12 Fūju quickly finished off the greasy fried noodle bread in a few large bites, then chugged down the Yasai Seikatsu drink from its carton.
Finishing his lunch, he pulled his laptop from his handbag.
According to official school regulations, using such devices was actually prohibited on school grounds.
However, that rule wasn’t strictly enforced for Fūju.
As long as he didn’t use the laptop during classes inside the classroom, teachers who spotted him operating the device in other areas chose not to reprimand him.
Booting up the laptop, Fūju immediately transferred all the text data he had typed on his phone throughout the morning into the word processing app on his laptop.
Fūju felt less accustomed to writing using a mobile phone device.
Although typing efficiency on a phone was still far faster than manual handwriting, its speed remained below laptop typing performance.
The day before, Fūju had taken less than three hours to complete the entire narrative of 5 Centimeters per Second.
Meanwhile, for his current project, he had spent nearly four hours all morning yet had only managed to finish half of Your Name’s total plot.
This bottleneck occurred because he repeatedly had to recall details of Your Name’s plot carefully so he could describe them with deeper, more detailed word choices.
Fūju decided against continuing manuscript typing for the remainder of this lunch break.
Instead, he walked over to the piano and sat down on the instrument bench.
The day before, Fūju’s attempt to play a second song had been abruptly cut short by Shizuka Hiratsuka’s intervention.
Therefore, this time around, he wanted to play the instrument to his heart’s content.
Fūju only intended to play the musical composition without singing the lyrics.
This choice was made because it was currently lunch break, not after-school club activity time.
The number of students on school grounds right now was still quite large, so the environment tended to be very noisy.
If he forced himself to sing with flawless vocal quality, that action risked drawing unwanted attention from outsiders, which would ultimately ruin his peace and quiet.
While playing the piano solo still carried potential to attract crowd attention, the volume produced would undoubtedly be lower, minimizing the number of students who noticed.
The beautiful piano melody began to echo from inside the Light Music Club room.
The sound signaled that Fūju had commenced playing his instrument.
The musical composition played by Fūju bore the original title Tooi Sora e.
This musical piece served as the theme song originating from a highly popular Japanese anime series, Yosuga no Sora.
Although that anime series held a controversial reputation regarding its content among viewers, the quality of its musical composition was universally acknowledged as breathtakingly beautiful.
This song ranked among Fūju’s top ten favorite musical pieces.
Even though Fūju didn’t precisely know the deep philosophical message intended through that musical progression, he could still feel an overwhelming sense of hope for the future carried by the melody.
The music conveyed a desire for a chance to start everything over toward a new horizon.
The sound volume of that exquisite musical composition couldn’t be muffled by the narrow walls of the Light Music Club room.
Even though Fūju had closed the classroom door tightly, the tonal vibrations continued to flow out through architectural gaps and open windows, reaching the ears of other students outside clearly.
Those who caught the melody included Yukino Yukinoshita in the adjacent Service Club room, Hachiman Hikigaya, and the four-person group led by Tomoya Aki who used the school rooftop as their activity space.
Furthermore, students walking in corridors near the Light Music Club room and those on lower floors could also hear the piano playing distinctly.
‘Such a gorgeous composition!’ Every individual listening to the melody experienced different emotional nuances within their hearts.
Yet, they all shared the exact same conclusion regarding the breathtaking quality of the music.
‘The character of this music is totally different from the song he sang yesterday.
I didn’t expect him to be able to play a melody this lovely while carrying such deep sorrow.’ Yukino thought to herself.
Thanks to this musical performance, Yukino’s subjective assessment of Fūju’s character improved slightly.
However, that shift in perspective only lasted as long as the piano performance endured.
“I still strongly desire to invite Akira-kun join our group!
The musical composition he’s playing right now harmonizes perfectly with the video game concept we’re developing!” Up on the school rooftop, Tomoya Aki clenched his right fist with intense enthusiasm.
