On the roof, the weather was chilly and the sun was doing little to warm them up. Kanji knew that meant that very soon, preparations would begin for autumn, and he'd be needed to change his clothing and decorations once more. The others wore their school uniforms still, staring at Yosuke in boredom. Once he figured they were all there, he clasped his hands together.

"You've got to help me!" Yosuke pleaded. "It's a very serious situation related to Junes! You've got to keep your weekend open!"

"Is this related to Winter Diamond being unable to help out as a greeter?" Naoto questioned, and he nodded.

"Oh, her! The male guests are all enamored with her! They say she's so cute! I didn't know she had the same ballet instructor you do!" Yukiko chimed in. Rise huffed.

"They're just exploiting what happened to me…" She trailed off.

"She was meant to be a greeter and also do a little dance and sample of a song, but now the whole event is cancelled. We were supposed to have a sale and everything, but that's busted. Dad is a nervous wreck now." Yosuke sighed.

"It's all a wreck!" Raccoon giggled.

"It's not funny!" He snapped. "So, I thought you guys could help. Rise-chan, could you do something? A little song and dance?"

She was silent, and that spoke louder than words.

"You're kidding…" He sighed even deeper. "Dad thinks he might get fired over this so he's sucking up to people…Mom has headaches every morning from how much he's been pacing the room. If he gets fired, I'll have to leave too…go to a new school, they won't like me there, that's the curse of us merchants, what will I do if I leave here..?!"

His voice cracked as he mumbled to himself, and Kanji felt he looked pitiful. What sort of life had he known before this? Of course he knew how merchants were treated, but surely it still couldn't be that bad, right?

"...Only singing and handshakes."

"What?" He looked up at her.

"I'm only giving out handshakes and singing a song. No autographs, and no having sexual intercourse. And, I want you all on stage with me." She said, making everyone gasp.

"No way! I'm not an opera singer!" Chie protested. "I can maybe dance some, but singing? No way!"

"I don't want to become an acrobat in America!" Yukiko suddenly shouted, making everyone look at her in confusion instead. "I have other things to do."

"Okay, but how do we help? She's right, none of us are singers." Kanji butt in before it could be a long chain of disagreements.

"Simple. You'll be the orchestra." Rise said.

"No, no, no! You think we have any experience in that?!" Yosuke declined.

"I do. I'm in band in school, remember? I can play the trumpet." Yu announced. "That will work well with an operatic piece!"

"I can play the balalaika and the piano. I'm a bit rusty with the latter, but it's better than nothing." Naoto said.

"Thanks, you two," Yosuke smiled. "I might have something. Oh! I think I have a bass an American gave my dad that's just sitting in storage. I could bring that."

"Why was your dad just given an entire bass?" Chie asked.

"Trade, I guess." He shrugged. "Anyway! Let's meet in the music room and practice practice practice! We can't afford to slack off now!"

"Yeah!" Everyone else agreed, throwing their hands into the air.

Kanji went home after that, unsure if they had any instruments just laying around. His mothers didn't play and neither did he, so he didn't think so. Still, he tried to dig around.

"Why are you making all this ruckus in my house?" Tomiko demanded, storming over as he rummaged through a closet. "I'm trying to sleep!"

"I'm trying to find musical instruments!" He shouted back. "Why don't you or Ma play like proper women?!"

"You know perfectly well we sold our instruments when we bought this shop, now get up!" She pulled him away from the closet. "Now honestly, why do you need them?"

"My friends are performing a concert at Ju-at the park." He caught himself just in time, knowing his mothers had no kind thoughts on Junes or the people who owned it. "But I need an instrument to play."

"Why don't you just borrow one? Surely one of them has money? Oh! Go borrow one from Yuki-chan!"

He knew Yukiko owned stuff like shamisen, something he wasn't great at playing, but he supposed it was better than nothing. He was far more interested in what a balalaika was. He would ask Naoto, but he didn't want to feel ridiculous when he butchered that word.

He still couldn't believe that she was Russian. A girl, he knew, thanks to her getting sick, but he never would've predicted she was half-Western too. He wanted to hate her, needed to hate her, but…he couldn't. He didn't know what her father did, but he figured she was no more to blame for it than he was with what his father did. He kept hoping they'd find some alone time so he could ask her more questions, learn everything about who she truly was and where she came from. What was Russia like? In his old studying sessions, when they covered foreign neighbors, his tutors only briefly mentioned a nation of pale men who wore the furs of animals and it never stopped snowing. But Naoto was different from that. It made him curious.

The next day, everyone met up at the school's music room as promised, surrounded by classic orchestra instruments and some brass and woodwinds, and some traditional Japanese ones too.

