The wind chime at the instrument shop rang once again as the pink-haired creature happily skipped away while clutching her newly acquired effect pedal.
Fujiwara Ai did not leave immediately.
Instead, he turned back toward the counter.
The long-haired shop owner lazily raised his eyelids while rolling two walnuts in his palm.
“What?
Regretting it already, kid?
If you want to look cool in front of girls, you have to pay the price.”
“No.”
Fujiwara Ai calmly shook his head.
That little “gift-giving” performance earlier had nearly emptied all the money he had just obtained from the system.
Living costs in Tokyo and Chiba were not cheap.
Even entry-level electric guitars easily cost twenty to thirty thousand yen, while famous brands like Fender or Gibson were basically luxury items to someone with his current finances.
Buying a decent guitar normally was impossible.
“Boss, do you have any…”
Fujiwara Ai paused briefly before organizing his words.
“The kind abandoned by previous owners.
Old guitars with aging circuits, warped necks, or instruments basically waiting to be thrown away as industrial waste.”
The shop owner froze slightly.
Then he smiled meaningfully while placing the walnuts aside.
“Kid, you really know your stuff.
Looking to salvage junk parts and rebuild something yourself?”
“I’m just poor.”
Fujiwara Ai answered honestly.
Ten minutes later, the owner dragged out a battered cardboard box from the dusty storage room in the back.
“This whole box is junk I was planning to dismantle for spare parts anyway.
Pick whatever you want.
If you can find one still capable of making sound, I’ll sell it for ten thousand yen.”
Ten thousand yen.
Although still expensive for literal scrap, it was already unbelievably cheap for musical instruments.
Fujiwara Ai crouched beside the box and rummaged through broken necks, rusted pickups, damaged bodies, and tangled strings.
Using his previous-life experience alongside the subtle intuition strengthened by the system, his gaze quickly landed on a black Stratocaster-style guitar.
The brand logo had already worn away completely.
The body was covered in scratches and sticker residue while the bridge rusted badly enough to look pitiful.
However, the moment Fujiwara Ai gripped the neck, he immediately sensed the wood quality wasn’t bad.
The neck was slightly warped, but still salvageable.
“This one.”
After paying, Fujiwara Ai also purchased the cheapest set of strings and basic cleaning tools.
His wallet became completely empty afterward.
The park in Chiba City at night was eerily quiet.
Only the faint electrical buzzing of streetlights echoed occasionally while several suicidal moths circled around the lamps.
Fujiwara Ai sat alone on a bench deep within the park.
The cleaning tools lay scattered beside him.
Rather than playing immediately, he patiently began restoring the old discarded guitar.
Cleaning the fretboard.
Polishing the frets.
Adjusting the neck relief.
Replacing the strings.
Every movement was careful and meticulous.
Although the original owner possessed some basic guitar knowledge, mastering this nearly destroyed instrument still required the system’s assistance.
“System.
Open exchange list.”
The pink holographic interface appeared once more.
Fujiwara Ai glanced toward the top-right corner.
[Current Affection Value: 148]
Most of it came from Yotsuya Miko, combined with Bocchi’s massive emotional explosion earlier and several smaller daily gains.
After searching the skill section for a while, Fujiwara Ai finally locked onto one particular option.
[Skill: Soul Resonance Performance Lv.1]
[Price: 120 Affection Value]
[Description: You do not require top-tier technical skill or advanced music theory.
This ability grants the power to inject genuine emotion directly into music itself.
Every note played will resonate with listeners emotionally.]
[Side Effect: Performing consumes large amounts of mental energy and may attract strange beings, including but not limited to eccentric girls, emotionally heavy girls, and spiritual entities.]
“Soul Resonance…”
Fujiwara Ai looked down at the battered guitar in his hands.
“It suits this broken thing pretty well.”
Without hesitation, he selected purchase.
[Ding!
Purchase successful!]
[Skill integration beginning…]
Instantly, a tingling electric sensation shot upward through his spine before spreading throughout his arms and fingertips.
The feeling wasn’t painful.
Instead, it felt as though countless invisible hands were personally guiding his muscles and correcting his playing posture.
His fingers became more flexible.
More precise.
His understanding of music transformed completely.
Previously, he merely heard notes.
Now he could feel them.
Several minutes later, the integration finished.
Fujiwara Ai slowly exhaled before lifting the repaired guitar.
Without an amplifier, only the thin metallic acoustic sound of the electric guitar could be heard.
