crossroads. I think his master is in a rough spot. When her schooling finishes, she wants to rejoin us, but she's been given the chance to make her own sound, be the front of her own generation. There's no place that really fits for her."

"That's deep, man," said Mellow Yellow, "Oh, Ritsu's comin' in! Gotta go!"

"My seventy six keys tremble with excitement," said Triton, "Best of luck, Gitah."

"We're really not getting sold? Just making sure..." said Elizabeth.

"No," said I, Triton and Mellow Yellow at the same time.

The next day came, and the fog had not lifted. Mio continued to cling to Ritsu's side, or to anyone's side who could give her a warm body. Elizabeth was jittery inside her bag, being jerked around with the constant force of a woman frightened. Ritsu was using a flashlight to guide us towards the storage shed. Compared to only a few days ago, there was a renewed sense of enthusiasm among the girls of Houkago Tea Time. Yui skipped down the sidewalk, singing a tune that she made up.

"Gitah and I~/Gitah and I~/Going to the Budokan/Now we're gonna play/Maybe eat some cake/and then sleep the rest of the day."

"Yui, those lyrics barely rhyme," Ritsu said, "What are you going to do if we run into a bear?"

"There are bears out here?" Mio said, gripping Ritsu.

"The only bears are in the zoo," Tsumugi reassured her.

"Something else then," Yui said, leaping behind Mio.

Yui looked at Ritsu's flashlight. It was a cheap one, cased in yellow plastic, with a light that didn't increase the group's visibility that far beyond their eye's natural line of vision. The light had the word "PEACE" stamped across it in bold black letters. Yui covered her mouth with her hands as she giggled like a chipmunk. Ritsu and Mio turned their heads.

"What's so funny?" Mio asked, laughing herself.

"That flashlight reminds me of Nodoka," Yui said.

"It's got big lenses and you couldn't do anything without it?" Ritsu quipped. "Ow."

Right on cue, Mio's hand met with Ritsu's forehead. Her hands were gloved and her aim was off, so Ritsu only ended up with a small bump on her cheek.

"That wasn't funny," Mio insisted.

"It's a chairman light!" Yui said.

"No, it's a flash...oh," said Ritsu.

"I think it was charming," said Tsumugi, latching onto Yui's back. "This is a good way to make sure we don't get lost. Jii always told me to do this on the mansion grounds during foggy days. When you form a train with the people close to you, bonds of friendship strengthen."

"We're a train!" Yui said, "The Houkago Tea Time Express, now departing from our apartment!"

Mio had been stifling her laughter for the past few minutes. Her glove didn't do much to muffle the sound, and she couldn't hold it in for much longer. She broke out in raucous laughter that could be heard across the street, causing some people to look out of their windows and wonder who that girl was. Ritsu turned around and, with her free hand, wrapped her arm around Mio.

"See, there's nothing to be scared of," Ritsu smiled.

"Ritsu," Mio said, trying to break through the laughter, her voice switching to a decidedly serious tone, "Don't let go."

The train arrived at its station once again. I was unpacked with my companions, and the door to the storage shed was closed. It took on a different air today. Where yesterday we saw a small, cramped room with no air conditioning and bad acoustics, today we saw the "garage" in garage band, the place from which dreams are born and dreamers reside. I could sense it in my master's fingers. Though this room was smaller than the stage at Sakuragaoka on which she had performed, in her head, it was now larger than the Budokan itself. An open air stadium that could hold the world if she so desired. She closed her eyes for a moment, reflecting on that possibility.

"We're aiming for the best of the old and the best of the new," said Mio, "On my count, 'Fuwa Fuwa Time'. One two three!"

There was something different about Mio now. She was eternally uncertain, about the band's future and her own. That she was always in the spotlight did not help her shyness. Now her future was assured. She was performing under a dim fluorescent light that showed her only the faces of her friends. If she screwed up, no one but those she trusted would see it. As Elizabeth described it to me, this was the inner Mio. Burning with passion about music, plucking the strings of her bass with her left hand, letting the guitar's body vibrate in turn with her. Her heart went boom, and the vibrations of youth shot forth from it. Behind the closed door of the storage shed, only there, had the true Mio awakened.

"Wow, I'm impressed," Ritsu said, "You sung those lyrics with...with passion. They're totally sappy, but wow. I never knew rabbits could be so hardcore. Sawa would be pleased."

"What's hardcore?" Yui asked.

"Yui..." said the rest of the group, giving a collective sigh.

"I want each of us to have a new song written by the time we reach the Budokan," Mio said, "Yui and I have provided the majority of our output and Mugi's helped out a bit..."

Tsumugi smiled. The light reflected off her cheeks.

"...but Ritsu, you need to step it up," the inner Mio said aloud, "You're a musician too, let's see what you can do. Just because you're a drummer doesn't mean you can slack off. We can collaborate on the melody, but I want to see some lyrics that will make the crowd get out of their seats. Ritsu Tainaka, show me your soul!"

