Well, this is going to be an interesting chapter, I think. It was at least very fun to be writing, so I hope you all enjoy reading it, too!

BanG Dream? Nuh-uh, no way! I don't own something like that!

"Ran! Are you listening?"

"Yes, father!" Ran responded quickly, straightening her back and looking at a point in front of her in a hurry. She had been zoning out since several minutes ago and was now mentally berating herself for not paying full attention.

This was the promise she made to her father: she would be allowed to play in her band if she were to pick up ikebana and follow her family's footsteps afterward. Something that Ran didn't realize until much later, she noted with a sour mood, was that she could very well have done both at the same time.

Unfortunately for Ran, she noted as a pang of sadness struck her heart, her band had unofficially disbanded over three years ago. On the day of her graduation. And while she wasn't against ikebana anymore, unlike her former self, it still served as a reminder to her of what she did.

It reminded her of the pain that she must have inflicted on her friends on that day. That day when everything took a turn for the worse. That day when she disappeared without a trace.

Ran could feel her vision become hazy and knew that she had to do something about it quickly. Being in an enclosed space wasn't helping her a lot, so she knew that she only had one option.

"Father, I…" Ran began, but cut herself off before she finished her sentence. What was she doing? What was she going to say? How was she going to say what she wanted to say?

Ran gulped, trying to calm her nerves as the deadly silence only made things worse for her. The look on Ran's father's face didn't make things easier for the young Mitake, either. After an extended period of silence, Ran finally managed to finish her sentence, "I'm going to take a walk. I want to take a better look around."

'It wasn't exactly a lie,' Ran thought to herself as she took a mental note of her father's expression. The Mitake family moved only a day after Ran's graduation day to a new city none of them had ever gone to before. None of them had truly adjusted themselves to their new neighborhood just yet despite having already lived here for several years.

But nobody in the family was more affected by this than Ran herself.

Ran had already turned around and was about to leave when she felt a hand on her shoulder. Surprised and caught off guard, she turned around to look straight into her father's eyes.

"Have fun."

Ran remained silent for a while, not knowing just how to respond. A few seconds soon came and went before she finally could say something again.

"Thank you, father."

Half an hour had passed after leaving her house and Ran was already feeling a lot better, having really needed some alone time more than she thought she did. With the air cooling down significantly as the end of the year was quickly nearing, Ran had made sure to wear for the occasion. Or, at least, she tried to.

Ran passed by an empty store and took a moment to look at her reflection in the glass window. She saw a young woman of twenty-one, not too tall but not short, either. Her black hair was contrasted by a single streak of red on the left side of her face. The same red streak that she had for years now, and one of the few things that she had to remind her of her past.

The woman in the reflection was wearing a black jacket that was unbuttoned, revealing a light-purple sweater underneath. She had a beige scarf wrapped around her neck and had denim shorts over black leggings to cover her legs.

Ran shivered slightly as she looked at herself with a frown, wondering why she thought that this was going to keep her warm in this weather. And then it dawned on her.

"I really don't change, do I?" Ran asked herself with a half-smile, even noting that she brought that scarf with her today. The very same scarf that she got three years ago from— Ran shook her head vigorously to clear the painful memories from her mind only for her to hear a familiar name.

It wasn't very crowded today in the streets, so where did that voice come from?

"And here I am with the vocalist and founder of the recently regrouped band Roselia, Minato Yukina-san!"

Ran was now looking all around her to try and find the source of the voice when her eyes landed on the display of the store next to the one she was looking at. An electronics store, to be precise, that had different TV's displayed in the front.

And all of them were showcasing the same channel.

"Roselia has finally regrouped and started to make a name for themselves once again after a two-year long hiatus," a woman in her thirties announced on the screen, arguably being the center of attention for the viewers. Any viewer not named Mitake Ran, that is. Ran was focused on the person who the announcer directed her next words to soon after, "Minato-san, first and foremost: congratulations on your most recent live!"

