Sunday afternoon.
Ikebukuro.
Midday sun was pouring generously down onto the streets.
On this rare free weekend, Uchiha Ayato had wandered into the newly opened LIVE HOUSE RiNG.
Sure, the real world had cursed spirits running around making a mess of things — but at the surface level, the current mood was still mostly sunny and alive.
And if you asked what was most popular in the surface world right now, there was no question: girls’ bands.
The age of girls’ bands was here.
If you weren’t watching lives, were you even in Japan?
Going with the flow, Uchiha Ayato had been spending his free time drifting between livehouses for a while now, having personally witnessed SPACE’s closure.
Not that Uncle Ayato was obsessed.
Just going along with the trend.
“Welcome in!
Oh — Uchiha-kun.” Behind the counter, a girl with yellow shoulder-length hair looked up.
A bright smile surfaced on her face.
“Haven’t seen you at a live in a while.
School getting busy?” “Definitely not.
Just a little worried that if I don’t move with the beat, someone will photograph me standing still and put it online for public mockery.
Fuan desu.” “Huh?” “Ha, just kidding.” Ayato walked up and rested an elbow casually on the counter edge.
“Good afternoon, Masuzu-san.” “Nice place you’ve got here.
And it looks like you got a promotion — congratulations~” Masuzu Riruko laughed, a little shy, brushing the short hair behind one ear.
“Thank you, though it comes with a whole mountain of new things to manage.” “Make yourself at home, Uchiha-kun.
Let me know if anything’s not right — regular customers’ feedback means a lot to us.” Uchiha Ayato nodded with a smile and drifted off into the café area.
He picked a window seat, eyes doing a slow sweep across the staff behind the counter.
What a shame.
RiNG had only just opened.
The legendary drummer would still be a while before she started working here.
Lost a bit of fun there.
Unfortunate.
The café tables and chairs still smelled fresh out of the factory — what people politely called “new furniture smell,” and what it actually was, formaldehyde — and Ayato had barely opened the dessert menu on the table when a shadow fell over the side of his hand.
“Weirdo.
Matcha parfait.” A small, slender girl stood beside the table.
Silver jellyfish-bob hair catching the light.
She wore an oversized black short-sleeve top over a white camisole.
Heterochromatic eyes — blue on the left, yellow on the right — stared down at him from above.
Kaname Raana.
Third-year student at Hanasakigawa Girls’ Junior High School.
An entity best described as a small cat.
Raana currently didn’t have her guitar trolley with her — she was still in the post-SPACE closure recovery period, in the phase where she had sealed her heart and locked away her guitar.
This little animal would need to receive Masuzu Riruko’s encouragement before she picked the guitar back up.
Ayato being a livehouse regular, knowing Raana was hardly surprising.
“Afternoon, little cat.” Ayato ignored Raana’s chosen nickname for him entirely and snapped his fingers to get a server’s attention.
“Sorry to bother you — one Earl Grey tea and one large matcha parfait, please.” At Uchiha Ayato’s words, Raana’s eyes gained a faint glimmer of interest.
She settled naturally into the seat across from him, prepared to accept this tribute with total dignity.
Before long, the server placed the order on the table.
In front of Raana sat a glass nearly as tall as her head — stacked with vivid green matcha ice cream, soft mochi balls, and cocoa crisps, the whole thing begging to be eaten.
The girl seized a spoon, skipped the preamble entirely, and drove it straight into the largest scoop of matcha ice cream.
One large, cold spoonful went in.
The face that was usually as blank as a wall unfurled ever so slightly.
Cheeks puffed out, and somewhere above her head, cat ears seemed to materialize and sway with contentment.
After swallowing the first spoonful, Raana paused.
She licked the smear of green cream from the corner of her mouth, then fixed her heterochromatic eyes on Uchiha Ayato with steady attention.
After a long, unblinking look, she finally spoke, tone certain.
“Thinner again.” Raana didn’t understand the obscure mechanics of jujutsu.
She couldn’t see the terrifying things that drifted through the world.
But she had a pair of eyes that could read people.
Those eyes had reached a conclusion the first time they’d met.
The boy sitting across from her — always smiling, always able to strike up a conversation with anyone — was encased inside a thick, invisible wall that kept him separate from everyone else in the world.
