Step Forward If You Want to Die! – Part 03

“Ah! This is bad!”

Tomonori and Anderson hurried to haul the speakers and equipment away. The people who had gathered on the field panicked and ran for cover from the rain.

“Kirara-tan! This way!”

“I’m fine, really.”

Saras’s entourage grabbed her by the hand and pulled her into the school with them.

That left only me, Eu, Haruna, and Sera. Just the four of us. The concert was over. Nothing we could do. You can’t fight the weather.

In the downpour so heavy it made mist rise, Eu called in a small, bitter voice, “Haruna.”

“Hm?”

“This happened because your emotions stirred.” Eu’s pale, frail hand trembled.

She must have been looking forward to this concert more than anything. Even the tension itself probably made her happy.

And now the gentle girl who always blamed herself for everything was glaring at Haruna. Her silver hair, soaked through by the rain, hung down heavy and forlorn.

“Haruna, don’t tell me… you were jealous of Eu’s concert?”

Haruna shook her head hard. Even when soaked in the rain, her cowlick kept bouncing.

“I want to hear the negamancer sing, too.”

The words scribbled in her notepad were blurred from the rain and hard to read.

Haruna was simply enjoying the school festival. That was all.

When Eu couldn’t suppress her joy, she ran into someone she didn’t want to see. In Haruna’s case, that someone was a typhoon. What she didn’t want showing up at the festival she had looked forward to was exactly this.

Eu’s blue eyes turned to me. “If Haruna can hold her emotions back, the rain will stop.” But realizing what she was saying, she shook her silver hair wildly and added, “I’m sorry. I’m not in any place to say something like that.”

I could tell what she was thinking. She was the one who had stolen Haruna’s emotions. To tell her to suppress them was absurd.

“I understand how you feel, Miss Hellscythe.” Sera neither agreed nor disagreed. She brushed back her wet hair, words caught in her throat.

“But I… I’m sorry.” Eu, who usually never showed emotion, was visibly shaken.

If Haruna just suppressed her emotions, huh.

“Sorry, Eu.”

“Ayumu?”

“If Haruna is genuinely enjoying herself, if she’s showing proper manners and following the rules, just having fun like an idiot, then I can’t tell her to stop. She can laugh if she wants to.”

Sera’s eyes widened. She probably couldn’t accept what I was saying.

“So yeah, sorry. I’d like to let you do what you want, but…”

“Thank you.”

“What?”

“Because I think… you felt the same about me back then.”

Eu’s face, always emotionless and unchanged, seemed—just faintly—to smile.

“I thought Miss Hellscythe was the only one who mattered to you.”

Sera’s quiet and firm voice held no pressure. For some reason, her eyes held a glimmer of hope as she looked at me.

“Eu is important to me. But that doesn’t mean Haruna isn’t important, too. Of course—”

Before I could finish with that includes you too, Sera pressed a finger to my lips.

“Your explanations are always vague and hard to follow… but you don’t need to say it. I already understand.”

As always, when it came to things like this, Sera saw right through me.

Haruna’s expression was hard to read. She always had me dancing to her tune, but I didn’t hate for it.

Haruna. You feel the same, don’t you?

“Every single thing you just said was gross.”

“I’ll make sure you can’t laugh or cry ever again!” I grabbed Haruna’s soft, saucy cheeks with both hands.

Just then, a sudden gust of wind blew through. A crosswind so strong I couldn’t even open my eyes. Haruna’s small frame almost flew away, and she clutched at my clothes.

Looking like something straight out of a T.M. Revolution music video, I dug in my heels and held my ground so I wouldn’t be blown away.^[1]

Sera’s red miniskirt fluttered wide, revealing her stunning black—oof! Her foot. Forget the wind, that kick nearly sent me flying.

The morning assembly platform lurched. It didn’t shift sideways. One of its legs lifted, and it looked ready to collapse.

Eu, who was on top, clung to the mic stand. I instantly grabbed the rising platform leg.

“Sing.”

Clothes flapped in the wind. Like a lawyer flashing a victory sign to the press after a trial, Haruna held up a sheet from her notepad, stretching it taut with both hands to show Eu.

“Huh?”

Eu stared blankly, and Haruna thrust the note at her again.

“I want to hear the negamancer sing too.”

It was the same note she had shown me earlier.

Haruna and Eu locked eyes.

Eu shook her head. “I can’t sing in this rain.”

The field felt lonely now, with only me, Haruna, and Sera left.

“Yeaaah!”

“Whooo!”

Blown by the wind, a pair of guys and girls appeared, all hyped up.

“This is awesome! I actually like typhoons.” Tomonori, still in her sailor uniform, twirled around with that same airheaded joy.

“You’ll get drenched, Tomonori,” I said.

Tomonori flashed a mischievous grin, then flipped up her skirt. “I figured this might happen, so I left my swimsuit on under my uniform.”

She was still going to get sick either way.

“And you?”

The spiky-haired dude next to her looked like the worst possible match for a typhoon. His hair would get wrecked by the rain, and his glasses would fog up and block his vision.

