All right, on to the next chapter. Apologies for the later-than-usual upload, a few things were going on in real life that had to be settled first before I could focus on wrapping up this chapter. As much as I would love to spend more time writing, things don't always go the way you want them to…
Special thanks to LightZephyr for the beta read.
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.
"If you let me finish, Tsugu, I was getting to that," Moca sighed, although the way the corners of her mouth quivered her friends could tell that she was not too upset by the interruption. After taking a deep breath, Moca looked at her friends and picked up where she left off as if Tsugumi had never spoken, "Moca-chan needs to be home in an hour, but Moca-chan also needs to make a bit of a detour before that."
After separating from her friends, Moca rushed through the near-empty streets at a brisk pace. Moca weaved in and out of side alleys with practiced precision, assured of the fact that she would not be able to find her way if this was her first time going this way. The self-proclaimed genius did not stop to look back until she was four blocks away from where she last saw Ran and the others.
It was also only at that point when Moca realized how out of breath she was. She might have been a genius, but being a genius did not automatically translate to possessing limitless stamina.
"This should be far enough," Moca thought out loud as she allowed herself a momentary break to look around at her surroundings. Despite knowing where she wanted—no, needed to go, it was not like she came to this part of town very often.
Thankfully for Moca, she could recognize the building she was looking for the moment she saw it. A part of her, the prideful part, wanted to believe that she could have found it even without the presence of the large and colorful sign hanging in front of it, but Moca knew better. She was not accustomed to this area and would have been walking in circles had it not been for the lifesaver.
After taking a moment to look around her and make sure that she was not followed, Moca entered the building with a determined look on her face.
"Mama, Moca is home!" Moca called out as she entered her home half an hour later. The walk back had been rather uneventful and Moca managed to arrive home without much trouble. That is to say, that there was a single problem that Moca had been struggling with on her way home.
Thanks to the little detour she had to take, Moca lost over an hour of her time. An hour, the guitarist noted for the umpteenth time that evening to herself, that made the big difference between being able to arrive at her favorite bakery before it closed.
As it so happened, Moca was now tired, aching, and hungry. A combination of three things that were never a good thing for the self-proclaimed genius.
Moca was so engrossed in her own little world cursing everything that got in her way that she did not look where she was walking and nearly tripped over something. Moca broke her fall, looked at her hands and knees to make sure nothing had been injured by her lack of attentiveness and then turned to see what was the cause of her most recent misfortune.
It was at that moment that Moca's mother appeared in the corridor flanked by a face that Moca was all too familiar with.
"You're home already?" Moca's mother asked when she saw her daughter putting her shoes in the shoe rack. Without even letting Moca properly respond to her first question, she already bombarded Moca with a second, "I assume everything went well then?"
"It is in my bag, I'll drop it off in the kitchen soon," Moca's reply was a lot more distant than her mother had been anticipating and it took her a second or two to figure out the cause of it. Of course, Moca's stomach decided to take the opportunity to answer everybody's unvoiced question at that very moment.
Flustered at both the sound her stomach made and the laugh of the girl who stood behind her mother, Moca tightened her grip on her bag strap and walked past both people standing in her way, "On second thought, Moca-chan will be dropping it off right now. Bye, mama, Kuroba-san."
A few moments after that interaction, Moca found herself in the kitchen digging through her bag to find the ingredients her mother had asked Moca to buy on her way home. Moca was so engrossed by trying to sort through the mess that was the interior of her bag that she barely noticed the presence of another person in the room with her.
"You're not acting much like your usual self, are you?" a familiar voice asked Moca, prompting the younger girl in the kitchen to stop scattering the contents of her bag on the dining table and turn to the doorway.
Standing there was the same girl who followed Moca's mother in greeting Moca back home, casually leaning against the doorframe as if she did not have a care in the world. Her black hair had been tied up into a high ponytail that was held in place by a white-colored scrunchie. Two bangs drooped down the side of her face, framing the girl's face and resting right below her shoulders. The school uniform that she wore could be mistaken for that of Haneoka Senior High's outfit had it not been for the navy-colored blazer she wore.
"I'm tired and hungry, what do you want from me?" Moca, despite herself, could not stop the annoyance that had been building up inside her all afternoon from seeping into her voice. She quickly realized her mistake, took a deep breath to try and calm herself down, and apologized to the other girl, "I'm sorry, that came off wrong. But what did you want from little old Moca-chan?"
"Little, yes. Old? You're still a year younger than I am," Kuroba laughed as she straightened herself out, taking a step to close the distance between her and Moca. She took a moment to take a look at Moca, a good long look, and made a mental note about what she had seen.
'You really have grown a lot since the last time I saw you…' the black-haired girl thought to herself with a smile. She knew that Moca would catch on quickly to what she was doing. Which was why she came prepared for this exact moment.