"What are we supposed to do with all this? It's a mishmash." Chie asked.

"I just sorta grabbed whatever…" Raccoon admitted. "But! That means more options, right?"

"I already decided on bass, Yu-kun is trumpet, Naoto-kun is piano…" Yosuke trailed off. "How about the others?"

"Oh, let's put Kanji-kun on drums!" Rise cheered.

"Hey, that's not fair! I deserve to pick too!" Kanji yelled at her. "Besides, I don't know anythin' 'bout these Western instruments."

"I think you'd be great at drums! You're always hitting things violently!" Yosuke laughed. Kanji glared at him.

"That's not how this works!"

"Ooooh, oooh, can I do the rest of the percussion?!" Raccoon raised his hand. "Like the triangle?! I think I'd be good at that!"

Chie looked over the rest of the instruments. "Uh…hey, what about this?" She held out a violin for Yukiko. "We can both play one, and I'm sure it's similar to the shamisen, right?"

"I'm…not so sure." Yukiko hung her head. "I'd rather just play that for this." Still, she picked the second one, and both girls stood next to each other, while Yosuke sat on a chair next to them, dragging a bass over. Yu stood near the front, holding his trumpet. Naoto took her seat at the grand piano in the room, while he sat at the drums, Raccoon holding a triangle beside him. Rise stood in the front, smiling at them all.

"Wow, we look like a real band now!" Yosuke nodded in approval.

"Yes, you all look good!" She smiled wildly.

"Ummm." Chie shyly raised her hand. "How do you read music?" Next to her, Yukiko tugged at the violin strings, muttering about them not making noise. Yosuke hung his head.

"I'm a goner."

"Hey!" Rise clapped her hands. "Did you forget I can play the flute too? And Yu-kun and Naoto-kun have classical music training. We'll get through this!"

And get through it they did. Kanji thinks. Rise was a completely different person when she taught them, probably inspired by the education and training she received in Europe and America. She still walked with her usual grace but her face was sterner and she scolded more.

"You need to be absolutely silent during group pauses, Raccoon!"

"Hold the violin straight, Yukiko-chan, do not lean over with it on your shoulder."

"Your key is wrong, Chie-senpai!"

"Disgusting, you had that much spit in your trumpet, Senpai?! Do better upkeep, no wonder you kept squeaking!"

"You need to use slower strokes, Yosuke-senpai, otherwise the bow will fly out of your hands!"

"Be less aggressive when you beat the drums, Kanji!"

"Did you even tune this piano, Naoto-kun?! It's in C flat, bring it to a B!"

On and on she scolded, leading to a very grueling practice session. Once Rise decided they were done, the sun had set and everyone groaned as they put away their instruments, stiff and sore.

Kanji stretched and popped his back, groaning. "And to think we have to do this all over again tomorrow…"

"You're a scary teacher." Yukiko decided, stretching her arms above her head. Some strands got undone from her bun and stuck to her sweaty face.

"I'm pretty sure I lost my voice." Yu deadpanned at a whisper, holding his throat.

"Yes, it's hard, but we only have a few days and it needs to be good! Not perfect, just good, and almost all of you are extremely green! Trust me." She pouted. "It'll be worth it. No matter how much it hurts, you just need to push through."

"I didn't expect you to care this much about me." Yosuke said.

Rise smiled. "We're friends, aren't we? I want to help out anyway I can."

"I.. appreciate that." Yosuke hesitated, clearly unsure of what to say.

Kanji caught Naoto leaving alone and ignored his pounding heart to chase after her. "W-Wait! Uh…"

"Yes?" She asked, blinking at him.

He hid his foolishness back and went for it. "What's that…instrument you mentioned earlier?" No, still wouldn't attempt.

"The balalaika? It's…" She got a thoughtful expression. "Do you know what a shamisen is? Well, it's similar to that, but triangular. You strum it and it's played at parties."

"Does everyone there know how to play one?"

She laughed at that, a pleasant sound. "Of course not! The fact I know how is seen as a bit strange. It's not for princesses."

"You do a lot of stuff that isn't for princesses."

"Yes."

Rise told everyone to wake up early on the weekend and practice at the school until they couldn't anymore, needing to get the set right. Kanji drummed and whatever else, staying in the background like he was told to. Yukiko and Chie were a bit better than before, actually making noises come out of the violin, though they kept hitting sour notes. On and on they practiced, until the sun turned the sky from orange to light blue to teal, and their hair and backs were soaked and messed-up.

"Maybe we should take a break. We've been practicing since this morning." Naoto sighed.

