All right, picking up right where we left off the last time! On a slightly unrelated note, I have changed my writing schedule again which should, theoretically speaking, mean I could update every other week again. However, I want to get a bit of a buffer before I update my schedule in case it is not sustainable in the long run.
A special thank you goes to the reviewers of the previous chapters. Thank you for your kind and supportive words. A special thank you also goes to ReiTheMegaMawile for catching a mistake in chapter 16. I have updated the chapter already to fix the mistake, but I want to thank you again for helping me see the small oversight.
This chapter also marks several milestones for this story. Most notably of which is that, with this chapter, Shining Sunlight is my third-longest fanfiction in terms of word count and second-longest fanfiction in terms of chapter count (second only to elder sibling Scarlet Sunlight).
The final thing I want to say before we go to the disclaimer and the actual chapter: happy birthday to everybody's favorite vocalist and Afterglow's very own Mitake Ran. To think that four years have already gone by since I uploaded my first multi-chapter story for this fandom… time sure flies, 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.
"I won't be joining the four of you in the upcoming update the day after tomorrow."
A short period of silence followed after Himari made her announcement. It was as if Himari managed to press a 'pause' button; none of her friends were moving or reacting to Himari's words in any other way.
Himari, on the other hand, could do nothing more than wait with bated breath. What would happen to their friendship if Himari no longer joined them in every session? What would her friends think of her now? How would any of them react to what Himari had just said, and how should she respond to any of it?
Himari's spiral of thoughts was rudely interrupted when somebody finally spoke up.
"Is that it?" Tomoe asked nobody in particular, looking at her friends to see if one of them would give her the answer she wanted. When none of them responded right away, the redhead turned back to Himari and placed her hand on the bassist's left shoulder, "It's just a game, Himari; and games are meant to be fun. If you're no longer having fun, then take a break from it and see if you find it enjoyable again when you come back to it."
"Thanks, Tomoe," Himari barely managed to make the two words audible through her sniffles. The leader of Afterglow was quick to notice this, so she took a moment to wipe her eyes with the back of her hand before voicing her gratitude once more. Himari then turned to the other three girls in the room once she had regained her composure, "How do the three of you feel about this?"
"I feel the same way as Tomoe-chan. If Himari-chan needs a break, then you should take all the time that you need," Tsugumi wasted no time in trying to reassure Himari, immediately jumping on the opportunity to do so. Tsugumi glanced to her right before she continued speaking to make sure she saw Moca bob her head once in agreement, "And in the meantime, the four of us will continue so we can welcome Himari-chan back with open arms when Himari-chan returns!"
"Unless you don't want us to continue playing and wait for you to return," Ran added, letting herself be known to the rest of the group. Ran's declaration was met by looks of shock from Himari, Tomoe, and Tsugumi, but Ran was not paying attention to any of them, "Moca, you feel the same way, don't you? You're the one who got the rest of us to start playing this game, but you did so because you wanted us to remain together."
Upon hearing Ran's words, Himari, Tomoe, and Tsugumi turned to look at Moca as well. Moca, in turn, felt slightly overwhelmed by the sudden attention she was getting, but she tried her best to hide her discomfort in front of her friends. After taking a moment to make sure she would not regret what she was about to say, Moca decided to answer honestly.
"Ran is half right. Moca-chan started playing this game, enjoyed it, and thought it would be fun if the five of us could have fun in the game together," Moca admitted with a nonchalant shrug. Before any of her friends could respond to what Moca was saying, the guitarist was already speaking again, "But if Hii-chan isn't feeling it then Hii-chan should definitely take a break; that's definitely the part I agree with."
"Thank you, everyone! And of course, I don't mind if you continue playing without me," Himari added the last bit in a hurry after seeing the look on Moca's face. Himari then appeared to want to say something else, but she stopped herself before bowing her head, "In that case… I'll be heading home first. Please excuse me."
Himari then hurriedly gathered her belongings all while saying words of goodbye to her friends. After only ten minutes had passed since she began getting ready, Himari was already standing by the front door and ready to head home.
The other four girls remained by the front door until Himari was no longer within view and Tsugumi's arm started to hurt. They then shuffled back inside, at which point Moca decided to pounce on the first opportunity she saw.
