Hotaru

...

Hotaru

(I feel like I'm floating.)

Hotaru

(Every sound around me feels so far away.)

Hotaru

(It feels like I'm wrapped in a thin, invisible veil.)

Hotaru

Kanata-san...

Hotaru

(Some part of me still can't believe it.)

Hotaru

(That I'll never see her again.)

Hotaru

So... that's why you're disbanding...

Mahoro

Yeah... that's right.

Hotaru

(Mahoro-san looked like she was in so much pain.)

Hotaru

(But when she talked about their memories, her expression was so soft.)

Hotaru

(Could the band... really just end like this...?)

Hotaru

Hehe... Kanata-san, you really do love millsage, don't you?

Of course! I hope they would be happy.

They're my treasure.

Hotaru

...!!

Hotaru

Hah... hah...!

Hotaru

(Kanata-san, Kanata-san, Kanata-san!)

Hotaru

(Maybe someone like me can't change anything...!)

Hotaru

(Maybe I won't be any help at all...!)

Hotaru

(But...!)

Hotaru

(Kanata-san's treasure...)

Hotaru

(The music you left behind in this world...)

Hotaru

(I can't stand the thought of it... disappearing!)

Hotaru

(I still haven't given anything back to you...! After you gave me so much... so much...!)

Hotaru

(At the very least... the happiness you wished for everyone, Kanata-san...!)

Hotaru

(If I can change this ending, even just a little, so everyone doesn't have to be left grieving...! Then I...!)

Houka-chan, are you sure you don't want to join another band? You even got an invitation...

Houka

Yes. The band I belong to now is my coffin.

Your coffin...? That's really not a good way to put it.

Houka

(That was my intent from the very beginning. This band was to be my coffin. And yet, that wish can no longer come true.)

Houka

(Then at least... even if I must go on as one who failed to die... I will leave the musician I was here.)

I know what happened, but... I still can't help wishing you'd keep playing in a band.

Houka

If I could, that would be the greatest happiness of all.

That's such a shame. You've got all that talent, Houka-chan.

Houka

I wonder about that...

You were on vocals before you joined millsage, after all. I think you could do perfectly well that way too.

Houka

Hehe. Such lavish praise is more than someone like me deserves.

Right, that reminds me. That long-haired girl who came by the dressing room today... Was she someone you know, Houka-chan?

Houka

Ah... You mean Shiomi-san? Today was our first meeting.

Houka

Are you familiar with her?

Not personally, no. Videos of her playing street piano have been getting some attention lately.

She was really famous in the classical music world when she was a kid. People called her the "Angel of the Music World." She was a prodigy!

Apparently she doesn't enter competitions anymore these days. But I've seen her play, and she was unbelievable.

Houka

My... You are rather well informed.

My niece used to play piano, that's why. Here, this is the video that got all that buzz.

Houka

...!

Houka

(Remarkable...!)

Hotaru

Hah, hah...! Um, excuse me!

Houka

My...♪

Wait, it's really her!? Why is she here!?

Hotaru

Hah... hah...! Is... Is Mahoro-san still here!?

Houka

If it is Mahoro-san you are looking for, I'm afraid she has already gone home. Did you need something from her?

Hotaru

Ah... um...! It's about millsage...! ...(Deep breath)...

Hotaru

Is there anything... I can do to help...!?

Houka

!

Hotaru

I-I'm sorry. I know it must sound strange, some outsider suddenly saying this...

Hotaru

Like, what do I know about any of this...!? I-I think that too...

Hotaru

But... I...!

Hotaru

I could tell how precious millsage was to all of you.

Hotaru

And I'm sure Kanata-san felt the same way.

Hotaru

She talked so much about millsage... and she smiled when she did. She called it her treasure, and said she wanted all of you to be happy...!

Hotaru

So... please! Don't let the band end!

Hotaru

There has to be a future, where all of you can still be happy!

Houka

...

Houka

(How very greedy...)

Houka

(So childlike, so rough around the edges.)

Houka

(And perhaps that is precisely why...)

Houka

I have taken your feelings... to heart.

Hotaru

!

Houka

However, it is already rather late tonight...

Houka

If you would not mind, perhaps we could speak again properly another day♪

Nagi

Are you really sure... you're okay going home alone?

Mahoro

I told you, I'll be fine. You're having dinner with your family, right? Then you should hurry and meet up with them.

Nagi

But...

Mahoro

You worry too much. I'm still the older one here, you know, Nagi-chan.

Nagi

Then... maybe it's about time you learned to wake up on your own in the morning, big sister.