Yet within the silent night, every sound became exceptionally clear.
He closed his eyes lightly while resting his fingers against the strings.
What should he play?
Within this anime crossover world, there was no Jay Chou.
No Xu Wei.
No Beyond.
Those melodies engraved deeply into the memories of Huaxia people existed only within him here.
Clang.
The first note echoed softly into the night.
It was an arpeggio variation inspired by the intro of Xu Wei’s “To Your Former Self.”
However, Fujiwara Ai played it slower.
Heavier.
There were no lyrics.
Only melody.
Every note felt like a heavy stone crashing into the quiet darkness while carrying a lonely sense of wandering and exhaustion after experiencing too much of life.
Once dreamed of carrying a sword and traveling the world…
Although he never sang aloud, the loneliness hidden within the melody spread outward through the effects of [Soul Resonance] like invisible ripples.
Meanwhile, in another corner of the park—
Rustle.
Bushes shifted softly.
A girl crouched within the grass while using a small flashlight to search carefully for something.
Her school uniform appeared slightly oversized while her short gray hair looked somewhat messy.
Her eyes carried an empty yet strangely focused gaze.
Takamatsu Tomori.
A girl always drifting outside ordinary society.
Someone who enjoyed collecting rocks, bandages, dead cicadas, and random forgotten objects.
Today, she had become lost again.
Or perhaps she simply didn’t want to return home yet.
Just as Tomori reached toward a heart-shaped pebble lying near the grass, the distant guitar melody entered her ears.
The sound itself wasn’t technically beautiful.
Without an amplifier, the electric guitar sounded thin and rough, even carrying slight fret buzz.
Yet—
Tomori’s hand froze completely.
Behind those imperfect notes, she heard something else.
A voice.
A feeling.
A loneliness so vast it felt endless.
The sensation resembled someone wandering through an endless wasteland while being crushed downward by gravity, yet stubbornly continuing to reach toward the sky anyway.
“It’s…”
Tomori murmured quietly to herself.
“The sound of someone lost.”
Before she even realized it, her body had already begun moving toward the source of the music like a moth drawn toward light.
Passing through the bushes, she finally saw the boy beneath the streetlight.
Fujiwara Ai sat quietly on the bench with his head lowered.
His black hair partially concealed his expression while his fingers pressed firmly against the strings of the worn-out yellowed guitar.
The song ended.
The final lingering note trembled softly before disappearing into the night air.
Fujiwara Ai slowly opened his eyes and released a long breath.
Performing with [Soul Resonance] created an exhaustion strangely similar to emotional catharsis.
The skill’s effect exceeded expectations.
Even without an amplifier, he genuinely felt merged together with the broken guitar itself.
“Um…”
A hesitant voice suddenly sounded nearby.
Fujiwara Ai’s fingers abruptly pressed against the strings, stopping the lingering vibration instantly.
He turned his head calmly.
Standing several meters away was a gray-haired girl clutching a small stone tightly inside her hand.
Several blades of grass clung to her uniform.
Her eyes stared toward him with an expression resembling someone who had finally discovered another creature of the same species.
Takamatsu Tomori.
The lead vocalist of MyGO!!!!!
The girl known by countless fans for possessing “gravity magic.”
However, the moment Fujiwara Ai recognized her completely, his mind almost short-circuited.
Because alongside Tomori’s appearance, countless meme comments and internet clips from his previous life instantly flooded his brain.
[PenguinWalk.gif]
[Why did you play Haruhikage?!]
[Do you want to stay in a band forever?!]
[I am doing this to become human…]
Especially that infamous penguin-suit meme.
The image of Tomori awkwardly waddling around like a penguin instantly overlapped with the dazed gray-haired girl standing before him now.
Pfft—
Fujiwara Ai nearly laughed on reflex.
It was a conditioned response deeply engraved into his memory.
Yet the moment even the slightest smile formed—
Zzzzt!!!
A terrifying pain suddenly exploded deep inside his brain.
“Ugh…!”
Fujiwara Ai’s body trembled violently.
The smile instantly froze.
This was the punishment mechanism caused by his incomplete soul synchronization.
Any excessively intense emotional fluctuation would trigger severe rejection pain.
Pain.
Unbearable pain.
It felt as though an electric drill was violently grinding through his temples.
Fujiwara Ai clenched his teeth tightly while his face instantly turned pale.
Cold sweat rapidly formed across his forehead.
His fingers gripped the guitar neck so hard that his knuckles turned white.