"Let's do one more verse, then we'll do it!" Rise held her hands up, being greeted with the loud bang of a stick thrown against a bass drum. Everyone turned to look at Raccoon, who giggled and winked.

"I'm going for the element of surprise! That's what modern music is like, right?! Being unexpected and keeping your audience on their toes!"

"...I'm going to kill you." Kanji deadpanned, throwing down his sticks. Yosuke looked up.

"Are we really going to get the hang of this? Almost all of us are inexperienced and won't get better in only a few days." He sighed. "I really want to believe it's possible, but…."

"Hey, don't be like that!" Yu stood up. "We can do it! We came this far, didn't we?! So anything is possible! Just think of what we've accomplished so far!"

"You really can't kill your spirit, can you?"

"That's why we like him!" Rise cheered. "I don't want to quit this far in. We just have to put our heads together and get it right!"

"Yeah! You're not out of a fight until your back is against the wall!" Kanji nodded in agreement.

"We're performing a concert, not fighting people!" Yosuke scolded.

Yukiko suddenly gasped. "I did it!"

"Did what?"

"Watch!" She very slowly moved her bow up and down the strings, scratching out a distorted version of a scales melody. "I got all the notes right!"

"Yay…" Chie weakly cheered.

After their break, Rise decided she'd practice singing while everyone played, frowning when Naoto asked what song she chose.

"To be honest, I don't really have any good options. I'm a soubrette, I'm never the star." She sighed. "But, sometimes I've been given soprano roles. I thought The Flower Duet would suit us nicely. Since we're saying goodbye to the summer and all. Now, from the top!"

Everyone picked up their instruments and began playing as best as they could, trying to match Rise's inflictions and pauses for a song none of them had ever heard before. Even Kanji had no clue what she was even singing about, it was in a language he hadn't heard before. Still, it sounded nice and pleasant. Airy, like flowers. Well, that's what the song was about, he supposed.

Once Rise finished singing, she smiled and looked back at everyone, who cheered.

"We did it! We made music!" Chie cheered.

"We all actually sounded good!" Kanji added.

"I knew you all could do it!" Rise smiled.

"A new concert comes out of the woodwork. Shedding their fears, they become overnight sensations, the tabloids can't get enough of them!" Raccoon gushed. "They'll be famous! In the news everywhere!"

Yukiko darkened as she stared at the floor. "I was already in the news…"

"I shed my clothing," Rise said bluntly.

"I shed my entire reputation!" Kanji and Naoto protested at the same time, looking at the other in surprise.

"Anyway, aren't you general percussion? Yet I only ever see you playing the tambourine!" Yosuke gestured with the bow.

"Because I'm keeping my best secrets! That's the way of the tanuki, never let them know your next move," Raccoon snickered. "I'm going to win over the hearts of all the girls in the audience!"

"Absolutely not! You're going to make us sound weird! Just stick to what we practiced!"

"But the girls!~"

"Do it and I'll make you pay for all the mochi you scarf down during your breaks."

"...Fine."

"Alright!" Rise changed the subject and held her hands up. "One more time! One, two, three, four…!"

When Kanji returned home that night, every part of him ached, and his stomach turned in anticipation of the concert tomorrow. How would they truly pull something like that off? He had no clue. He wandered around the house dully and had no interest in helping customers, and finally Ma smacked him and asked what was wrong.

"Nothing! Just nervous about tomorrow. The concert. We're all just amateurs and I worry we'll make fools of ourselves."

"You most certainly will, seeing the state of your friends," Tomiko laughed, not unkindly. "Just be there in the back and drive everyone with your presence!"

He thought of Naoto practicing and wondered where the thought came from. Naoto playing with her graceful fingers, Naoto dancing and strumming the balalaika, Naoto in general. His heart beat faster and he swallowed.

"Uh, how did you know Father was the one?" He asked Ma.

"Well, we were arranged to be married, obviously. But, I eventually grew to respect and love him in time, because he really was a good man. He cared for those in Inaba and made sure everyone was treated fairly. I don't remember when I realized that, it just happened gradually."

"Hm." Maybe his feelings were just different.

They always had been.

The day of the concert, Kanji awoke and received a message from Rise in his head, curious to know what he'd be wearing.

Uh, I don't know. You have something in mind?

Well, the song I'll be performing is from Lakme. It's an opera set in India. So we should dress in Indian clothing!

And what would that look like? That was Naoto, serious yet unsure with her words, never having used that communication method before.

For girls, trousers, a long veil, and a very long patterned dress, a lot of jewelry. Boys, a long solid colored robe and a turban which you wrap around your head. I've never been to India, so I'm just going off what the opera has. And what I saw in England! Rise said.