"Eh? Could you please repeat that?"
"Moca-chan said…" Moca had to restrain herself from letting her exasperation show on her face; her question would seem out of the blue, and Moca knew that she would have needed some time to think of a proper response had it been her who was on the receiving end of this question. Unfortunately, Moca's voice was strained and trembling when she tried again despite her best efforts to control it, "What about you, Tsugu? Do you feel the same way as Hii-chan does?"
"We've talked about this already, Moca-chan," Tsugumi let out a sigh, but the smile on her face told Moca that the brunette was not holding anything against her, "I know that I am not as good as Moca-chan, Ran-chan, or Tomoe-chan. But even so, I'm having fun with Moca-chan and everyone else in Lilac Blaze, and I want to continue enjoying my time there."
"You're wide open, Lotus!"
Tomoe's words shook Moca out of her train of thoughts and dragged her back to reality. But it was already too late for Moca; by the time Moca had looked up to try and get a feel for the situation she was in she was met by the right fist of Blue Chaos in the face. The attack itself did surprisingly little to Black Lotus' health but, unfortunately for Moca, they weren't playing to see who could deplete the other player's health first.
Moca and Tomoe were playing a game of who could hit the other player first. Lotus' speed had given Moca an advantage in the early stages of the competition, allowing her to avoid Tomoe's onslaught with ease. However, Moca's distraction ended up costing her greatly.
With the humiliating 'defeat' sign flashing on Moca's screen, Moca watched as the dome of navy-blue light began to flicker and fade away. The practice round between Moca and Tomoe had come to an end, and the two of them were freed from the confines of the dome. For Tomoe, this meant that she could celebrate her victory with her friends.
For Moca, this meant that an unpleasant surprise was waiting for her.
"Lotus, what was that all about?" Ran's voice reached Moca's ears at about the same time when Tomoe's victory shout did. Despite her joy in being able to defeat Moca, Tomoe was quick to join Ran and voice her shock at Moca's lackluster performance, "You're usually just toying around with Chaos, so how did you lose that badly? To Chaos?! No offense, Chaos."
"None taken. Lotus is definitely better than I am, so I'm surprised I actually won that," Tomoe admitted, the sheepish smile that adorned her face clearly visible to Moca's mind eye. After a short pause, Tomoe was speaking again, "Did something happen?"
"Nothing happened. I just…" Moca trailed off, not knowing where to go with this train of thought. What would be a believable excuse for her to squirm out of this problem she found herself in? It did not take very long for Moca to come to her eventual conclusion: no matter what excuse she would use, her friends would be able to see right through her.
"I was zoning out and remembering the talk that the four of us had with Maiden two days ago," Moca finally settled on the simple truth to satiate her friends' curiosity. It turned out to be the right choice, as Moca was met by mumblings of support and understanding from her friends soon after. Moca took the opportunity to take a quick sip of her drink and deciding on who her next victim—her next training partner would be, "Peace, want to go a round with me? We should get ready for whatever that new game mode is."
"Ah, um… sure, let's do it! And don't hold back on me this time!" Tsugumi added the last bit in a hurry before moving to her spot opposite Moca. As their in-game characters got ready so, too, did the girls controlling the characters.
Moca was struggling the most with the situation that she found herself in. She knew she could not go and use everything that she was capable of to beat up her friend; it just did not felt right. But if Moca didn't take this fight seriously then that could lead to other issues down the road. Tsugumi wasn't the type to hold grudges, but Moca knew that even Tsugumi would not forgive her so easily if the brunette felt that Moca was underestimating her.
"All right, Peace, here we go," Moca mumbled into her mic, moving her mouse over to the button that would initiate the challenge between her and her bright and cheery friend. Moca knew that there was no going back once she pressed the button, so she made sure that she was ready. A couple of deep breaths later and Moca was ready, "Just remember to press the button on the left."
"Lotus! Peace! Stop!"
Tomoe's shriek stopped Moca from finishing the steps needed to challenge Tsugumi, but that was not the only thing it did. The sudden noise also succeeded in making Tsugumi yelp in surprise. Moca was able to stop herself from voicing her surprise, but the new throbbing sensation in her upper leg would take a while to disappear.
