I genuinely considered postponing uploading this chapter for a variety of reasons. The Saten Ruiko Day Countdown (which, no, I will not be doing this year… again…), a few birthday stuff I had to work on (not my birthday, mine's the same as Kokoro's), and several real-life issues popping up that I had to deal with (that are a tad too personal to post on the internet where it will remain until the ends of time) were are possible reasons. Thankfully, none of them significantly influenced this chapter's progression, so… here we are.

Also… I just realized this, but this story is now about a year old. Which is an interesting thought, all things considered, to think that it's been almost a year already. Time sure flies when we have fun, doesn't it?

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.

"What? I have plans with the rest of Afterglow tonight and, knowing Ran and Tomo-chin, it will probably last late."

After parting ways with Lisa at the convenience store, Moca made a beeline back home. She knew that if she hurried, she might be just on time to be fashionably late to the party. But Moca did not hold remarkably high hopes for herself and her chances to make it. Moca was never known to be the fastest girl in the class…

Which was exactly why Moca was surprised to find that she was, in fact, not late. The moment Moca was in the safety of her bedroom, she pulled her phone from her pockets and scrambled for a way to apologize for her tardiness. It was only then that Moca learned that her friends were still in the process of loading into the game as well.

So Moca did what any sensible high school girl like her would do: silently turn her computer on and log into the game. Moca was hoping and praying that she would not be called out for her tardiness knowing that she was not the only one who was not ready yet.

Instead of worrying about what her friends would do to her, Moca was focused on what she needed to do in Lilac Blaze with the rest of Afterglow. Despite the emotional heart-to-heart talk she had with Lisa only minutes ago, Moca's thoughts were focused and sharp. She knew what she had to do, and Moca would make sure that she could properly support her friends.

The members of Afterglow had long since gotten used to the game and their characters. Gone were the times when they faced each other to figure out their characters' skills and moves. Gone were the times when they faced the low-leveled creatures to gain experience and strengthen their characters. Which meant that the group of childhood friends reached the next stage of their gaming experience.

Finding and killing hard-to-find creatures and hope that they would give them the item that they needed upon being slain.

The day's excursion was dedicated to Tsugumi and her Yellow Peace. With the necessary amount of pleading from the keyboardist's end and a bit of browsing the net on Tomoe's, the five of them agreed on a time to search for this elusive creature. And here they were, entering the swamp biome where their victims resided. Reaching the general area was not a big problem for them to reach, even if they got lost on their way.

The problem came when the five girls realized that they still had to find the creature.

None of them were familiar with the area nor knew what the creature looked like barring some vague description of the beast. The option to split up into two groups was suggested by Tomoe in the hopes that they could cover more ground that way.

Unfortunately for the redhead, Tsugumi would have none of that; the keyboardist's desire to travel as a group was not met by any words of protests from any of her friends. With Tsugumi's insistence, Tomoe relented, and the five of them proceeded to make their way through the swamp together.

It would not be long until one of them would run into the creature. In ways more than one.

"Kyaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!"

Yellow Peace had stepped on what she thought was an innocent branch on the ground. She could not have been more wrong; what she believed to be a dead piece of wood turned out to be the tail of a serpent.

Taking advantage of the serpent recoiling from the pain of being stepped on, Moca saw her chance and studied her opponent. At first glance, the serpent did not seem to be all too different from what Moca expected a serpent-like creature to appear like. The only thing that Moca kept note of was the size of the snake; if it would extend to its full length, Moca had a feeling she would have to fight something longer than Lotus was tall.

The serpent's color was the only other thing that put Moca on guard. Moca's knowledge on snakes stopped at the point of 'avoid at all costs', but even Moca was wary of the amber-colored stripes on the mud brown-colored scales. Regardless of the color of the creature, Moca knew that there was another issue that they had to deal with before anything else.

"Maiden, behind me!" Tomoe yelled, throwing Blue Chaos in between Himari's character and the serpent. Fortunately for Tomoe, the serpent was still dazed enough for Tomoe's charged to be unopposed. Unfortunately for Tomoe, the redhead charged in without much of a plan on her end.

The moment that Chaos took its position in front of Maiden, the serpent determined that Chaos would be its target. With a menacing hiss, it lowered its head down to the ground and tried to circle Tomoe's avatar. Tomoe's only response to this change in behavior was to turn Chaos in the direction that the serpent was moving. It quickly became clear to Moca that Tomoe had nothing even resembling a plan, so all Tomoe could do was make sure that she would not be overwhelmed by the creature's attacks.

It was only a matter of time until one of them made the first move.

Emitting a second hiss that was not less menacing than the first, the serpent lashed out at lightning speed. It opened its mouth and unfolded its fangs, a set of glistening white fangs aimed right at Chaos' left bicep.

A shriek of worry filled Moca's headset as the serpent pumped its venom into its victim's arm. The five childhood friends could only watch as the creature kept its grip on Chaos, before inexplicably letting go and slithering away.

