And on to the next chapter! It seems like once every three weeks is as fast as I can update this story in my current state and my current real-life schedule. So once every three weeks is what we'll just have to work with going forward…
I do not own BanG Dream! Girls Band Party nor do I, in any way, shape, or form, intend to pretend that I do.
It did not take long for the five members of Afterglow to grow hooked to Lilac Blaze. So much so that the game became a regular talking point for the girls during their downtime. It even replaced other commonly-discussed topics such as school, their other hobbies, and even the latest prank Moca pulled on Himari.
As the girls' interest grew, so too did the number of hours they spent online. After only a week had passed since Moca dragged them into the game, the five childhood friends hadn't gone through a single day without logging in for a few hours.
The five of them would often be found training in the wastelands, trying to power up and get stronger. The creatures that spawned in these areas were weak enough to be defeated by the five childhood friends with relative ease but still proved enough of a challenge to keep Moca and Tomoe from growing bored.
It was during one of these training sessions when disaster struck.
"Maiden-chan is in trouble!" Tsugumi's voice cried out, both in horror and worry when she realized what was going on. The keyboardist's warning shook all of her friends awake and, sure enough, they saw that Himari and her Green Maiden were surrounded by enemies, "Chaos-chan, you are the closest to her, quick!"
A soft affirmative grunt was all the response Tsugumi received before Tomoe directed Chaos to save their friend. Although Chaos was not far away, everybody knew that Chaos was not the fastest character around; that title belonged to another girl of the group. As if on cue, a black blur sprang into action and dashed after Chaos; something that did not go unnoticed by the watchful eye of Ran.
"Chaos, Lotus is coming in from the left, be careful!" Ran called out, warning the redhaired drummer of Moca rushing after her. Once again, the only response she received was a small grunt of acknowledgment, but this was enough for Ran. With Tomoe and Moca on the move, Ran directed her attention to the girl whose avatar stood by Ran's avatar, "Peace, can you give those two some cover?"
"I can't… sorry, Endymion-chan, Chaos-chan-chan is moving too fast for me to provide cover for her," Tsugumi said, her voice sounding frantic and laced with regret. To Tsugumi's credit, she managed to calm herself enough to the point where she could keep her voice steady by the time she spoke again, "And Lotus-chan, well… Lotus-chan is much too fast for me. All I can do to help right now is protect Endymion-chan while Endymion-chan covers Chaos-chan and Lotus-chan."
"Don't worry too much about it, Peace," Ran said, trying to reassure and ease Tsugumi's worries. Once she had said what she needed to say, Ran was faced with another problem: what should she do? Ran knew that she had the skills to support Moca and Tomoe from a distance, but the three of them had not coordinated a strategy yet. In the worst-case scenario Ran knew that she could accidentally hit either Moca or Tomoe in her attempt to assist them… or both.
'No time to dwell on what could and could not be. Moca, Tomoe, please dodge this,' Ran thought to herself as she made up her mind. If it came down to accidentally hurting her friends, Ran would just have to apologize at a later time. Then, with a wry smile on her face, Ran could not help the next thought from popping up in her head, 'Not like I don't know how to by now.'
Shaking her head to get rid of the negative thoughts clouding her mind, Ran knew what she had to do. The vocalist of Afterglow pressed the skill to activate her newest skill: Double Impact. Immediately after the game registered Ran's action, Endymion raised both of its arms in front of itself, palms facing out. A bright, crimson-colored disk materialized in front of Endymion's hands before four orbs shot out from each disk and chased after Chaos and Lotus.
The skill's uptime only lasted for a second; the disks faded and disappeared as soon as the eight orbs had been released. Endymion lowered its arms back down immediately after and Ran let out the breath she had been holding. There was no going back from what she had just done; all Ran could do was try and mitigate the damage Endymion's attack could deal with.
"Chaos, Lotus, I have fired in your direction. Watch your backs," Ran announced. While neither Tomoe nor Moca responded to her, Ran knew that her friends had acknowledged her warning. Ran then relaxed and slumped down in her seat before turning her attention to Tsugumi, "Don't you think it is weird that a skill called Double Impact fires eight shots instead of two?"
"That is pretty funny," Tsugumi's voice did nothing to hide her amusement and mirth from Ran. Ran quickly realized that Tsugumi's mood was very infectious when the vocalist found herself smiling as well. But Ran's raised mood was short-lived as Tsugumi spoke again, "Ah, Lotus-chan and Chaos-chan, you're back. And Maiden-chan, you're all right!"
"I am… thank you, Chaos, Lotus, I drifted away from the group too much and paid the price," Himari apologized as soon as the three avatars rejoined with Peace and Endymion. Surprising her friends by not wasting too much time to dwell on her mistake, Himari instead turned to Ran and voiced her mind, "That was an incredible skill, though! You're getting better and better with it!"
"Thanks," Ran muttered, not knowing what else to say in response to Himari's sudden compliment. Despite the bassist's words, Ran was still worried about the possibility of having hurt her friends, "Lotus, Chaos, did either of you, you know… get hit by Double Impact?"