"Here, Moca. I want you to have this," Kuroba said, that same smile still on her face. As the words left her mouth, Kuroba pulled something out of her pocket and placed it in Moca's hand. Kuroba took extra precautions to make sure that her hand would hide the object in question from Moca's vision, something she knew would irk the younger girl greatly.
"Just see it as returning the favor from so long ago," Kuroba added with a small smile, one that truly radiated the darkness that was still hiding behind her eyes. Before Moca could open her mouth to comment on this, Kuroba had already let go of the younger girl and gave her a playful wink, "And if you need anything else, you know where to find me. Good luck, Moca."
Kuroba had already turned around and was halfway down the hallway by the time Moca realized that the older girl had left. Shrugging this off and making a mental note to properly thank Kuroba the next time she'd run into her, Moca made her way to her room with numerous thoughts swirling around in her head.
'Knowing her, it probably won't be long now,' Moca thought to herself, allowing a soft snicker to escape her lips before turning serious again. Kuroba had come all this way to the Aoba household, probably to do other things as well but Moca knew that Kuroba had mainly come there to meet Moca.
And give Moca the small object that was now safely in her hand.
"Why did Kuroba-san give me this?" Moca asked nobody in particular when she opened her hand to see a single USB stick laying innocently on top of her palm. Trusting the older girl to not pull a prank on her in the form of a virus-filled device, Moca was about to plug the USB into her laptop when another voice interrupted her.
"Moca! Get down here, we're starting dinner!"
Suppressing the urge to let out a groan of annoyance and frustration, Moca settled on a drawn-out sigh instead. Moca then carefully placed her gift on top of her laptop before hurrying downstairs at a brisk pace in an effort to avoid her mother's wrath.
The following morning arrived much too soon for Moca. The lead guitarist of Afterglow had been awake longer than usual, even for her standards, to try and figure out how to properly use what Kuroba had given her. Moca might have been a night owl, but a little-known fact about Moca was that even she had her limits. Pulling an all-nighter in order to try and figure out Kuroba's parting gift was able to get her dangerously close to said limit.
Which is exactly why the bags under Moca's eyes were the first thing that Moca's beloved childhood friends noticed about her first when they saw Moca walk inside the classroom.
"Moca-chan! You look horrible!" Tsugumi blurted out, her mouth working faster than her brain yet again which prompted a dangerous look in both Tomoe's and Himari's eyes. The brunette realized, with her two friends' help, what she had just said and tried to quickly backtrack, "Ah, that wasn't what I meant to say! It's just… um… Moca-chan looks like she did not sleep last night?"
"Wow, that was a new record… barely a second later and Tsugu is already trying to correct her mistake," Tomoe thought out loud before taking a swift step to her right in an effort to dodge Himari's attempt at jabbing the redhead in the side. The other three members of Afterglow did not pay any attention to the little scuffle between Tomoe and Himari, instead being much more focused at what Moca had been doing.
"And that is pretty much it," Moca finished getting her friends caught up with the events of the previous evening. Or, at the very least, Ran and Tsugumi were now properly informed as Himari and Tomoe were busy in a conversation of their own at that point.
Seeing that she was ignored by two of her friends was irking Moca at first, but this feeling quickly subsided when she was reminded of something. And, seeing an opening, Moca dove in to ask the question that had been weighing her down.
"Tomo-chin, is Ako-chin free this afternoon?" Moca asked Tomoe, saving Tomoe from being bombarded by Himari but forcing the redhead into Moca's line of sight. Before anyone could question Moca's motives, Moca decided to explain what she wanted to do, "Moca-chan wanted to ask Ako-chin a question."
"No, you may not date Ako. What? Our parents told us we were not allowed to date before we graduated high school," Tomoe added the last bit when she saw the incredulous looks her friends were giving her, no doubt wondering what Tomoe was thinking. The redhead was quick to realize that her leap in logic had been incorrect and, in a more serious tone, she turned back to Moca, "So if you don't want to date Ako, what do you need her for that we can't do?"
"Don't take it the wrong way Tomo-chin, but Moca-chan is not interested in Ako-chin that way. And Moca-chan needs to see Ako-chin because Ako-chin is the one with the most experience with this that Moca-chan knows of," Moca added with a shrug. Moca knew her friends well enough to know that they would continue questioning her, but Moca was also not sure if she wanted to tell them the full truth. After all, if what Moca had planned would go her way, it would naturally take away from the time Moca had to spend with her friends.
Deciding that her friends deserved to know something at the very least, Moca settled on telling them a little bit of the truth. After all, if there was one thing her friends were not it was easily giving up on finding out why one of their friends was acting weirder than usual.
"The daughter of a friend of mama's gave Moca-chan a parting gift the other day, and Moca-chan needs Ako-chin's help to install the program."
