So… it's been a while… quite a while, actually, even since I've last sat down to work on a chapter. It has been almost two years to the day since the previous chapter (chapter 37) went up that this chapter (chapter 38) goes live. Long story short, a lot of things happened in real life and I had to focus on all of that before I could do anything else, and… I honestly considered retiring from writing altogether within that period. All the writers I've come to know and get close to have long since stopped publishing their writing, too, and I've even lost touch with the Bandori fandom as a whole… that being said, I've already discontinued too many stories in the past, so even if I have to adjust where Shining Sunlight will eventually end up… I will be giving it an ending.
Picking up where we left off in the last chapter… I want to quickly say 'thank you' to everybody who has supported this story and for being so patient with me in waiting for it to be updated again.
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'm sorry, Kite-san, I didn't quite catch that. What did you say?" Himari asked sheepishly, almost embarrassed to admit this to the others. Hearing this, Moca would have commented and made fun of Himari but she knew she shouldn't. The game had a feature built which would change the sound of people's voices in the game and this has caused misunderstandings in the past. For someone to ask another player to repeat themselves was something that should not and was not considered a strange or even rude thing to do.
"Ah, um… Fluttering Ripple is what I said, Maiden-san," Kite said, the confusion audible in their voice despite the voice changers provided by the game. Moca didn't even need to focus on listening to what Kite would say next, she already knew what the next few words would be before she would hear them. And, sure enough…
"Fluttering Ripple… is the name of the skill… that Kite-san used… to defeat the wyvern."
"Isn't that the same skill that Lotus-chan used earlier?" Tsugumi asked the question that was on the mind of every member of Afterglow. This, however, seemed to catch Kite by surprise as the player controlling the silver-based avatar was quick to ask Tsugumi what she had meant by this. After a couple of false starts from the keyboardist, Tsugumi finally managed to gather the right words to explain what she meant to the newest member of the group, "Well, you see, Kite-san… before you arrived, Lotus-chan also used Fluttering Ripple to defeat a wyvern by herself. And then you showed up and it turns out that you can use Fluttering Ripple, too?"
As Tsugumi was explaining this to Kite, Moca just sat in her seat silently. She blinked a few times while her brain tried to process what she had seen only moments ago. While she was happy to see that the sixth member of their little group managed to join them in time to finish off the wyvern, the manner in which Silver Kite did so had shaken the poor guitarist more than she wanted to admit that it did. Despite having relished in the knowledge that she was able to use a new skill with Lotus, Moca couldn't believe her eyes or ears right now; she wasn't the only player who could use the skill anymore.
In her dazed state, Moca opened her mouth and voiced a single thought before her brain realized that she had done so already. Despite hearing the words being uttered in her voice, they sounded foreign even to Moca's ears as if it was somebody else who had spoken instead of Moca herself.
"I understand how you feel but it was never explicitly said that the skills we can use are unique to our avatars, we just assumed that was the case based on what we knew from the five of us. Looking back on it, that really wasn't the best assumption to make," Tomoe added the second half in a noticeably more sheepish tone than the first half, something that Moca picked up on easily. The mental image of the redhead lightly scratching her cheek with her index finger whilst looking away was enough stimulation for Moca to focus on the conversation again. Just in time, too, because Tomoe wasn't done sharing her thoughts with the group, "Maybe it was our fault for making that assumption with a sample size of only five players before Kite-san joined our group."
"No, I think… I think you are right, Chaos-san…" Kite murmured a response before trailing off. As Moca watched for Kite to say something else, she decided to open her menu to see if she could find her answers in the beginner's manual. But before Moca could try and find this item she would be halted by another person voicing their thoughts to the group.
"I guess it doesn't really matter whether or not our skills are unique to ours, though, right? I don't think it's realistic for this game to create several skills for each player and have all the skills be unique to them," Himari said and Moca had to silently agree with her. Moca knew from her little experience playing Lilac Blaze that there were many players in the game. In addition to this, Moca also knew that it did not take a lot of time or effort for Lotus to gain new skills for Moca to use.