Sounds so…risqué. Pants?! Yukiko worried.

Would it be something he could whip up quickly? That was his more pressing concern. He didn't really have a visual and asked if Rise had something. She was silent before a very foggy, faded image of a tunic-clad man with a cloth on his head appeared in his mind.

Sorry it's very blurry. I didn't even know I could send mental images.

It'll do.

There was a bunch of unused cloth just lying around the place, scraps that were to be used for kimono before their bigger pieces ended up being used for other items, leaving mismatched pieces everywhere. Again, not perfect, but it was what he had on-hand.

Kneeling behind one of the shelves, he quickly got to work, picking a rich blue in a deep shade and stitching it up, mixing it with orange and tying a similar color around his head. Once the robe was finished, he pulled himself into it and headed to Junes where everyone else was to meet up, standing in the room where the refrigerated items were kept, sitting in a large box of ice. The others were all standing around, wearing clothing as mishmashed as his own.

"Am I late?" He asked.

"Right on time!" Yu smiled. He wore a yellow tunic with an orange shawl and turban around his head. Chie and Yukiko wore almost identical jade gowns that covered them fully, with jewels everywhere, and their hair half-up and half-down. Raccoon was his tanuki self, as usual, and much to his sudden disappointment, Naoto wore a robe and turban of rich purple, silk aqua pants and shoes poking through.

"Wow, you look the best." He said without thinking. "That image she showed, you look the most like it,"

"Yeah, I just pulled together a random outfit I remembered from my trips to Russian Turkestan and the Emirate of Bukhara." She admitted.

Yosuke ran in, wearing blue and green in a similar fashion to Yu. "The audience is way bigger than I thought! I expected them all to leave after hearing the other singer couldn't come." He pulled on his hair. "What are we going to do?!"

"D-Don't say that!" Chie gasped.

"And we probably look bad, I mean what do Indian outfits even look like anyway?!"

"Well we did our best!" Kanji interjected. "Yeah, we look weird, but is that crowd really gonna care? We just gotta play decently."

"Yeah, I think we look good for what we had on such short notice!" Yukiko reassured them. She then clasped her hands together. "... I'm really nervous."

"Yeah, my legs won't stop shaking…" Kanji tried to take a deep breath to calm himself down, but for once it didn't work. He looked down instead, willing his heart to stop doing flips in his throat.

"Interviews are much easier. The only time I ever performed for people was at parties where nobody could hear your mistakes." Naoto put her hand on her chest.

"I don't feel so good," Yu announced, clutching his stomach. He then covered his mouth and Chie freaked, pulling him away from the icebox.

"Don't get sick here! Not around the food!"

"I never took you for someone who got stage fright easily." Yosuke tried to tease. Yu kept a firm hand on his mouth and hiccupped.

"I'll get something to drink!" Yukiko dashed from the room. Yu looked paler than usual and everyone's eyes were full of worry.

"Yeah…I don't do very good in crowds." Yu admitted with a weak laugh.

Kanji sighed. This wasn't going to go well at all, was it?

"Senpai is sick?!" Rise rushed in, quickly taking his hand. "Don't worry. Just take a few deep breaths, not through your nose, through your mouth. Breathe with me, okay?" She gently breathed in and out in a pattern, letting Yu fall into the same rhythm as her. Yukiko returned with a mug of tea and Rise helped him drink slowly, holding the mug for him. "Do you feel better now?"

Yu nodded. "Yes…a lot better, actually."

"Yay!" She smiled and jumped up. There was the sound of a door suddenly closing that they all looked at before returning their attention to Rise.

Kanji didn't actually know what she was wearing, but she was easily the most radiant of them all. She wore a deep red dress wrapped around her body with a matching veil and her hair draped down her shoulders with gold jewels on her face and around her fingers. She even wore large hoops in her ears. Is this what an Indian princess would look like?

"Yes, I'm nervous too, we all are. But! That's part of the performance. Be grateful for the fans and each other. They're here to have fun, so the most important thing for us is that we have fun too. Now! Who's ready?!"

"I am!" Everyone shouted back.

"Let's do this!"

Kanji quickly took his place on the stage, finding out it was set up entirely for them already. The concert area was a large wooden stand near the front of the store, with a grand piano on top. They really went all out, didn't they. He grabbed his sticks. Raccoon hurried next to him, while Yosuke and Yu sat in front, Yosuke adjusting the large bass. Yukiko and Chie stood next to each other in the front, balancing their violins on their shoulders, while Naoto sat in the very back to the right of Kanji, her fingers poised over the keys.

Rise sauntered onto the stage, waving and smiling at everyone with her stage presence. She clasped her hands together and started singing.