“Let me in on the fun, yeah?” He jabbed a thumb at himself with a grin. Still gross, but with his glasses dripping wet, I couldn’t help but laugh instead of scowling.

“I wanna join too.”

A big hand clamped down firmly on the assembly platform’s leg. A tall young man stood there, towering over me. A handsome guy with striking blue eyes—Anderson.

Then Mihara showed up next. “I saw Yuki running over, so I figured I’d tag along.”

They only had jerseys under their uniforms. They were definitely catching colds.

“Everyone… you’ll catch colds like this… you know?”

Even Hiramatsu showed up. Worried her skirt would flip, she kept both hands pressed tightly against it. Her hair fluttered in the wind.

“Bunch of idiots,” I said.

“I don’t think anyone here wants to hear that from you. Gross.” Sera’s Hanako costume had turned see-through from the rain.

I quickly looked away from her. Was the pounding in my chest because of Sera’s revealing outfit?

No, that wasn’t it. It was just because I liked these people. Simply being with them filled me with excitement.

“Eu. Wouldn’t these guys be enough?” I asked.

“What?”

“Maybe a huge crowd won’t hear it, but I want them to. Is that not good enough? I want to show them how good you are at singing.”

“Sing. You’re not planning to waste all that training with me, are you?”

“All right. I’ll sing.”

“That’s the spirit.”

“Yeah!” Eu nodded firmly. It was the most spirited voice I had ever heard from her.

And so, Eu’s concert began.

Her voice rang clear and beautiful, undaunted by the rain and wind.

A silver mouse runs through the day and night,
forever in flight

The melody was surprisingly pop and rock, not at all what I’d expect Eu to sing.

She really did have a great voice. I found myself so absorbed in it, I forgot we were standing in the middle of a storm.

One day the mouse stopped in its tracks
From the moment they first met,
Her fate was rewritten

Hiramatsu and Mihara just gazed up at Eu, keeping rhythm. Orito and Tomonori hopped up and down.

Anderson… for some reason, tears streamed down his face. That wasn’t rain. No doubt about it. He was crying. But why? It wasn’t even that moving of a song.

Fate always beats within the mouse,
A fire to live stronger than yesterday

Sera listened with her arms crossed, eyes closed. Maybe she was filtering out the storm’s noise to focus only on Eu’s voice.

So the mouse sings beneath the night,
Where even darkness shines like light

Haruna… Haruna also had her eyes closed like Sera, pressing her gauntleted hand to her chest. Maybe she was trying to hold down her surging emotions.

And then, the rain stopped. Had Haruna killed her emotions, gone still and empty, just to help Eu, just for this concert?

So the mouse smiles beneath the night,
Before everything turns into lies.

At the final hook, Saras’s fan squad came rushing back onto the field.

With the rain gone and only strong winds left, more students followed them, returning to the grounds.

Soon the crowd swelled to as many as when Saras had her concert, or maybe even more. They must’ve come from other booths too.

But they came too late. Eu’s song had already ended.

“Encore!”

It wasn’t one of us who shouted, but some male student I didn’t even know.

“One more time! One more time!” Tomonori cried.

That’s not how you ask for an encore, Tomonori.

Saras brought the lights back out. Beams shone from both sides onto the girl in a chiffon dress standing on the platform. Her silver hair glittered in the light.

“Can I… really sing again?” she asked.

“Yeah, go ahead,” I said. “You wanted a huge audience, didn’t you?”

“Okay.”

Eu sang once more, from the top. She tried to let everyone hear her properly, but the wind grew stronger and stronger, desperate to drown out her voice. Haruna had only managed to stop the rain; now a headwind blew so hard we could barely breathe.

“Watch the lights! Don’t let them fall!” Saras shouted.

Even as the wind roared, this time nobody left the field. Tomonori and Sera helped steady the podium.

Eu brushed the silver hair from her face and gripped the mic stand.

“I won’t… give in!”

Cheers erupted. It was as though Eu was a famous idol.

The wind howled, dead leaves scraped and rustled across the ground, autumn’s voice louder than summer cicadas. But Eu never yielded.

She wasn’t so weak that Haruna’s little streak of misfortune could bring her down. In the raging storm, in the wave of cheers, Eu sang an entire song through.

She closed her eyes and exclaimed, “Thank you, everyone!” Her rain-soaked hair glittered in the light.

“Hey, you lot!” a furious voice bellowed, and we all turned toward the school building.

There came our homeroom teacher, Takeshi Kurisu, in his tracksuit. The crowd bolted and scattered in all directions. Mihara, Orito, Tomonori, Anderson, and Hiramatsu hurried off, while Sera and Haruna laughed as they followed. I took Eu’s hand and, with a smile, ran after them.

“You brats, get inside the school already!”

That marked the end of the concert.

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1. T.M.Revolution is the solo project of Japanese musician, singer, and voice actor Takanori Nishikawa. Some of his music videos feature him performing passionately while being blasted by gale-force winds and snow.