Mahoro

Urk... Let's say that's a separate issue...

Nagi

It's still cold at night, don't make any detours. Call me if anything happens.

Nagi

No practice today either. Get some proper rest, okay?

Mahoro

Okaaay.

Nagi

Do you really get it, though?

Nagi

See you, then.

Mahoro

Yeah. Thanks.

Mahoro

...

Mahoro

Nagi-chan used to be so much cuter...

Mahoro

Somewhere along the way, she went and got so cool. Makes me look like the unreliable one, doesn't it?

Mahoro

Well... I guess I really am unreliable.

Mahoro

...

Mahoro

Hey... Kanata.

Mahoro

I still remember what we talked about that day.

Mahoro

There you are~ The festival after-party is already starting, you know?

Oh...

Mahoro

What's wrong? You're totally spacing out.

Nah...

Just thinking how fun that live was.

Mahoro

Huh~? I didn't know you got like this too, Kanata.

What, that a problem?

Mahoro

No, not at all. I had a ton of fun at today's live too.

Mahoro

My second-year middle school self would never believe it. Like, "You'll be playing in a band on the school festival stage one day!"

Mahoro

I think... my heart's still racing a little.

Still, that was the whole youth thing, right?

Mahoro

Yeah... Almost enough to make me laugh.

At first... there was something I wanted to do. That's why I started this band.

Mahoro

Wait, what? Are we getting a passionate speech?

Yup. So shut up and listen.

A mark I left behind, I guess.

Proof that I was really here in this world. Something that could only exist because I lived this life.

I thought it'd be nice to have something like that. Y'know, proof I existed?

Mahoro

Kanata...?

Ahaha! I mean, you know I used to be a sickly, fragile beauty, right?

So yeah, I tended to think about stuff like that.

Mahoro

Since when were you fragile?

Harsh.

Anyway. I wanted that, so I asked you guys to start a band with me.

Then Natsume and Houka joined, and there were five of us... Haha. Damn, all I can think of are the dumbest memories.

Mahoro

Like... the metronome incident?

Oh yeah, that one. We could not come in together on the chorus for anything, so we tried playing along to a click, but...

Mahoro

We listened to it so much, and I could still hear the click in my head when I went to bed... Then I overslept the next day. Ahaha.

And that time, Nagi hit the distortion pedal for the first time with the knobs all over the place and made that toy-like sound. I laughed like crazy.

Mahoro

Nagi-chan was panicking for once. Like, "I don't know how to fix it!"

Then~ Y'know, our first live! Natsume stepped off the riser and wiped out mid-show.

Mahoro

It was amazing how she still protected her guitar on instinct, wasn't it?

Seriously, how did she not get hurt~?

Mahoro

Oh, I remember when we all escorted Houka-chan too. The one where our arms got so sore we couldn't lift them afterward.

Somewhere along the way, it turned into this whole noble lady with four butlers thing. Like, "Allow me to carry your luggage."

Mahoro

Ahaha. What even was that?

Haha, yeah... Anyway, y'know, we just kept piling up memories like that.

Then, at that practice camp the other day, I realized something.

I was like, oh... this was it.

Mahoro

This...?

Yep. I kept lining up all these cool-sounding reasons, like leaving a mark and proving I existed, but...

In the end, I just wanted to live out my youth.

Mahoro

...!

The story of our youth, with us as the main characters.

Mahoro

I think... I kind of get that.

Mahoro

When our live ended earlier, it felt like the last chapter of a manga or something!

Huh? Who was it backstage saying, "It feels like my life is about to start!"?

Mahoro

That's how it felt then! But now it feels like the credits are rolling on the perfect ending.

Haha, what the heck does that mean?

Anyway, y'know. I'm stupidly happy right now. I'm even grateful to this world.

Enough that I wanna grab every random person walking by and go around kissing them all.

Mahoro

Huh?! K-Kiss?! W-W-W-What are you saying, Kanata!?

You're freaking out way too hard. What are you, an elementary school girl? I'm just saying that's how happy I am.

So instead, I'm gonna make music.

I'm going to deliver it to everyone through sound. A happy gift from us to the world.

Mahoro

Oh... So, that's why we're "millsage"...? The French word for "thousand," and...

Corsage, a flower for celebration. millsage.

It's happiness I wanna share, more than we could ever hold in both hands.

Hey, Mahoro. Truth is, I...

Mahoro

Huh...?

Mahoro

...!!

Mahoro

...

Mahoro

That happiness... was mine too...

Mahoro

It really was... and yet...

Mahoro

I'm sorry, Kanata.