That was why she called him weirdo.
But as time passed, that wall had been getting thinner.
And today, Raana could see it had thinned considerably since the last time she’d seen him.
The almost-moment in the student council room.
The contract made in a ruined villa.
And the blunt, pointed observation from Misumi Uika at the signing table…
One thing after another, like heavy anchors, pulling him a few inches further down toward this loud, messy surface world.
Uchiha Ayato knew exactly what she was referring to.
The two of them understood each other — kindred spirits, high mountain meets flowing water, forest ridge meets lynx — which was the only reason the little cat had elected him as one of her designated feeders.
“Ha?” He set his Earl Grey down, like he’d just heard a mildly amusing joke.
“Little cat, that matcha parfait isn’t big enough to keep you from talking, is it?” “What would a kid know?
The adult world is complicated.
Stay out of adult business, or you won’t grow tall.” The person being called a kid didn’t get upset.
She had zero interest in Uchiha Ayato’s bluster-defense mechanism.
Didn’t even bother countering it.
Her instinct told her what she needed to know — the reason could wait.
Reasons were too much work.
Just as Raana was about to lower her head and continue demolishing the parfait, cheerful, slightly chaotic voices broke into the café’s quiet.
At the entrance, three girls in casual clothes were walking in mid-conversation.
The one in front had a bright, energetic smile, and her long straight pink hair scattered light as she moved.
The instant he heard the voices, Uchiha Ayato’s internal alarms went off.
Oh no.
How did he forget that Little Sister Anon had band practice in the area this weekend?
Practice means practice!
Stay in the studio!
What are you doing in a café?!
At this rate, will she ever clean up that C chord?
While thinking all this, Uchiha Ayato subtly shifted his body toward the window, attempting to reduce his footprint.
His effort was destined to fail.
RiNG had just opened — foot traffic was still light — and Uchiha Ayato was exactly the kind of person who attracted attention no matter where he was.
Hiding was not a realistic option.
Sure enough, Chihaya Anon’s feet stopped moving the moment she stepped into the café.
Her gaze cut across the empty tables and landed squarely in the corner by the window.
There, her vice-president Uchiha Ayato was propped on one hand, looking very pensively out the window.
And sitting across from him was a girl with silver hair who radiated a kind of breezy nonchalance.
Chihaya Anon: ?
Let’s rewind slightly and experience this from Chihaya Anon’s perspective.
When Chihaya Anon pushed through the glass door of RiNG’s second-floor café, the cool air made her blink.
Ikebukuro on a weekend was always loud enough to feel like a holiday.
Their scratch band had just wrapped up their first off-campus rehearsal.
The girls had been chattering the whole way here — topic drifting from a new crêpe flavor to their homeroom teacher’s new hairstyle.
Today was their first outdoor practice session.
The chord transitions were still rough, but give it a few more run-throughs and the school festival was going to be spectacular.
With that happy thought lifting her mood practically off the ground, Chihaya Anon’s gaze swept the room — And landed on the corner by the window.
Uchiha Ayato.
Her vice-president.
Afternoon light through the glass touched his slightly-curling black hair, sculpting out the clean line of his profile.
Still annoyingly handsome.
But everything about his body language right now was radiating caught in the act.
More importantly, there was a silver-haired girl sitting across from him.
She was petite.
Oversized black short-sleeve, little camisole underneath, spoon in hand, face focused on a matcha parfait.
The atmosphere between them wasn’t exactly intimate — they weren’t even sitting at the same side of the table.
But.
Chihaya Anon had known Uchiha Ayato for nearly three years.
He was warm to everyone.
People lined up to confide in him.
But he never, ever spent one-on-one downtime in a café with a girl.
He always maintained that pleasant, approachable distance from everyone — close enough to feel warm, too far to ever really reach.
And in all that time, the only person who had managed to make him drop even a fraction of that composure — was her.
She’d always assumed she was special.
But now, here he was, sitting with someone else.
Relaxed.
Natural.
Like this was completely normal.
Who is this girl?
She didn’t recognize her at all.
Anon’s brain ran through everyone she knew at full speed.
Same class?
Impossible — she knew every girl in his class.
His social circle was an open book to her.