"Chaos-chan, w-what's wrong?" Tsugumi asked the redhead, her voice still audibly shaking from the sudden nature of Tomoe's shout. The idea of her practice match with Moca now long gone in favor of questioning the redhead. When Tomoe did not respond to Tsugumi's question right away, Tsugumi tried again—only for her to realize what made Tomoe shout, "Endymion-chan! Lotus-chan! Open your mailbox, quick!"
"My mailbox…?" Moca wondered out loud what her two friends were getting excited over. Moca's question fell on deaf ears, much to her annoyance, so Moca decided to play along with her friends. Opening her menus, it did not take long for Moca to search for her mailbox and look for the cause of the excitement.
There was no mistaking it when she saw it: the developers had given Moca a new item. It was a small hourglass; the glass had a nice sheen to it and the particles held in the device were of a beautiful crimson red color. As interesting as the gift was, Moca struggled to understand the significance or use of her shiny new toy.
As the message announcing its delivery was the only new message that Moca could find, she knew. She knew that this must have been incredibly special for Tomoe to start freaking out the way that she did.
"What do you think this is?" Ran asked before the item materialized in Endymion's left hand. Before anybody could answer Ran's question, Endymion turned the hourglass upside down.
What happened next was immediate. Endymion vanished from Moca's screen, and Moca's ears got overwhelmed by the shrieks of surprise from her friends.
"Endymion-chan? Endymion-chan?! Lotus-chan! What happened to Endymion-chan?" Tsugumi practically screamed in panic, her yellow-colored avatar running frantically to the spot that Endymion was standing on. Moca knew that Tsugumi would continue to panic had it not been for someone else jumping in at that moment.
"Peace, I am fine. Just take that hourglass item in your inventory and use it. It will be faster for you to see what I mean than if I were to try and explain it to you," Ran said, the vocalist sounding surprisingly calm for someone who got whooshed away only seconds ago. Tomoe took the opportunity to try and ask Ran where she was, but Ran did not respond.
Ran managed to ease the initial worries of her friends by confirming her safety. However, by not responding to the questions that followed, she managed to give rise to a new set of worries. A new set of worries that Moca needed to find a way to fix.
"I guess the fastest way to find out where Endymion went is to do what she did, right?" Moca thought out loud, moving through the menus until she reached her inventory. There it was, the hourglass that stole Ran away from them. But based on Ran's tone, Moca knew that nothing horrible had happened, so the guitarist equipped the item and held it in her hand, "On the count of three?"
Tomoe and Tsugumi both voiced their agreements to Moca's suggestion before taking a moment to equip the item. Once all three girls were ready, Moca started counting down from five. Once Moca reached zero, the three of them mimicked Ran's earlier actions and turned the device.
And a bright flash of light consumed their screen.
"Whoa…"
Moca couldn't believe what she saw. The guitarist was already impressed enough when she was first stepped into the world of Lilac Blaze, but the game never ceased to impress her. Even after weeks of playing it, Moca was still surprised by what she saw.
The first thing that Moca noticed as soon as the light died down was that she was no longer where she remembered being. The item that she and the rest of Afterglow used must have transported them to a new location.
'A one-way teleporter. There must be a reason why they made us go here, though…' Moca thought to herself as her initial feelings of shock began to die down. Moca took a couple of deep breaths, knowing that she needed to be calm and focused if she needed to find an answer.
Even though that answer came to her not too long after.
The area that Moca found herself to be in was a big and spacious room. The walls were curved and made of a pristine white stone that Moca did not recognize, but it looked more luxurious than anything she had seen before.
The main light source seemed to be coming from the lamps dangling from the ceiling. The light was bright enough to ensure Moca would not have to worry about bumping into anything while providing enough blind spots for her to escape to.
It did not take long for Moca to realize that there were no exits. The thought of being trapped made the normally easygoing and carefree girl worry about what she had gotten herself into, but she pushed it to the back of her head. No use worrying over pointless things if they were not an issue yet. If they were trapped, then that would be an issue for future Moca. Present Moca was still busy taking in and admiring her surroundings.