"And… Ako thinks that should do it!" the purple-haired drummer exclaimed happily, a relieved grin on her face as she wiped her forehead with the back of her hand. After gratefully accepting the glass of orange juice from Moca, Ako added, "Ako is impressed though, that was one annoying program to get working. How did Moca-chin get it?"
"A friend of Moca-chan gave it to me," Moca replied right away without missing a beat. In contrast to the younger girl who was drinking juice, Moca had made herself a cup of green tea. Before Ako could question her more about the origins of the program, Moca decided to try and redirect the focus of the conversation elsewhere, "So how did you manage to get it to work?"
"That's a funny story, actually," Ako trailed off, taking the opportunity to relish the sweetness of the orange juice she had been given before turning to Moca and giving her a proper response. Or, at least, a response that seemed more proper in Ako's opinion, "Moca-chin isn't the first person who asked Ako for help to get this to work."
Moca was about to ask who Ako had helped with before but managed to stop herself. At the end of the day, it was not Moca's business who Ako helped and she should just be focusing on what was right in front of her: a friend who helped her clear up a problem.
"That aside, want to stay over for dinner?" Moca offered the shorter girl, hoping to entice Tomoe's sister with the idea of food, "Moca-chan is sure mama is okay having an extra mouth to feed."
Ako's eyes lit up at the thought of spending dinner at the Aoba household, but they were quick to dim again soon after when she remembered that she could not. After explaining to Moca that she was expected home in twenty minutes, Ako excused herself to return home where she knew a hot meal was waiting for her.
The next hour felt like it ticked away at a snail's pace for Moca. Not only had Moca been anticipating to try out Kuroba's gift all day, but the dinner she shared with her mother was filled with her mother asking Moca one difficult question after the other. When Moca's mother teasingly asked Moca if she had a thing for Ako, Moca took that as a cue to stand up from the table and walk away.
The laughter from Moca's mother could still reach Moca's ears when she had arrived in the safety of her room.
"Mama, I love you… but too far is too far, poor Moca-chan can only take so much…" Moca sighed, surprising herself by voicing her thoughts instead of keeping them to herself. She was, however, thankful that nobody was around to hear her.
Shrugging this last thought off, Moca walked up to her laptop and launched the program she had been dying to launch. Having known Kuroba as long as she had, Moca knew that she had been given the program to a new game that the black-haired girl was into. And with Kuroba's track record, Moca could only imagine how breath-taking the game would be.
She was not disappointed when she finally launched the game.
The laptop screen turned into a stream of vibrant and radiant colors before merging as one in the center and showcasing the title card decorated with an indigo inferno. As soon as it had started, it was already over and Moca was introduced to the character selection screen. Moca had already spent her time imagining how she would design the avatar and make the best looking avatar that she could, but this would not be necessary. Much to Moca's disappointment, she was taken to the character selection screen and not the character creation screen.
Staring straight at Moca, or as much as it could with its featureless face, was a mechanical-looking humanoid creature. It was wearing an armor of obsidian black with accents of purple where the joints would be located if it were human. Jutting out from its knees and elbows were a single spike of metal that Moca assumed would be used to maximize its offensive powers.
To complete the look was a black helmet protecting its head. The helmet had vibrant purple glass where its face would be, although Moca was unable to see through it to see the face. Trailing behind the top of the mask, one on either side, was another strip of metal that reminded Moca strongly of ears.
"Wow…" Moca breathed out after she had finally taken in the sight in front of her. Despite this being the first time Moca saw the avatar in front of her, it was almost like it was calling out to her. As if in a different life Moca would practically grow up alongside this avatar.
"All right, let's see what you can do, um… do you have a name yet?" Moca asked nobody in particular when she realized that she had not been prompted to name the avatar. It was then that Moca's eyes landed on the small box hovering in front of her avatar's midsection that depicted two words in big letters. Moca's grin widened when she read what the sign was saying, giving Moca a name to associate with her new avatar.
Black Lotus.
And that is all for today's chapter! Kuroba, by the way, is not an OC; just a little easter egg for those who know who I am referring to with that name. And while it would be funny to say that she is "Black Leaf" (as opposed to Aoba's "Green Leaf" or even "Blue Leaf" if we take the two characters of her surname individually instead of as one), the characters spelling out Kuroba's name would actually translate to "Black Wing" (the same wing that is in Tsugumi's surname). Special thanks to LightZephyr for reminding me of Kuroba's existence and helping me to incorporate the girl into the chapter.
I hope you enjoyed the chapter, please leave a review telling me what you thought, and until next time! Take care!
Quick plugin here: I have a Discord server now that pretty much takes over the role my Tumblr used to have; both of them, technically. The invite link to the server can be found on either one of my former Tumblrs.