"What do you think, Kite-san?" Tomoe asked, much to the surprise of Moca who hadn't expected Tomoe to so directly address their newest friend. Moca turned around to look at Kite's avatar before realizing too late that action wasn't very useful; nobody would be able to see that Moca had turned her viewpoint nor would she be able to see the person controlling Kite directly. While Moca was silently berating herself for this mistake she could hear Tomoe trying to clarify what she had meant, "Do you know anything about players sharing skills with other players or if everybody has unique skills?"
"I uhm… to be honest, I only play with the five of you. And Moon-san when Moon-san is available, so my knowledge is very limited," Kite apologized softly, sounding guiltier with every word they said. After taking a deep breath that Moca was shocked she could hear on her end, Kite added, "I do not think that Moon-san knows a lot about this, either, but I have never asked them about this before. I can try to ask Moon-san the next time I meet them. But from what I have seen so far… nobody has used a skill that I have seen another player could use, too, so I also assumed that everybody's skills were unique. So I was surprised just like everyone else here when I heard that Lotus-san can use Fluttering Ripple, too."
A momentary period of silence followed in which everybody in the group thought of what had been said. All but one of them, apparently, as Ran did not seem like she cared too much for the conversation at hand. While the others were standing around in a messy circle pondering the nature of their skills, Endymion had been walking from felled wyvern to defeated wyvern so she could collect the materials that she needed from them.
"Did we get everything that we wanted here, Endymion-chan?" Tsugumi asked the red-colored avatar when she noticed that Endymion had stopped moving, and Moca took this hint to focus her attention on Ran. Ran didn't immediately answer the question, which Moca could only assume was because Ran was checking her inventory. Tsugumi, on the other hand, assumed the silence was for another reason, "Endymion-chan? Did we defeat all the wyverns that you needed to defeat?"
"Yes, sorry, I was making sure I counted correctly, didn't want to make that mistake again," Ran said sounding somewhat sheepish, much to Moca's amusement. Before anyone could comment on this, Ran had already moved Endymion to regroup with the other five avatars whilst saying something else, "Thank you for your help, everyone. Now that we've taken care of what I needed to do, what does everyone else need?"
"I actually don't need to do anything," Moca admitted slowly, already having done all the grind work in her own time before joining her friends. She knew that this partly defeated the purpose of playing together but Moca justified it to herself by saying that she needed the practice. The practice to get better with Lotus and keep up with the progress her friends had made over the days.
"I don't think I need anything, either," Himari noted before quickly being followed by Tomoe and Tsugumi sharing her sentiment. During this entire exchange, there was one person who remained noticeably quiet and Himari was quick to pick up on this. The self-proclaimed leader of Afterglow directed her next question at the sixth and final person present, "Kite-san, you haven't answered Endymion's question yet. What about you? Is there anywhere you want all of us to go or need us to go defeat a certain enemy with you?"
"Ah, are you… asking me?" Kite asked timidly. Himari tried to comfort and reassure them as Moca watched everything unfold in front of her. After making sure that Kite was ready to answer her, Himari asked the question again. Kite took a second or two to think before giving their response to Himari, but it was not what Himari would have expected to hear from Kite, "Why? Why ask me?"
"Isn't it obvious, Kite-san?" Himari asked, seemingly oblivious to the reason why Kite might have second-guessed themselves in this situation. After giving Kite enough time to stop her, Himari realized that she needed to be more specific with Kite, "Kite-san, look… we're all friends here. That means that you have as much say in what we're doing as anyone else here."
"Even as much as Maiden over there, so don't worry about saying you want to go somewhere with us," Moca jumped in, ignoring the indignant cry from the bassist as she focused on cheering up the new friend of the group. Moca was about to say something else but decided against it, choosing to instead turn more serious as she said what was on the mind of every member of Afterglow at that moment, "As Maiden has said, we're all friends, so we'll join you where you want the six of us to go."