The only other point of interest was the big pillar in the center of the room. And, judging from the crowd of avatars flocking towards it, something important was going on there.
"Everyone seems to be hanging around the center there. Endymion, Lotus, Peace, let's check it out and see what all the buzz is about," Tomoe's voice shook Moca out of her sightseeing daze. That was right; she was not the only one of her group of friends there.
Tsugumi voiced her agreement and Ran was already halfway to the crowd by the time Moca realized that she was falling behind. After a quick and sheepish apology once she regrouped with her friends, Moca asked the first question that popped up in her mind.
"Dunno, looks like an announcement of some sort?" Tomoe muttered. With Ran in the front, the group of four made their way through the sea of avatars. What surprised them, however, was the relative ease at which they were able to reach the center of the room.
After half a minute of walking and not too much trouble, they reached the center and saw what was attracting the crowd of players. Tens of monitors were stationed around the area, most of which were occupied by other players. From this distance, Moca could not see what was so special about them, but she knew that she had to look for herself. To confirm her suspicions, Moca hurried to a vacant monitor and read what was shown on her screen.
"'Please confirm your entry by inputting your avatar's name'," Moca read out loud so Ran, Tomoe, and Tsugumi could know what was going on as well. Moca noticed that her three friends had joined her at the same monitor even though the one next to Moca was free as well. She chose to remain silent about this in favor of voicing her thoughts, "Does this mean that we will be entering something?"
"Looks like it. Peace, why don't you enter using this monitor with Lotus, Chaos and I will take the one next to us," Ran suggested, having noticed what Moca had already known for some time. Tomoe and Tsugumi both voiced their agreements to the suggestion and the group split up.
Moca took a step to the side, allowing Tsugumi to enter before her. As the brunette did so, Moca couldn't help but wonder what they were getting into. A new game mode sounded interesting but getting thrown into the unknown was quite intimidating.
'Maybe it's for the best. If it's harder than what we are ready for then that means I will just have to use Lotus' full strength for once,' Moca thought as she tried to reassure herself that things would be okay. Even as she entered 'Black Lotus' on the monitor, Moca couldn't ignore the pit in her stomach. And it wasn't from hunger this time, either.
"Hey, Lotus-chan, is that new?" Tsugumi's voice shook Moca out of her train of thoughts. The younger girl interpreted Moca's lack of immediate response as an indication to ask again. When Moca looked around her to try and see what Tsugumi was talking about, Ran took the opportunity to speak up. It was only then that Moca had looked up to see the new screen that was being displayed to all the players in the room.
"That looks like the brackets for a tournament," Ran muttered, and Moca found that Ran was right. A five-round tournament tree was being shown on the screen and names began appearing in each slot. What Moca noticed quickly was that each round seemed to have four players fighting, two on either side. This was something that she made sure to keep in mind.
"A tournament means that we will fight against other players for a grand prize," Moca thought out loud as she watched the screen for familiar names. It wasn't just her name that she needed to keep an eye on; whether she had to face her friends in the early or late stages of this tournament would dictate how much Moca needed to hold back, "And if there are four players in each round, does that mean that it will be a two-player cooperative tournament?"
"But that would give players who play together regularly an unfair advantage," Ran reasoned, and Moca knew that her friend was right. The members of Afterglow had been playing the game together since the beginning, so there was no way that they would be put on the same—.
"Now where am—there I am! And Peace, you're with me; looks like we'll be a team," Tomoe cheered as soon as she found her name on the screen. The redhead's enthusiasm and joy were contrasted by Tsugumi's shock that she had someone she could rely on throughout the tournament, Ran's disbelief that Tomoe and Tsugumi were put on the same team, and Moca's next words.
"Are you sure that you should be celebrating, Chaos?" Moca asked in a calm and steady voice. The tone of Moca's voice was enough to stop Tomoe's celebration, and Moca took the opportunity to point out what she was referring to, "Look at who you are facing in the first round."
Moca could only wish that she could see the look on her friend's face the moment Tomoe saw what Moca saw.
And that is all for today~. I hope you enjoyed the chapter, please leave a review telling me what you thought, and until next time~ take care~!