The inner Mio retreated back into her shell as Tsumugi opened the door of the storage shed. Ritsu blinked, trying to make sure what she saw was real. It was as if the early days of the band had returned to the days before Azusa joined. Ritsu smiled as she packed her drum sticks into her bag.

"A challenge?" Ritsu said, "You've got it."

Ritsu had become accustomed to her comfortable apartment life. Mio was there for support, Tsumugi provided the food and Yui kept the place from becoming dull. She knew the Toyosato area and had found the apartments, but nobody expected her to do anything. Since Mio's challenge had been issued, Ritsu was going to do something she hadn't done since high school. Pull an all nighter. She sat the desk in her bedroom and opened the drawer, pulling out a ballpoint pen and several slightly creased sheets of notebook paper.

"Ball pen..." Ritsu said, "Nah, Mio wouldn't like that. What would everyone else do in this situation?"

Mio's lyrics were the ones most associated with Houkago Tea Time. They were sugary, often in more than one sense of the word. Such things went over well with the Sakuragaoka crowd, but now that the audience was wider, she was trying to take herself in new directions. Imitating her best friend would only make the inner Mio more stern. Ritsu made a single pen stroke across the paper and turned her mind in another direction.

"Mugi..."

Tsumugi had penned only a few compositions for the band, but compared to Mio, they had an almost poetic air to them. Maybe it was her upbringing, maybe it was Tsumugi herself. They used lots of kanji Ritsu had never even heard of, much less knew how to write, and focused primarily on the bonds of friendship and scenery. While imitating Mio would be impolite, imitating Tsumugi would be impossible.

"Maybe Yui..."

"Yes?" said my master, standing behind Ritsu.

"Gwah! Yui, what are you doing in my room?" Ritsu asked.

Yui sat down on Ritsu's bed. "I want to help you with Mio's lyric thing. It sounds fun!"

"How is this fun? She's really riding my ass about this," Ritsu said.

"It's fun because it's fun!" Yui said, "It'll be even more fun when you get to play it."

Yui's lyrics were the most personal. "U&I" had left a lasting impression on the school the day it was performed. Every other song Yui had written in the interim was about food or whatever else happened to cross her line of vision, but in a way that the listener, for a brief moment, became Yui. Was this what Mio meant when she said "Show me your soul"?

"I don't know what to write about!" Ritsu said, "Does it have to rhyme or what? How do you and Mio do this so easily?"

"My pen touches the paper and words sort of roll out of my head," Yui said.

Ritsu, besieged by writer's block, took her pen and tapped it on the edge of her desk. Tap a tap. Tap a tap. Tap tap. A quick roll and a ding on the handle followed by another tap. Hit the floor with her foot and scratch the clip across the paper and follow with another tap. Now Ritsu wasn't even thinking about the things she was doing, to a drummer such a thing goes unsaid. She'd already found a rhythm and cast a glance at the girl on her bed.

"Rit, I think you've got it, now what does this music tell you about Mellow Yellow's soul?"

With her pen across the paper, she'd rather do it now than later, "Don't stop me now 'cause I'm on a roll!

"The soul of a drummer is the soul of the summer. Hot and sweat and wild!"

"Summer means vacation!" said my master with elation closing her eyes as she smiled.

"This is what I'll write about, and this is what I'll show! Just because I'm in the back doesn't mean I'm gonna slack. Budokan, let's and go!"

I could hear Tsumugi in the next room playing along with the melody Ritsu and Yui had discovered. Triton's seventy six keys serenaded us well into the night. Ritsu's creative spirit was fired up. She wrote not only "Drumming Shining My Life", but enough songs for a mini album. Yui never left Ritsu's bed, and ended up falling asleep on Ritsu's bed. Ritsu cradled her head in her arms and, around three in the morning, her body gave out, sending her into slumber as well.

The next morning, the apartment was covered in residue from the fog. Everything had a glassy glean to it, the glaring glaze turning every surface into a slippery and reflective one. Light bounced across the windows, casting brief rainbows wherever it hit. Mio, being the first one up, as she was the only one who had fallen asleep at her usual time, was glad the sun was out.

She walked over to Ritsu's room. The signboard with Ritsu's name written in hiragana swayed back and forth as Mio pushed the door open. Her socks kept her silent as she moved closer and closer to Ritsu's desk. A stack of papers with ink, some of it smudged and a few of the papers tucked under Ritsu's arms, was scattered across her desk. Yui lay on Ritsu's bed, drooling onto her pillow.

Mio picked up the lyrics sheet and skimmed it. It didn't use any difficult kanji, but according to the lyrics, life was a game, one that Ritsu intended to win, or at least put up a fair fight in. Mio removed Ritsu's headband, freeing her wild hair onto her eyes. She patted her friend on the head. Ritsu waved one of her hands in the air and wrapped it around Mio's arm.

"Good job," Mio said.

Mio walked into the kitchen and saw the calendar, decorated with photographs of the girls, hanging on the wall. She flipped the calendar ahead to April.

Mio said wistfully, "We're almost there, girls. The day we've been waiting for."