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Inside the shop.
"Although we don't have matcha, would this be alright?"
Asakura brought out a small plate of baked pancakes drizzled with maple syrup from behind the bar.
Kaname Raana leaned closer, lightly sniffing the aroma with her small nose, then nodded in satisfaction.
The soft, slightly milky pancakes, the sweet but not cloying syrup, and the slowly melting butter, all perfectly blended into a delicious symphony dancing on the girl's tongue.
Kaname Raana was clearly quite satisfied with the taste of the baked pancakes; her heterochromatic eyes narrowed, looking as adorable as a cat enjoying a delicious can of food.
Gotō Hitori was about to say something when she noticed the girl, who had just narrowed her eyes, now staring wide-eyed at her, which made her panic, and she could only weakly seek help from Asakura: "Asa-Asakura-kun..."
Asakura looked at the girl, and Hitori immediately pleaded with her eyes.
Asakura was stunned for a moment, then, understanding dawned on him from the girl's gaze.
He took out another plate of baked pancakes from under the counter and placed it in front of Gotō Hitori: "Hitori, you must want to eat them too, right? You can just say so, no need to be so polite."
No, no, no, I'm not craving sweets, why would you interpret it that way!
Gotō Hitori was on the verge of tears internally.
"Don't want to eat?"
Asakura asked, looking at the girl with the strange expression.
"...I want to eat."
After a moment of hesitation, Gotō Hitori replied softly.
Unlike the baked pancakes given to Kaname Raana, which were topped with traditional maple syrup and a small piece of solid butter, Hitori's pancakes had two handmade ice cream scoops on top; judging by the colors, one was raspberry flavored, and the other was vanilla flavored.
At this moment, the scoop of ice cream was slowly melting under the warmth of the baked muffin, glittering under the lights, as if a highly saturated filter had been applied, making it look quite appetizing.
"Yours looks really delicious."
Kaname Raana, with a fork in her mouth, stared at the timid Gotō Hitori with eyes like a cat discovering a mouse.
The latter trembled even more violently. She reluctantly pushed the plate in front of her towards the girl, then bent over, almost lying on the counter, and said very humbly, "Please, help yourself…"
The little wildcat seemed to have no idea how to write the words 'be polite', truly wanting to poke and eat Gotō Hitori's baked muffin, but Asakura held her forehead down.
"Don't snatch other people's food!"
He said, then looked at Gotō Hitori with some helplessness, "And Hitori, you shouldn't give in to a junior so easily. She's clearly just a middle schooler, while you're already a high schooler, alright?"
"B-but…"
Gotō Hitori stammered.
"I want that—" Kaname Raana said very directly.
"Alright, alright, I'll get you another one. What flavor of ice cream do you want?" Asakura sighed and said.
"Matcha—" the girl replied without hesitation.
"This shop doesn't have such trendy things—" Asakura said, staring at the girl.
"Armstrong—" Kaname Raana said with great certainty.
"Is there such a flavor of ice cream?" Gotō Hitori was full of questions.
"Rum raisin, right? I got it—" Asakura replied unswayed.
"So she was just making up names because she couldn't remember… By the way, compared to matcha, isn't this flavor the trendiest…?" Ms. Bocchi couldn't help but mumble as she looked at the satisfied Kaname Raana.
"Guitar—" Kaname Raana suddenly said to her.
"Huh?" Gotō Hitori looked bewildered.
"Band?" the cat girl then asked.
After confirming that the other person was speaking to her, Gotō Hitori nodded, "Yes, I Am!"
"That kid just speaks concisely; she's not a foreigner with poor Japanese—" Asakura retorted.
"But I really don't understand what she's saying… Ugh, she's staring at me with those scary eyes again…" Gotō Hitori whimpered softly with a tearful face.
But this time, Kaname Raana didn't continue speaking. She just stuffed the not-so-large muffin into her mouth in two or three bites, instantly making her cheeks puff up like a chipmunk storing pine nuts, looking incredibly cute.
The girl put down the plate, which only had syrup and butter residue left, opened the guitar case beside her, and slung the guitar inside onto herself.
Gotō Hitori's guitar was passed down from her father. Although the girl maintained it quite well, it still looked very old.
However, this level of oldness was nothing compared to Kaname Raana's guitar. The cat girl's guitar completely gave off a feeling of 'Why can this guitar still work normally?', 'This guitar might be much older than this kid', 'Is such equipment okay?'
Then, Kaname Raana began to play the guitar.
It was like an impromptu solo, but one could also hear tunes from some popular songs of the moment. It should have just been the girl's casual performance.
After appreciating it for a moment, Asakura roughly determined her skill level.
She was more skilled than the average high school band's guitarist; both her technique and musicality were very good.
If one had to say, she was probably somewhere between "Failing Hitori" and "Serious Hitori—" feeling a bit stronger than "Half-Ripe Mango Mask Hitori."
"Pleasant."
After playing for a while, Kaname Raana put the guitar back in its case and then began to eat the ice cream muffin Asakura had prepared for her.
Only her heterochromatic eyes were still fixed on Gotō Hitori.
Gotō Hitori looked at Asakura and saw him give her an expression of 'It's alright, no worries.'
So she could only take out her own guitar and, after a moment of hesitation, began to play Kessoku Band's latest new song.
Kaname Raana, who was still eating her muffin, listened for a moment, then, with the fork in her mouth, looked at Gotō Hitori with some surprise, making a gesture as if to say, 'I need to sit up and listen.'
The song ended.
"Hitori, your playing is much better than before."
Asakura couldn't help but applaud. It wasn't that Gotō Hitori's guitar skills had improved rapidly—in fact, once she reached her level, it was very difficult to make further progress; it could only be achieved through accumulated experience and painstaking effort—but rather, Hitori used to only be able to display three to five tenths of her ability when playing in front of others, whereas now, even when stared at by strangers, she could stably perform at over sixty percent of her skill level. It was indeed much better than before.
It seems that frequently messing up at STARRY… Ahem, I mean, frequent Live practice has had a considerably positive effect on the girl's performance.
And that cat girl showed an even more startled and delighted expression, like a cat seeing its prey, which made Gotō Hitori's heart pound.
"Interesting girl—"
She seemed to remember something at this point and then continued, "—girl!"
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