"Thank you," Yukina nodded with a smile, but Ran noticed what nobody else did. Ran saw through her senior's façade and knew that she was not showing signs of any emotion as always.

"Minato-san, your performance was amazing, but it did leave some questions in your audience. May I?" the announcer asked, waiting to be given the permission to continue. When that was given, she was visibly holding back so as to not overwhelm the vocalist, "Your performance was very stunning, but a lot of people, myself included, have been wondering if you have anyone you were dedicating your performance to."

"I do, my family and friends. I would not have made it half as far as I have without any of them, and I am forever grateful for their support," Yukina replied without any form of hesitance, receiving a satisfied nod of the woman with her. But Yukina wasn't finished, "It was not just my friends and comrades of Roselia that helped me become who I am today, although a lot of credit should be given to them as well. There was a friend in my high school years who was in a different band. We may not have been very close, and we may not always have been seeing eye-to-eye, but her presence alone pushed me forward. It is a shame that I could never show her my gratitude, and that is something that I will never be able to forgive myself for."

"I see…" the woman trailed off, visibly deflated upon hearing this piece of information. This is in stark contrast to Ran's reaction, having tensed up upon hearing Yukina's words. So much so that she almost missed that the interview continued in her lack of attention soon after, "I am sure that with a performance like that, your friend would have heard you no matter where she is. So if you knew that your friend was listening to you right now, what would you say?"

"Mitake-san, I do not know where you are right now or even if you hear this, but if you are listening then I wanted to wish you well," Yukina said, her face looking straight at the camera and, as a result, seemed like she was looking straight at Ran on the other side of the screen. There was no way that Yukina could be sure of this, however, but she continued anyway, "And I look forward to the day that I get to see you on stage once again."

"There you have it, everybody!" the interviewer exclaimed cheerfully with open arms, the camera's focus zooming in on her face, "That wraps up our short interview with Minato Yukina-san. Thank you for your time, again, and good luck with your next live!"

"Thank you again for having me here," Yukina said with a slight nod of the head before both of them disappeared and made way for a series of advertisements to show on screen.

Ran just stood there not moving at all, almost as if she was frozen in place. She didn't know how to react to what she had just seen. It wasn't quite that her senior and rival vocalist was rising up the ranks that surprised her; Ran had expected as much with how good they were. A band like Roselia would surely be able to reach the top without much effort, as much as Ran didn't want to admit that.

It was the words Yukina said specifically to her that shook Ran.

"Minato-san… everyone…" Ran muttered through gritted teeth, clenching her fists to the point where her nails dug significantly into the palm of her hands. While the sudden jolt of pain was surprising for Ran, it did help her get back to reality, "After all this time and after everything that I did… everyone should have hated me… but still…"

Of course, it was that exact moment that Ran's mind chose to vividly replay a certain memory for her. She couldn't just see everything that happened on that day, but she could hear and feel everything as well. From the crash of the iron beams to the many screams in the audience and the terror that she was feeling when she got up.

Ran felt it all as if it were happening all over again. And just when she was about to scream, a miracle happened.

The pain and terror that Ran felt dissipated and the memory that she was forced to relive changed. Now she was shown a different memory, one that was much brighter than the one before.

Ran could see the rooftop of her junior high school, a place that she used to spend a lot of time on. It was late afternoon, with the setting sun enveloping the whole area in a brilliantly warm shade of orange. But what was interesting was that the place wasn't empty.

A group of girls, none of them looking like they were any older than fifteen, were all huddled close and enjoying the magnificent view that only that rooftop could give them.

And that was all that Ran needed to remember.

"I'm home…" Ran announced rather meekly, closing the door behind her before putting off her shoes, scarf, and jacket. She was barely done with this all when she realized she wasn't alone in the hallway anymore.

"Welcome home, Ran," a familiar low voice greeted the young Mitake, prompting Ran to look up and see her father return the gaze. He was holding a phone that had its screen illuminate the room, telling Ran that her father knew. She didn't even need to hear her father's next words to confirm this, "You wanted to talk?"