"Chaos-chan, are you okay?!" Tsugumi asked her friend, running up to see the state that Tomoe and Chaos were in. Himari and Ran were not too far behind them, focused too much on Tomoe's newest wound to pay much attention to their surroundings.

Only Moca ended up seeing what the rest overlooked.

"Chaos! Dodge!" Moca called into her headset, warning her friend about her intent to strike with Lotus. Tomoe was barely able to sidestep the lunging attack from Moca, and both girls watched as the black weapon pierced the serpent's head. The impact caused a squelching sound to explode in Moca's ears, and the guitarist grimaced. This was not the first time that Moca was happy there was no blood in the game, and something told her this would not be the last time.

What was in the game, however, was the lime green-colored ooze staining Lotus' weapon. It would not remain there for long; Moca was quick to wipe the blade off on the defeated serpent's body.

As Moca busied herself with cleaning the serpent's remains from her body, Ran took the opportunity to approach the corpse and harvest its materials. By the time Moca could look at Lotus' left arm without the need to suppress her urge to gag, Ran and her Endymion were distributing their winnings.

Everybody obtained a single serpent's tail from Ran, which caused some murmurs about how they got five tails from one creature. These murmurs quickly died down as the memory of facing their latest opponent was still fresh on the girls' minds.

"So… not that I don't like playing with everyone, but how many of these do we need to defeat?" Tomoe's voice asked nonchalantly after some time had passed, hoping to sound casual enough for her friends to not pick up on her worries, "I don't think relying on Lotus to kill all of these serpents is a very good idea."

"Especially not if the next couple of serpents are smart and don't just line up to be defeated by me one by one," Moca took her opportunity to boast the moment Tomoe stopped talking. Hearing the soft chuckles from Tsugumi's end was enough to cheer Moca up, but Moca stopped herself from pushing too far; the balancing act of remaining the same Moca as she always was and leading her friends to their goal was a tough one.

"Let's get going. The longer we stay here, the greater the chance we might get ambushed by a pack of those things," Tsugumi suggested as she moved her character in between Moca's and Tomoe's to act as a barrier. When it became apparent that this preventative measure of the keyboardist proved to be unnecessary, she turned her attention to Himari, "Maiden-chan, are you… okay to keep going?"

A small period of silence followed after Tsugumi voiced her question. Even though they could not look each other in the eye, all five girls knew that four pairs of eyes were focused on Himari. And this put a lot of pressure on Himari to find a proper and satisfactory response to Tsugumi.

"I… I will be fine, let's keep going on," Himari managed to muster her strength to say a half-hearted response, hoping that this declaration of hers would be enough. It was clear that it wasn't, and Himari had known her friends long enough to realize this fast enough. With a deep breath, she tried again, "We need to do this for Peace, right? And besides, these things are only bits of data in a fantasy game; they are nowhere near the real deal."

"All right if Maiden says so," Tomoe shrugged and seemed to take the lead deeper into the swamp. The redhead apparently changed her mind as she stopped walking and turned to Moca instead, "Hey Lotus! Hoarding up this creature's drops is such a chore. How about we see which of us can gather more of them? Loser buys the winner a drink during our next meetup?"

"I accept your challenge!" Moca, sure of her and her character's abilities, responded with a grin she knew nobody would see. Moca knew that she was the only one smart enough to not show her back to an enemy in the middle of a fight, so how difficult could this competition with Tomoe be for her?

After about an hour of the members of Afterglow exterminating the entire serpent population in the area, they regrouped in an open field not too far from there. With the combined efforts of Tomoe's Blue Chaos and Moca's Black Lotus, fueled by their desire to not lose to the other, the serpents did not stand any chance against them.

Now that they were safe from being ambushed at any moment, Ran gathered all the items the group had collected before distributing them evenly amongst her friends. Meanwhile, Tsugumi, who had been keeping track of how many serpents Moca and Tomoe were able to defeat, gave the final verdict.

It was obvious who had won the little competition.

"I'll take one of those milk teas from the convenience store, thank you very much," a smug Moca said to a deflated Tomoe. Despite having held back like she always has to avoid suspicion, Moca found herself winning by a significant margin. It turned out that Lotus' stab-based attacks were better suited at defeating the serpents than Chaos' punches were.

But before Moca could gloat about her victory more than she already had, something else caught the guitarist's attention.

"What's that? An announcement from the game?" Moca thought out loud as she eyed the notification that popped up in the corner of her screen. Moca's voice was enough to catch the attention of her friends, who all turned to her. Moca took this as her cue to open the message and start reading out loud to her friends.

"To all the players of Lilac Blaze: are you tired of not having an end goal in mind for the game? Do you wish you could have more to do in this game? Starting exactly one week from today, you can!" Moca read, silently voicing her joy that her friends could not see the look on her face as she went through the announcement. Shaking her head to get rid of her initial thoughts on the matter, Moca persevered, "'Keep an eye on your mailbox and look forward to more information in the coming days!'. Looks like we are getting a new game mode or something, but they don't really reveal anything about it. Some announcement that turned out to be."