"Maiden-san… Lotus-san… everyone…" Kite murmured in a voice that was barely audible to the members of Afterglow, but having heard it Moca couldn't help but smile. It must have meant a lot to Kite to hear the care and support that they were getting from the group. Sure enough, Kite's next two words confirmed what Moca was thinking of, "Thank you…"
It was at this moment that a memory flashed in Moca's mind. She remembered the girl she had met in the café earlier that day when she went home with Ran. Knowing how she had acted, Moca could only imagine how scary it was for her to be part of an already established friend group as a newcomer. And how much stress and anxiety Kite's player was going through right now while they were playing with them.
"So with that said, Kite-san, what are we doing next? Make the call~" Moca added in her usual singsong voice, cheerful as ever. Moca had expected Kite to give her a response right away, but this answer never came. After a few seconds of silence came and went, Moca assumed that Kite didn't hear her so she tried again just in case, "Where do you want us to go to next?"
"Sorry, Lotus-san, I was… looking up something," Kite admitted sheepishly to which several members of the group tried to reassure the silver-based player to take their time. The patience of the members of Afterglow would be rewarded not too long after with Kite's final decision, "There is a group of monsters I need to defeat, but Kite-san is at a big disadvantage against them. Would it be all right for us to go there together?"
This declaration left Moca as surprised as the realization that she wasn't the only one who could use Fluttering Ripple, if not more so. Even though Moca knew that the members of Afterglow and Kite already considered each other friends after days of playing together, what Kite just did was still shocking for Moca.
Or, rather, what Kite was about to do in the next two seconds.
"These enemies have electricity-based attacks, and that is bad for Kite-san as Kite-san is weak to electricity-based attacks," Kite explained, having assumed that they needed to explain it more clearly, "But with everybody here, we should be able to deal with them pretty well. But I felt bad asking this when it seems like I am the only one who needs to kill these, so if nobody wants to then that is—."
"What are you talking about, Kite-san? We're glad to help out a friend!" Tsugumi interrupted Kite's rambling that threatened to spiral into a depressive state before it could get very far. The others voiced their agreement with the cheerful keyboardist before Tsugumi tried to lighten the mood in the best way she knew how, "Can you tell us more about these enemies so the rest of us know what to prepare for, Kite-san?"
"They are called the Lightning Beetles. I don't think I need to say much about what their main elemental attacks are or how they look like," Kite added the last bit with a dry chuckle. As she listened to Kite's explanation, Moca began to try and visualize these enemies and wondered how the group would deal with them should they get too outnumbered. Almost as if they could read Moca's thoughts, Kite spoke again, "I was told by Moon-san that the Lightning Beetles typically spawn in small swarms. If there are more than five Lightning Beetles per player, it will get difficult even for players who are not weak to their attacks. But we should be able to defeat them relatively easily as long as there aren't too many of them."
"Speaking of Moon-san, you're close friends with Moon-san, right?" Tomoe asked Kite to which Kite responded with an affirmative noise. Tomoe then thought for another second or two before picking up where she had left off, "Why don't you ask Moon-san for help? Or invite Moon-san to join us?"
"Because today I was planning to play with everyone here, not with Moon-san. Moon-san is also offline right now so I couldn't ask Moon-san for help anyway," Kite answered simply. Tomoe, having realized her mistake, quickly apologized for her wording in fear it might have made Kite think that they were not welcome. Kite, for their part, shrugged this off and decided to change the topic instead, "Does anybody else have any questions? Endymion-san? Lotus-san? Maiden-san? Peace-san?"
Nobody else voiced their questions leading Kite to assume that nobody had any questions. Just as Kite was seemingly about to talk again, somebody had beaten them to it by asking Kite a question. Kite took a moment with Moca assuming that Kite was looking it up to make sure they gave the right information, before answering Moca's question.