Ran nodded despite silently wondering why she even needed to in the first place. Her father had clearly seen the message that she had sent him only a couple of minutes ago. Ran could even see some of the familiar words on the screen, further confirming that her father already knew.

This was all the confirmation her father needed. He turned around slowly and led the way to the newly decorated living room. Once there, both father and daughter made themselves comfortable for the talk Ran had been readying herself for for the last two hours.

The two of them shared a period of silence together that was neither comfortable nor uncomfortable. It was just there, with neither of them knowing how to break it in a way that at least somewhat resembled being natural.

"What did you want to talk about, Ran?" it was Ran's father who said something first, his eyes focused on his daughter and hiding a plethora of emotions away from Ran's vision. Even though it was reassuring to know that her father wasn't openly mad at her, him hiding his emotions from her did not help Ran very much to stay calm.

Ran gulped, hesitating slightly. While her relationship with her father had been improving ever since Ran had stopped rebelling against her father, she still wasn't comfortable being exposed to his gaze like that.

"I did, father. I…" Ran trailed off into a momentary silence. Her nerves were starting to get to her, but Ran kept on. She knew she had to say this so, with a deep breath, she continued, "I want to take a break from ikebana and go back. Give my friends the apology that I never gave them. I need to, even if it is more than three years too late."

"Are you sure?" Ran's father asked, and this caught Ran off guard. The look in his eyes told her that he was being serious.

"What do you mean, father?" Ran had expected her father to say that she couldn't go, hoped to hear that he would let her go, and was even wishing against better judgment to be cheered on. But this response was something that even Ran had not expected, despite having grown up with Aoba Moca in her life.

'Moca…'

"You said it yourself, didn't you?" Ran's father responded to Ran's question with a question of his own, "You didn't tell them anything three years ago and disappeared completely. Don't think that it will be easy to face them; as a matter of fact, there is even a chance that they hate you. Are you sure that you are able to handle and accept it if that were the case?"

"I…" Ran trailed off, obviously not having considered this fact before. Even so, she knew what she had to do, and she will do it no matter what. She nodded, "If that is how it all turned out, then I will accept it as it would mean I deserved it. I pushed them to this point to begin with. I ran away without a word when they needed me the most."

"But I can't live like this," Ran continued, the words rolling off her tongue almost naturally now that she had started to get going. With a determined look in her eyes, Ran finished, "Not while knowing that I've hurt my most important friends. Even if it means that they hate me, I owe them at least this much!"

Another silence, but this time the silence between the two of them was heavy. It had tension. And, most of all, it had meaning. Neither of them were looking away, knowing just how important this was, but somebody had to make a move soon…

"Very well. Get your things ready, I will make sure you get there and have a place to stay," Ran's father instructed his daughter as he stood up. Seeing an overjoyed yet dazed young woman sitting in front of him, he added with a small smile, "It might take a while to make amends with all of your friends, so make sure you're ready to stay for a long time. Now go."

"Right! Thank you, father!" Ran bowed before hurrying to her room with a spring in her steps.

This left Ran's father alone in silence in the living room, an unusual smile on his face, but this wouldn't last for long.

After a couple of knocks, the door opened and another young woman stepped into the room. She was neither much taller nor much older than Ran, but something about her radiated an aura of power and confidence that even Ran didn't have. Or ever had, for that matter.

As soon as Ran's father noticed her presence, he turned to her and bowed his head slightly, "Thank you for your kind words earlier, Minato-san. I'm sure that hearing them from you must have struck a chord with my daughter. She has been struggling with this ever since we got here, and this is the first time I've seen her this happy. Again, thank you."

"I am glad I could help her as well," the newcomer said with a smile before turning to look in the direction that Ran had gone off to, "I just hope that what I did was enough."

"I hope so as well…" Ran's father trailed off as both of them turned to look in the direction that Ran had gone off to.

And that wraps up today's chapter. I hope you all enjoyed this chapter, please leave a review telling me what you thought, and until next time! Take care!