"So… where is that mailbox thing, anyway?" Himari wondered out loud, and Moca had to bite her tongue to stop herself from saying something she might regret. Fortunately for Moca, Ran took it upon herself to guide Himari through the menu screen. After Himari let out a soft 'oooh', the bassist voiced the question that seemed to be in everybody's minds, "What do you think that new game mode will be about?"

"Probably a new area with a new monster appearing in it. That, or some sort of difficult fight that requires us to cooperate with other players," Moca said, thinking about the possibilities that it could be. In Moca's mind, it made sense to start incorporating harder content into the game; most of the monsters that the members of Afterglow faced were getting too easy to defeat by their combined efforts.

It seemed that her friends agreed with Moca's prediction as her response was met with murmurs of agreement from her friends.

"Whatever that new mode will be, we should start getting ready for anything. Lotus! Let's spar and refine our attacks; I also want revenge for the serpents!" Tomoe added the last bit quickly as she turned to Moca. Moca, who could already see the confident grin on the redhead's face in her mind, had no reason to turn down the challenge. Before Chaos and Lotus separated from their friends, Tomoe remembered to address Ran, Himari, and Tsugumi, "Any of you three want to join us?"

"I think I will sit this one out. Sorry, Chaos-chan, but have fun with Lotus-chan," Tsugumi was the first to turn down the offer from Tomoe, but she would not be the only one to do so. After Ran and Himari confirmed that they shared Tsugumi's desire to stay out of the practice rounds, the three of them left the group call to let Moca and Tomoe have their fun.

Fortunately for the girls, they had foreseen the possibility that a part of the group wanted to play, and another part did not. Upon Tsugumi's suggestion, the members of Afterglow created a new group chat that was exclusively dedicated to when they were playing Lilac Blaze. This way, Moca and Tomoe could continue enjoying their game without disturbing the rest of their friends.

Tsugumi was the first of the three to enter the group call. The brunette waited patiently for Himari and Ran to join her there before she confronted her friend. There was something that had been bothering Tsugumi for a while, and she would get answers… one way or another.

"Y-Yeah, I am fine, don't worry about me," Himari quickly muttered a hastily strung-together response. It was obvious that the bassist was caught by surprise by Tsugumi's sudden question. Even Himari was quick to realize that her response was not satisfactory enough for her friends as she tried again, "I mean… those snakes… they're only virtual, right? So, I am okay, please don't worry about me."

"All right if Himari-chan says so," Tsugumi relented after a moment of contemplation. It was obvious that the brunette was not satisfied by Himari's response, but that would be the last time that Tsugumi would bring it up; only moments later Tsugumi had to hastily announce her departure as she was being called by her mother.

With Tsugumi spending her time with her parents, and Moca and Tomoe still busy trying to beat one another in Lilac Blaze, only Himari and Ran remained. And, despite a handful of attempts from both girls, they would soon fall into a prolonged period of silence.

'There is no way that Himari was telling the truth, she just did not want to worry Tsugumi. But in doing so, she might have made Tsugumi worry about the fact that Himari is not being honest,' Ran thought to herself as replayed the earlier exchange in her head. Unfortunately for Ran, she had no idea how to confront Himari about this if Tsugumi failed to do so already.

"So, anyway… I think I hear my sister downstairs; I will go and say hi to her real quick and then I should really start on my homework," Himari muttered, her voice barely loud enough for Ran to be able to hear her. Himari, who had yet to realize this, took Ran's silence as a go-ahead for the bassist to disconnect from the call.

Which is exactly what she ended up doing.

A few minutes had passed since Himari's departure and Ran had moved from her chair in front of her computer to the warmth and comfort of her bed. But even though she was lying down and trying to rest, her mind was anything but calm.

Ran thought back on the day's events with mixed feelings. On the one hand, Ran knew that Moca's attempt to keep the group of friends together for just a bit longer was working. They were having fun playing the game and spending their time together. The start of their experience had been a rough one, and with no easy way out they had to struggle for a few days to get comfortable. Once they succeeded, however, even Ran found herself looking forward to their gaming nights throughout the day.

'But Himari's reaction is troubling. Is she not having as much fun as the rest of us are?' Ran asked herself, recalling how flustered the pink-haired girl got whenever she struggled in the game. More often than not, if somebody was having trouble keeping up with the other four it was Himari… and Ran knew that a girl could only take so much.

"I hope you can go back to the same as always, Himari…"

And that is all for today's chapter! Is it a little short? Yeah, probably; as I said, it was a busy time for me in real life and I had to focus on all that first. That, and I decided that a scene that was originally going to be in this chapter would better fit in a later chapter, which also contributed to the slightly shorter chapter.

Anyways, I hope you enjoyed this chapter, please leave a review telling me what you thought, and until next time! Take care!