"They spawn in the Beetle Forest. I know, I know, a very creative name for a location that spawns an enemy called the Lightning Beetle, but that's where they are located," Kite responded and Moca couldn't help but chuckle at this. Kite then waited for a bit to see if anyone else would ask them any other questions. When nobody did, Kite took that as a cue to prepare for travel and teleported to their destination shortly after.
Had Kite not been so hasty, they would have noticed that the five other players weren't ready to move locations yet. Moca was busy scanning her map to try and locate the Beetle Forest while her friends presumably did the same. Moca soon found what she was looking for, but before she could complete the teleportation something stopped her. Or, rather, someone.
"Are you okay, Lotus-chan?" Tsugumi asked Moca cautiously much to the guitarist's surprise. When Moca didn't laugh off Tsugumi's concerns like she usually would, Tsugumi took that as her go-ahead to keep pushing, "You… seemed a bit out of it after we found out that Kite-san can use one of your skills. If you need some time, the four of us can go ahead and tell Kite-san that you will catch up later?"
"Thanks, Peace, but it's fine, really. I'm fine. It was just… a bit surprising, that's all," Moca added the last admission softly, but she knew that all her friends must have heard her. In an effort to ease the tension and remove the spotlight from herself, Moca hastily tried to change the subject, "We should catch up with Kite-san now, or else they might get suspicious that we ditched them or something. Let's go."
Without another word, Moca chased after Kite and teleported to the Beetle Forest as well. As her laptop screen showed her the familiar loading screen she came to attribute to the teleportation process, Moca's mind wandered back to her friends. Was she okay with the realization that she and Kite shared skills? Or was part of her still worried that Lotus, or at least Lotus' skillset, wasn't unique to her anymore?
'Even if I still feel bad about that, I can't let it hold me back today,' Moca thought to herself, hoping that she could push these feelings to the back of her mind for future Moca to deal with. Future Moca always managed to find a way to clean up the mess left behind by present Moca. Present Moca had to focus on not falling further behind to her friends.
During the time when Moca was busy dealing with her thoughts, Lotus had finished teleporting to the Beetle Forest and her laptop had loaded in the environment that Moca found herself in.
Moca didn't quite know what she had expected that she would see once she arrived, but she wasn't surprised at her surroundings. The many trees around her towered high above her like Tomoe does in Afterglow, if not more so. The foliage overhead was blotting out the virtual sun in the sky, casting wide areas of dancing shadows on the ground. And yet the sun still tried its best to break through the barrier of leaves and branches, successfully doing so in several spots to help Moca see her surroundings.
And it was thanks to these bright spots that Moca saw them. All the tens if not hundreds of Lightning Beetles that were waiting to pounce on Moca and her friends at a moment's notice.
Speaking of Moca's friends, four flashes of lights indicated the arrival of the remaining members of Afterglow. Sure enough, Endymion, Maiden, Chaos, and Peace materialized around Lotus and Kite and took in the sights that the Beetle Forest provided for them.
It was only a matter of time until somebody finally broke the silence.
"Kite-san?" Ran asked slowly as soon as she realized what Moca had realized as well. Without waiting for Kite to give her a proper response, Ran voiced the real question that everybody there had, "Didn't you say that those beetles only spawn in small swarms? What are we supposed to do to an entire army of them?!"
And that is all for today's chapter! I cannot, and therefore will not, promise or give you an idea as to the update schedule of this story going forward. I'll work on new chapters when I am able to do so and the new chapter(s) will go live when they are ready. I will, however, reiterate that I still aim to give this story a proper ending; nearly five years since this story went live, it deserves at least that much. And I wouldn't want my time here to end on an unfinished project, either, but that is another thing.
I hope you enjoyed the chapter, please leave a review telling me what you thought, and until next time! Take care!