Uttering those words, he intended to revisit the Light Music Club room to pitch a cooperation offer to Fūju.
Yet, just as Tomoya stepped toward the roof exit, he noticed his groupmates showed zero response or movement to follow him.
“What’s wrong with you guys?
Why aren’t you coming with me?” “Don’t tell me you’ve lost the desire to invite him to join?” Tomoya wore a shocked expression.
“Rinri-kun, based on every statement delivered by that junior yesterday, I judge that he will absolutely refuse to join our group,” Utaha Kasumigaoka became the first to voice an argument.
“Indeed, what this black-pantyhose girl said is not wrong at all.” “Unless you can cough up 30 million yen to pay his salary, there’s zero probability he’d agree to join,” Eriri Spencer Sawamura added with an irritated tone.
When mentioning salary terminology, Eriri shot a razor-sharp glare at Tomoya, whom she felt had exploited their talents without offering proper financial compensation.
Though Eriri knew full well Tomoya couldn’t produce that kind of funding, neither she nor Utaha would sit quietly if Tomoya somehow managed to pay Fūju’s salary while continuing to work them for free.
Hearing Eriri’s remark, Tomoya could only offer an awkward smile.
He possessed no such funding source.
Despite working hard through various part-time jobs over recent years and managing to save millions of yen, all those funds had been wiped out on various anime and manga pop culture merchandise.
Presently, the remaining cash in his wallet hovered merely between a few thousand to tens of thousands of yen.
“What they’re saying is true.
I assess that Akira-kun won’t be willing to join our group.” “In fact, our group right now is merely a temporary assembly of people lacking a script, storyline, project planning, musical arrangements, funding allocation, programmers, or a permanent workspace.
We’re a group lacking in every single aspect.” “Even if we successfully met all those aspects, Akira-kun still wouldn’t be interested.
Your constant badgering will only make him despise you more, Aki-kun,” Megumi Kato became the last to speak.
She delivered her analysis in an extremely flat yet emotionally piercing tone toward Tomoya.
“Personally, I’m also starting to consider whether I should just resign from this group to focus on my own activities,” Megumi added a statement that sounded utterly resolute and uncompromising.
Megumi’s declaration dealt not only psychological damage to Tomoya but also shocked Utaha and Eriri standing right there.
Both girls began realizing the truth in Megumi’s analysis.
Utaha joined because she felt indebted to Tomoya for helping rescue her faltering writing career.
Meanwhile, Eriri got involved due to childhood friend emotional ties.
Analyzing the current real conditions afresh, they realized they had trapped themselves inside a project led by someone completely devoid of technical competence or adequate resources.
That reality rendered the goal of creating the ultimate video game completely unrealistic.
Thoughts of resigning under some pretext began brewing inside Utaha and Eriri’s hearts.
Though those desires weren’t voiced aloud yet, deep doubts had already begun eroding their group’s solidarity, triggering internal fractures Tomoya hadn’t yet realized.
“Ah…” “You can’t do that, Kano-san!
You’re our project’s main heroine!” “If you decide to quit this group, what happens to our project’s future?” “I strictly forbid you from stepping down!” Tomoya screamed hysterically.
He hadn’t expected his group’s internal situation to deteriorate so fast, bringing them to the brink of collapse.
“My name is Megumi Kato, Aki-kun.” “You’ve mispronounced my name multiple times.
Remembering and pronouncing others’ names accurately is the most fundamental form of polite etiquette.” “Furthermore, from the start I only joined because of your coercion.
Therefore, choosing to resign from this group is my absolute right and freedom,” Megumi replied once more in a deadpan tone.
Although her facial expression and gaze didn’t shift significantly, the intonation of Megumi’s voice indicated she was suppressing considerable annoyance.
The next second, Megumi reflexively recalled two figures in her mind.
Those two figures were individuals proven capable of noticing her presence, hearing her voice clearly, and consistently remembering her name accurately: Fūju and Yui Hirasawa.
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