"Come, Mallika! The flowering vines, their shadows now, are throwing along the sacred stream, that calmly here is flowing; enlivened by the songs of birds among the pines!

'Neath the dome, the jasmine, to the roses comes greeting. By flower banks, fresh and bright, on the flow'rd bank, gay in morning light, come, and join we their meeting.

Ah! we'll glide with the tide, slowly on we'll glide floating with the tide, on the stream we'll ride away; through wavelets shimm'ring brightly!

Carelessly rowing lightly, we'll reach soon the steeps where the birds warble, where the fountain sleeps. 'Neath the leafy dome, where the jasmine white, come and join we their meeting!

But, why my heart's swift terror invested, doth not yet appear. When my father 'lone goes to your city detested, I tremble, I tremble with fear.

May the god, Ganesa, keep him from dangers,till he arrives at the pool just in view.

Where wild swans, those snowy wing'd strangers, come to devour the lotus blue.

'Neath the dome, the jasmine, to the roses comes greeting. By flower banks, fresh and bright, on the flow'rd bank, gay in morning light, come, and join we their meeting.

Ah! we'll glide with the tide, slowly on we'll glide floating with the tide, on the stream we'll ride away; through wavelets shimm'ring brightly!

Carelessly rowing lightly, we'll reach soon the steeps where the birds warble, where the fountain sleeps. 'Neath the leafy dome, where the jasmine white, come and join we their meeting!"

Rise took a deep breath as she finished singing, both of her arms stretched out wide to reveal a long sheer robe on her first one painted in gold that looked like she had wings. The audience clapped and cheered, several demanding an encore. Rise just waved to them.

"Uh, what do we do? That's the only song we learned!" He whispered urgently to her.

"Uh, I didn't think about that!" She whispered out of the corner of her mouth.

"We can either ignore them or play the same song again…" Naoto said.

"Hey, maybe they'll go easy on us!" Kanji hoped. "Besides, why do they even want an encore?! They couldn't understand anything she was singing!"

"Maybe they just like the sounds of the words!" Rise suggested.

Yosuke nudged her. "Hey, did you see that guy who just left? He was the one who slammed the door earlier."

"Huh?"

The audience cheered louder and Rise took several steps back, trying to maintain her composure.

"Maybe I can sing the other half of the duet-"

"How dare you all!" Raccoon suddenly shouted, pushing her to the side. "Take us as we are! Whoop!" He jumped high into the air and spun around, trying to land in the crowd, but the crowd stepped aside and he faceplanted hard on the dirt."Owww…."

"What is that?" The crowd mumbled.

"Uhhh…" Yosuke hung his head.

"Hey, we saved the business, so we did good, right?" Kanji tried to cheer them up. Yukiko looked at the crowd.

"I wanted to jump too…"

Indeed, it was a successful mission accomplished, though Kanji can't say he ever wanted to do something like that again. His heart still hammering, he caught Naoto about to walk off in another direction and stopped her. "Wait! Uh, what's Turkestan?" He didn't think he'd remember, he just really wanted to hear her talk about something she knew about.

"Turkestan? Well it's called Russian Turkestan. It's made up of other countries in Central Asia. Maman and Father only took me once or twice. I liked the bazaars but there's better places to see those. Most Russians melt there, it's too hot for them."

He loved and hated both how she was so worldly already. Was that because she was a princess? But Yukiko was like a princess and had never traveled outside of Inaba. Hell, before she joined the team, she had barely been outside of her own inn.

"Uh, yeah. Honestly I don't travel like at all. Samurai, when we travel, it's usually just to visit the daimyo we answer to. But I've never actually been out of this town once in my life." He answered.

"Daimyo…that word sounds so old-fashioned."

"So does princess."

"Princesses still exist."

She got him there.

When he returned home, he pulled off the turban and helped some remaining customers, who were looking for fall patterns, as he expected.

"How did the concert go?" Ma asked politely as he handed some orange cotton to a man.

"Oh, it went well, 'uppose." He shrugged. "I thought it'd be more…loud."

She laughed. "But did you have fun with your friends?"

"Yeah." Even through all the grueling training, he couldn't say he disliked it. He had his friends for company, and they were a pretty okay bunch.

"Glad to hear it. You've been so gloomy, I'm happy you've finally made some friends."

"Ma! Don't get all sappy!"

-The Flower Duet is a famous French soprano duet. If you've seen a laundry or flight commercial, you've definitely heard this song before.

-The Russian Empire was made up by self-governing regions known as governates. Russian Turkestan was made up of several autonomous regions, the major one being the Emirate of Bukhara, which encompassed modern Uzbekistan and parts of Tajikistan.