To suppress the pain, he forcibly erased all emotional expression from his face.
As a result, his gaze became even colder and more broken than usual.
Yet in Takamatsu Tomori’s eyes, the scene carried a completely different meaning.
She saw a boy who seemed about to smile before suddenly revealing overwhelming sorrow and pain.
Not physical pain.
Soul-deep pain.
He was enduring something.
Suppressing something enormous and heavy.
“Your sound…”
Tomori slowly stepped forward.
Her way of speaking remained fragmented and strange.
“Your guitar is crying.”
She looked directly at him.
“Are you crying too?”
Fujiwara Ai had no energy to explain.
Still enduring the lingering pain inside his skull, he could only force several words through clenched teeth.
“I’m…
fine.”
However, his voice sounded rough and trembling, further confirming Tomori’s misunderstanding.
She stared quietly at him.
Her intuition was frighteningly sharp.
At the same moment, the side effect of [Soul Resonance] fully activated.
It had successfully attracted an eccentric girl.
The system panel appeared immediately.
[Ding!
New conquest target discovered!]
[Name: Takamatsu Tomori]
[Current Status: Resonating / Confused / Wants to collect you]
[Favorability: 10/100]
[Description: Your music touched the “gravity” deep within her heart.
Meanwhile, the painful expression you revealed while suppressing emotional fluctuation made her perceive you as a sorrowful stone emitting lonely light.
She now wishes to “collect” you.]
Fujiwara Ai slowly took several deep breaths before recovering slightly.
Damn system settings.
Next time he encountered characters associated with powerful meme memories, he needed to mentally prepare himself beforehand.
Otherwise, he might literally die from soul pain someday.
He calmly packed away the repair tools before slinging the guitar bag over his shoulder and standing up.
“You misunderstood.”
He glanced meaningfully toward the darkness behind Takamatsu Tomori.
“Go home early.
Strange things come out at night.”
Although Tomori lacked Spiritual Vision, her unusual constitution naturally attracted trouble.
Wandering through parks late at night genuinely wasn’t safe.
Just as Fujiwara Ai prepared to walk past her—
A small hand suddenly grabbed lightly onto the corner of his shirt.
“Um…”
Tomori lowered her head slightly while speaking softly.
“This…”
“…for you.”
She slowly opened her palm.
Inside rested the small heart-shaped pebble she had found earlier.
It still carried traces of dirt and the warmth from her hand.
“It’s also a lost stone.”
Her eyes quietly met his.
“It feels…
similar to you.”
“I’m giving it to you.”
Fujiwara Ai looked silently at the pebble.
If he refused, this eccentric girl would probably stand here forever.
And currently, he truly lacked energy to deal with another emotionally complicated heroine.
So he simply accepted it.
The pebble felt rough and slightly cold within his palm.
“Thanks.”
This time, he didn’t linger any longer.
He quickly left the park with long strides.
From behind, his retreating figure strangely resembled someone escaping.
Takamatsu Tomori remained standing beneath the streetlight while quietly watching his back disappear.
She slowly clenched her now-empty hand.
The sensation from their fingertips touching still lingered faintly.
“Fujiwara…
Ai.”
She had noticed the name written on the guitar bag earlier.
“Ai…”
“…does that mean sorrow?”
A mysterious light slowly appeared inside Tomori’s eyes.
As though she had discovered a new guiding star.
“I also…”
“…want to become human.”
Meanwhile—
Inside the Yotsuya household bathroom, steam filled the air heavily.
Yotsuya Miko soaked quietly inside the bathtub with only the upper half of her face visible above the hot water.
The temperature dyed her pale skin a soft pink.
Yet sitting carefully on the edge of the bathtub wasn’t shampoo or soap.
It was a crumpled tissue.
The tissue Fujiwara Ai had used earlier to wipe her tears.
Miko slowly reached out with wet fingers before carefully picking it up.
Even though it had already dried and remained wrinkled from earlier tears, to her it was more precious than any protective charm.
She gently pressed it against her nose and inhaled deeply.
The faint clean scent lingering on it had mostly faded.
Yet traces still remained.
“Haa…”
Miko released a soft satisfied sigh.
The terrifying spirits clinging upside-down to the bathroom ceiling suddenly seemed far less frightening while she held the tissue close.
“Fujiwara-san…”
Her voice sounded soft and sticky within the steam-filled room.
As she whispered his name, her fingers slowly slid downward from her collarbone along her warm skin.