"Nah, don't worry about it. One of them got close to clipping Lotus' right-wing, but neither Lotus nor myself took any damage," Tomoe said in an attempt to reassure Ran's fears. When Ran did not voice her relief right away, Tomoe took that as a sign that she had to try again, "Look, you've been training hard, even going as far as getting Lotus to train with you when Peace, Maiden, and I cannot play anymore. You're much better now than you were last week, so stop doubting yourself."
"I should have known that you figured that out… did either of you know, Maiden, Peace?" Ran asked Himari and Tsugumi, both girls mumbling sounds of affirmative almost immediately after. Himari did not even wait until Ran had finished voicing her question to respond.
Although, now that Ran was giving it some thought, she should have expected her friends to have figured it out by now. Feeling the familiar feeling of her ears heating up for the oversight she made, Ran scrambled for a reason to escape the pressure, "I will be right back, I am going to get something to drink."
Ran did not stop to hear what her friends would say to her sudden announcement. The moment Ran finished informing her best friends of her intentions she was in the process of removing her headphones. Ran had already left her room by the time Himari suggested taking a break and calling it quits for the day.
But instead of hurrying for the kitchen, grabbing herself a glass of water, and returning to her friends as soon as possible, Ran did something else. The vocalist pulled her bedroom door shut behind her and leaned against the wooden door. She would stay like that for a few seconds before a resounding sigh prompted Ran to move again.
"Get something to drink now, return to Moca and the others, and don't keep them waiting too long. All right, Ran, let's go," Ran told herself, slapping her cheeks a couple of times to try and motivate herself. The vocalist then stretched her arms above her head, smiled contently as the stiffness in her shoulders began to subside, and made her way to the kitchen.
"Ran."
Ran froze. Not because the man's voice triggered the same amount of distress and fear in Ran's system as it once did. No, Ran was simply not expecting to run into anyone at this hour, so hearing her name being called caught her off-guard.
"Good evening, father. I did not think you would still be awake," Ran said with a small tilt of her head the moment she saw her father enter the kitchen behind her. The only child of the Mitake household had hoped that this would satiate her father's desire for a response. When Ran quickly realized that this was not the case, she tried again, "I wanted to get something to drink. Did you want me for anything, father?"
"As a matter of fact, there is. You have fallen behind on your flower arrangement studies, so I will be increasing the number of classes you have to four times a week," Ran's father announced, blissfully unaware of what was going on in his daughter's mind. He was about to turn around and retreat to his room for the night when the frown on Ran's face made him second-guess this decision, "Is something wrong, Ran?"
"Actually, father, something is indeed wrong," Ran responded in a subdued voice, avoiding her father's gaze in the process. In truth, Ran had almost forgotten she agreed to participate in those flower arrangement studies, to begin with; her school work, the music practice needed to keep Afterglow going, the falling out, and now Lilac Blaze. Ran's free time was already filled up, so if she had to take extra classes to keep up with flower arrangement then something else would have to be sacrificed.
Ran knew that she could not tell the real reason to her father; she would be grounded again if her father found out a game of all things was taking up most of Ran's free time. And this time, Ran realized as the thought of punishment crossed her mind, she might not be able to worm herself out of her punishment like she had in the past. Her relationship with her father had only recently changed for the better, she knew she could not afford to make it worse now.
"We—I mean, Afterglow have a live planned for the start of next month," Ran muttered after making up her mind as to which excuse she would use tonight. Her band performing live would not only be believable, but Ran knew that her father recognized how much the band truly meant to Ran. All that was left for Ran was to test her luck and avoid showing any signs of weakness, "And since Tsugumi needed to switch around her work shifts to cover for her sick coworker, our practice schedule has been all over the place. Can my flower arrangement classes be postponed to after the live is over when I can focus on them more?"
"When exactly is this performance scheduled for?" Ran's father did not waste any time to ask his daughter. He did, however, take his time to decide on his next set of words after Ran's answer, "Very well. We shall resume after you have performed."
Ran's brain needed a few seconds to properly process what she had just been told. She could barely believe her luck; not only did she get away with telling a lie to her father's face, but she got her way on top of that? Ran had to suppress the urge to pinch herself to make sure she wasn't dreaming, knowing that doing so could raise suspicion.
Thankfully for Ran, her father either did not notice the twitch in Ran's left shoulder or chose not to comment. Instead, he turned around and walked back to the doorway but did not leave the kitchen, "And Ran?"
"Yes, father?" Ran asked her father as she looked up, trying to figure out what her father would want to say in such a situation. She was never as well-versed in reading the minds of those close to her, much unlike her best friend was, so Ran was drawing a blank.
"Do not push yourself too much. Your mother and I don't want you to get sick," Ran's father said without looking at his daughter. He then left without another word, leaving Ran alone in the kitchen with her thoughts. Had he stayed around for any longer he might have seen the corners of Ran's mouth quiver or the single drop of liquid rolling down her cheek.
