AN: I didn't update initially because of my studies, so I was unable to keep up with my writing. Because of my prolonged absence of writing, my interest in the Sket Dance fandom and other fandoms waned. As a result, I was uninspired to continue writing, but now I'll do my best to update! Extreme kudos to those who can update their stories regardless of whatever is going on in their lives.


Chapter 29: Kaimei Rock Festival


When Smocks came in, she found her three upperclassmen standing in the middle of the clubroom and silently glaring at each other. She stared at them.

"All right!" Bossun suddenly exclaimed. "Looks like we're all rivals now! My band is gonna kick the stuffing out of your bands, baby!"

"Let's do this!" Himeko punched the air.

"That's right… Can you hear us up there, everyone on the second level?" Switch typed in a cheerful and cutesy feminine voice.

"What are ya tryin' to be? An idol?"

Smocks stepped away from the doorway and purposefully slammed the door shut with a bang. The loud noise caused the three to jump in surprise.

"What the—Smocks! How long have you been there?"

"For five seconds," she replied. She gave the propped guitar and bass a cursory glance before returning her attention to the upperclassmen. "What's this about bands?"

Himeko's eyes lit up and launched into an explanation. "The three of us are part of separate bands that'll perform in the Kamei Rock Festival! The winner—which will be my band, naturally—will go down in history as being the best of the best!"

Smocks blinked. "The what festival?"

"Seriously? How is it that both you and Bossun have never heard of the Rock Festival until recently?" Himeko frowned. "Heck, Bossun's been playin' the bass for two to three days in here! You didn't stop to wonder why?"

"I just figured he was picking up another hobby." Smocks shrugged.

"Well, still…"

"I'm just a cute little first-year who knows nothing about Kamei High yet. Bossun being a second-year and not knowing is all the more surprising."

"No, what's all the more surprising is hearing you referring yourself as cute," Bossun commented derisively. "And, besides, Himeko told me that the festival was canceled last year since there weren't enough bands to perform, so of course I wouldn't have heard about it."

"But Himeko did, and apparently so did Switch."

"You know what—!"

"Anyways," cut in Himeko, "we'll be practicin' our stuff here for the sake of seriousness, so it might get noisy."

"Not that Smocks has any difficulty sleeping through noisiness," Switch pointed out. "Seriousness or not."

The second-years nodded in unison at that. For all the times that Smocks had napped in the clubroom, there was hardly a day when Sket Dance was quiet and Smocks was unable to sleep. Or read—Smocks did a lot of reading as well as sleeping.

Now that they thought about it, was there ever a time when Smocks ever participated in their noisiness? Switch was just as quiet as her, but he still managed to contribute in making racket.

Smocks strode across the room and sat down on her usual place on the tatami mat. She gave the bass next to her a soft nudge with her toe. "So you're really going to compete against one another. Like, really really?"

Bossun raised an eyebrow. "Uh, yeah. Like, really really. Is that a problem?"

"I don't understand. Why don't the three of you just become a band instead of having to compete?" she asked.

"Yabasawa-san asked me to be the guitarist for her band, and then Switch was asked by Otakura-kun," Himeko answered. "Then, today, we had a client coming in here asking Bossun to be his bassist. He was real impressed with how good Bossun's skills are despite only learning to play for a few days."

Bossun gave a dopey grin and rubbed his neck. "Ah, well, ya know…"

Himeko's eyes widened as though she just realized a mistake that she made, and then turned away with her arms crossed. "Not that it'll matter because my band will win for sure!"

"Hmmph! We'll see about that!"

Switch placed a hand on Smocks's shoulder and typed, "In the heat of competition, our talents can only flourish even more so!"

She gave him an unimpressed look. "Hn."


At the end of the day, Himeko received a phone call from Yabasawa that the Yabasawa Books band was unable to perform at the Rock Festival due to influenza.

"No way—it got all of the members? Seriously?" Bossun was baffled.

"Yabasawa-san caught it first… And then the bassist Yumi… And then the drummer Yoshi… And then the keyboardist Sacchin," Himeko reported glumly.

"That's some flu," Smocks remarked.

"Dang it!" Himeko cried in frustration, slamming her hands on the coffee table hard enough to make the legs rattle. "Just how infectious is this Yabasawa virus!?"

Bossun and Smocks traded looks.

"What're you gonna do, then?" Bossun asked.

"Everyone's gotta take it easy now that they're sick, but we can't do rehearsals at this point..." Himeko slammed her hands again. "We're never gonna participate in the festival at this rate!"

Bossun and Smocks looked at Himeko warily.

A third slam could very likely snap the coffee table in half.

"I guess illness is something that you can't help. At least you guys didn't disband due to an argument," Bossun said.

"Argument?"

"Yeah, you know, you hear a lot about newly formed bands and about how it goes. They come together thinking that they're going to make great music, but then they end up fighting one another." At the sound of the door opening and closing, everyone took notice of Switch's arrival. "Oh, hey, man. How'd practice go with you?"

"We decided to abandon the venture due to the difference in our artistic preferences," Switch responded solemnly.

"Speak of the devil and lo and behold!"

"You jinxed it," Smocks said.

"Shut up, Smocks! Like you're one to talk!"

"You guys split? But how come?" Himeko asked.

"Differing musical objectives developed between individual members," replied Switch.

"You liar! You just wanted to say that, didn't you!?"

Switch explained that Otakura and his friends were discussing about what to name the band and dismissed Switch for his insistence to do rehearsals. Even when they did finally settle on a name, which was Channel-Channel, the members aside from Switch were unmotivated to put practice into action.

"Instead of rehearsing, they wanted to do nothing but ramble on about trivialities. Seeing that this was leading to nowhere, I got up and left," Switch said.

"That sucks," commiserated Bossun.

"This is why I cannot stand otaku."

"Dude, you're an otaku too."

"Looks like Bossun's band is next to disband," Smocks said. "You know what they say, trios earn zeros if they don't work together like Yoshio, Yukio, and Yurio."

"C'mon, what're the chances that it'll happen to my band?" Bossun huffed. "And no one says that!"

"Who the heck are Yoshio, Yukio, and Yurio?" Himeko asked with a frown.

"The pattern is rather obvious. If one falls, then the rest are surely to follow," continued Smocks.

"What happened to the Yabasawa Books and Channel-Channel are unrelated, especially to the Sket Bombers," Bossun snapped.

"Sket Bombers?"

"That's your band's name?"

"And I thought Channel-Channel was dumb," Switch typed.

"Sh-shut up!" Bossun cried, tears prickling at the corners of his eyes. "It-it's not gonna happen to my band, okay!? We're gonna play at the festival and win and you'll all be sorry for ever doubting me." And then he declared shrilly, "And Sket Bombers is a cool name!"

"Why does he get emotional so easily?" Smocks wondered.

Himeko swatted the back of her head. "Because you always rile him up like this! Now he's makin' baseless accusations towards us."

"But all I did was predict the outcome of Bossun's band. You guys were the ones who made fun of his band's name, which pushed him over the edge."

"Nothing that you wouldn't have done," Switch said.

"Yes," Smocks conceded gravely, "very true."


A while later…

"You jinxed it, Smocks!"