No silver-haired tiny person existed in it.
Football club?
Even less likely.
This girl had the energy of a cat who would never voluntarily involve herself in a sport dripping with sweat and competitive spirit.
Then where had this person come from?
There was a tiny cat scratching at the inside of Anon’s chest.
Scratching and scratching.
Ayato hadn’t come to school the day before yesterday.
Sendai, he’d said.
Personal business.
She hadn’t thought much of it then.
But now…
Was this silver-haired little stray somehow connected to that too?
Were they on a date right now?
No, wait — they weren’t sitting together, table between them, didn’t look like a date.
But then why were they together?
And why did the two of them give off this vibe of people who understood each other without needing words — the kind that made it hard for anyone else to step in?
I care about this.
I really care.
Crisis level: through the roof.↑↑ Chihaya Anon planted her feet.
She began building up her energy.
Her companion had spotted Uchiha Ayato too, and gave Anon’s sleeve a small tug.
“Hey?
Anon, isn’t that the vice-president?
What’s he doing here?” “Is that a date?” “Absolutely not!” Anon shot it down on reflex, the certainty in her voice startling even herself.
She drew a slow breath, then turned and pulled out a perfectly smooth smile for the others.
“If we want to know what’s going on, we can just go ask, can’t we?” “So.
Allow me to satisfy everyone’s curiosity~” She turned and walked toward Uchiha Ayato before anyone could say anything else.
Don’t panic.
Don’t let it show how much you care.
She was who?
Chihaya Anon.
Student council president.
One of the most popular girls in the school.
About to go study abroad in England.
A star in her own right.
Some girl who appeared out of thin air — no matter how cute she was — was not going to shake Chihaya Anon enough to cause a crisis.
Right?
Right?
Right?
Right?
By the time she reached the table, her expression was dialed to perfection.
She tilted her head.
Hit him with her signature bright smile.
“Well, well — didn’t expect to run into you here, Ayato-kun~” Her voice came out a little more precious than usual — she’d added an extra layer of sweetness — and it made her skin crawl slightly even as she said it.
Uchiha Ayato’s body gave one full-body flinch, and all he could do was sigh internally and turn around.
Then Anon’s gaze dropped to Raana.
The little cat was scooping up a spoonful of matcha parfait, completely unaffected by this sudden arrival.
She didn’t even look up.
The corner of Anon’s mouth climbed a little higher.
“And who’s this adorable little girl~?” Without question, Uncle Ayato was not someone who cracked under pressure.
Faced with Chihaya Anon’s opening move, he promptly threw the cat under the bus.
“Don’t give me that detective-novel stare, Madam President.” He drained the last of his Earl Grey and set the cup down.
“This was a coincidence.
I come around this area all the time as you know — Raana’s the owner’s granddaughter.
Running into her and treating her to something is a pretty normal thing.” He said it calmly, without a crack.
The explanation sealed itself shut from every angle.
Anon’s tightly-held breath eased halfway out.
The weight that had been sitting on her chest lifted somewhat.
Right.
Of course.
Ayato-kun and this random tiny girl — what would that even be?
Since it was a coincidence, nothing to worry about.
Some random cat-like little girl could never outweigh Chihaya Anon in Ayato-kun’s world.
Could she.
Anon was just starting to think of something light to say to defuse the tension she’d created, when the girl who’d been buried in her parfait finally stopped digging.
Raana didn’t look at Chihaya Anon.
Her gaze went straight across the table, locking onto Uchiha Ayato.
“Do you still play?” Going to so many lives, the itch to try it yourself was inevitable — that was just the pipeline.
Uncle Ayato had watched enough performances that he’d ended up copying a master-class level of technique through the Sharingan without much effort.
He’d kept that particular skill very well-hidden.
Only a handful of people knew about it.
So when those words landed, the smile on Chihaya Anon’s face stopped working.
She snapped her head toward Uchiha Ayato, eyes blown wide with shock she couldn’t quite contain.
Play?
Ayarin can play an instrument?
The Uchiha Ayato who ran across football pitches, who sorted paperwork in the student council room — he played music?
Why had he never once mentioned it?
Uchiha Ayato: …
Evil cat.
Little cat, I really need to put a collar on you.