It took Ran a surprising amount of time after her father's departure before she could move again. But after a lot of minutes and a significant amount of effort on the vocalist's part, she succeeded in filling her bottle with water and returning to her room.
When she entered her room she was met with an unwelcome surprise: Ran's phone was lit up with messages of her friends telling her that they had all agreed to call it quits for the day. Ran, who had wanted to power up some more in the game that evening, was left deflated knowing that there was no point to log back in if her friends were all offline.
"So much for an extended training session tonight…" Ran thought out loud, placing her bottle on her nightstand before plopping down on her bed, burying her face in her pillow in the process. As much as she wanted to play more, Ran knew that she had kept the rest of Afterglow's members waiting with the talk she had with her father.
But knowing that she would not be able to play anymore that evening and being able to calmly accept that fact were two different things. It was then when Ran's mind drifted off to Moca and the struggles she had to overcome when they had just started playing. Ran did not fully understand what Moca had to go through then, but now she did. After all, Ran had been facing her own problem in the game for quite some time now, too.
'Endymion has a strong advantage over everyone else, but only after I overcame the beginning stages… before then, I—we were only going to be holding everybody back with how little damage we could in close-ranged battle,' Ran thought to herself, remembering how hard she struggled during the first two days to keep up with Tomoe and Chaos. Lilac Blaze seemed to be friendlier to the close-ranged fighters, which gave Endymion a significant hurdle to overcome right at the start of the game.
'Lilac Blaze,' the name of the game continued to swim around in Ran's mind as she eyed her computer. Of all the things that would be used to try and keep the five childhood friends together, Ran had to admit that a game was not what she had expected would do the trick. But at the same time, Ran could not help but allow a new worry to enter her head.
"We are not enjoying the game the same amount; Himari and even Tsugumi to an extent are struggling to keep up with the rest of us," Ran thought out loud, remembering how often Himari had fallen victim to attacks from mobs. It had to be double digits by now, and the group had only been playing for about two weeks.
'No need to second-guess Moca's intentions. Despite her roundabout way of doing things, Moca is still the same Moca as she has always been… and even Moca would not risk tearing us apart if she didn't believe this could keep us together,' Ran thought to herself, allowing the knowledge that Moca was just trying to help and keep the group together to ease her worries. And while the vocalist succeeded in removing most of them, one worry remained.
Forcing others to continue playing the game might result in their friendship being torn apart if it became a source of annoyance instead. Ran wanted to believe that the bond that the members of Afterglow shared could survive any test, but Ran was not delusional. She knew that her friendship with her best friends could be shattered by much simpler things.
"All I can really do is face the problem and not run away again," Ran told herself, her voice barely above a whisper. She would not let it come to that point; listening to the lecture of an angry Tomoe was not something Ran fancied doing more than once a day. And Ran also knew that Moca would never let her live it down if she were to run away again.
With the desire to keep her friend group from falling apart and from Tomoe to start arguing with her again, Ran made up her mind. She knew that she lacked a lot of things like the light to brighten up the room in the way Tsugumi could or a way to get to people's hearts like Moca and Himari were able to. But even so, Ran knew one thing that she had: she was nothing if not stubborn.
Ran scrambled out of bed, got on her feet, and rushed to her desk. Laying innocently on top of Ran's unfinished homework for the weekend lay her phone, and Ran wasted no time to pick up and hold the device.
And that is when she ground to a halt.
'Wait, what am I even doing?' Ran asked, her earlier confidence and motivation melting away faster than snow does in the face of the hot sun. Although Ran managed to open her contacts list already, she had already lost sight of who she wanted to contact in the first place, 'What would Moca do if she were here?'
It took Ran all of two seconds to realize what she had just thought, shaking her head to get rid of the mental image and took a deep breath to calm herself. As she regained her composure, Ran tried again, 'All right, what would Moca not do if she were here?'
Almost as if the anti-Moca magnet was guiding her, Ran's eyes landed on a very specific name in her contacts list. Ran knew that it was a long shot trying to contact her, not to mention the possibility she had already gone to bed being a very real threat to Ran, but the vocalist had no other option.
Ran pressed the button to call the person, held the phone to her ear, and prayed that the other person would pick up the call. The phone rang once. The phone rang twice. With each second that passed Ran could feel her worries grow; what if the other person wouldn't pick up the phone? By the fifth ring, when Ran had almost given up all hope, she finally got through.
"Hello, it's me," Ran said the moment the person on the other end of the call picked up her phone. Already Ran was feeling the urge to turn tail, but she knew she could not afford to do that. Ran would not let herself make the same mistake multiple times if she could help it.
Gathering all the willpower Ran had left, she took a deep breath before speaking once again, "I know it is getting late, but we need to talk. Do you have a moment?"
And that is all for today! I hope you all enjoyed today's chapter, please tell me what you thought about it in a review before you head out, and until next time! Take care!