After the culture festival.
It is November, deep autumn.
The girls of Shuka High School have all switched to their warm winter uniforms.
Not long ago, someone uploaded Hitori's solo performance from the culture festival. The video has already passed one million views.
Because of the emotional style she poured into her playing, that solo even became a breakup anthem on TikTok for a while. As a result, the reputation of the song [If I Could be a Constellation] got unintentionally dragged down.
During this time.
The Kessoku Band became popular, but also not exactly that popular.
The heat from short video platforms comes and goes quickly.
Hitori dreamed that their culture festival performance would become a turning point in her life, but in the end nothing happened.
Her social anxiety remained completely unchanged.
Only at Shuka High School did she somehow become… well, kind of famous.
She entered the school building.
After changing into her indoor shoes at the lockers.
"Good morning, Gotoh." A passing girl greeted her.
"Ah… g-good morning."
Hitori walked down the hallway, unable to move freely.
Every few seconds someone would talk to her.
Sure, she wanted to be famous, but she never imagined that dealing with social interactions would become this difficult.
Normally she could walk from the school gate to her classroom in five minutes, then hide in a corner and enjoy the comforting feeling of solitude.
But after the culture festival.
Bocchi now needed at least ten extra minutes just for greetings.
"Hitori-chan, good morning."
"Kita…"
Hitori finally encountered someone familiar.
She rushed to Kita's side and tugged on the edge of her sleeve.
A wave of relief washed over her.
"Oh my, Hitori, you're really cute."
After the culture festival, Kita deliberately changed her address from the slightly distant Gotoh to the friendlier Hitori, just to show how close they had become.
After taking a calm breath.
Hitori let go of Kita and chatted with her for a bit.
Then she headed toward Class 1-2.
She entered the classroom from the back door.
Hitori noticed that Toru had already arrived. He was sitting by the window, resting his cheek on his hand, staring at the scenery far away.
In other words, spacing out.
But in the eyes of someone in love, even spacing out looks profound.
Through the lens of her feelings, Bocchi believed Toru must be contemplating some deep issue.
With that assumption, she slowly approached.
Then she heard him muttering to himself.
"What even are humans?"
Huh? It really was something that deep?
Hitori was shocked.
She set down her bag and sat beside Toru, trembling with uncertainty.
If you marry a chicken you follow the chicken, if you marry a dog you follow the dog.
Now that Kitahara-kun had become a philosopher, should she follow in his footsteps too?
Hitori spoke up toward Toru. "Kitahara-kun, anything alive should live on."
"…?" Toru returned to reality.
He looked at Hitori.
What was this silly girl suddenly talking about?
"I think, therefore I am."
"No, wait, what's with you all of a sudden?" Toru was completely confused.
"Y-you just said it yourself… 'What even are humans?'"
Hitori's voice was timid.
"You were thinking about that?"
He was surprised at how gentle she could be about the smallest things. Socially anxious people were like this.
"Yes."
Hitori nodded.
"I watched a vampire movie yesterday. That was the line from the male lead. He was being kept by vampires as food."
"Oh… so that's what it was."
Hitori gave an awkward smile.
She was a bit of an idiot, without any truly deep thoughts.
Her worldview would probably stay grounded in simple material desires for life.
Her highest spiritual pursuit was likely nothing more than the thought of dating Toru.
Well, not simple.
At the very least, she had three love rivals standing in her way.
Maybe even more in the shadows.
"Hitori, have you watched many vampire movies?"
"Twilight, Vampire Knight, and… and Seraph of the End…"
As a shut-in, Hitori had watched plenty of anime.
In Kessoku Band, everyone was at least a little into anime, except Kita who was a full extrovert.
"Do you think vampires count as humans?"
"They probably don't?"
Hearing her answer.
Toru lowered his gaze to his own hand.
With the simulator's amplification, his physical strength was no longer within the limits of a human. Other than the highest grade of weapons, nothing could even make him bleed.
Recently, having too much free time, Toru had been thinking about his own nature.
Yet as always, he arrived at no answer.
Still, he was grateful that he had crossed into a world with no superpowers, no strange creatures, no evil organizations, a world so ordinary it could not be more ordinary.
No fights or conspiracies to worry about.
All he had to do was enjoy each fun and peaceful day. If he got bored, he could play with the simulator.
To him, each quiet day was a continuous string of miracles.
When the morning classes ended.
During lunch break.
Toru ate the cute handmade bento that Hitori prepared for him and asked whether Kessoku Band had any plans coming up.
"Mm… plans? Big Sister suggested we join a music festival called Undetermined Roit. Only teens can enter, meaning those between ten and nineteen."
The Big Sister in Hitori's mouth was Hiroi Kikuri.
"Gaining experience on a big stage is great."
Toru picked up a piece of fried chicken and chewed.
"Lately, Ryo has been working on a new song… but it doesn't seem to be going well."
"No wonder she invited me out recently, to look for inspiration."
A a date?
Ryo had made a move.
Although Hitori was the worst offender when it came to making moves, she still thought it was wrong.
"Kitahara-kun, where did you two go…?"
Hitori asked anxiously, trying to hide her true intentions.
"I didn't agree. Going out is exhausting."
As a lazybones, Toru would never spend the weekend running around with a girl.
Somewhere near Tokyo was fine.
Anything farther would be suffering.
Thank goodness.
Hitori did not have the confidence to compete with Ryo.
She was sure Ryo liked Toru.
So of course she was scared.
"In the end, Ryo came to my place and stayed for two days…"
Toru's expression was deadpan. "She said the vibe at my house was good for thinking."
Ryo's aggression far exceeded normal Hitori.
If Toru had not been mentally stable, he might have already fallen for Miss Ryo's beauty without a way out.
A few small examples:
After showering, she came out in a half buttoned white shirt to seduce him. Twice.
She knocked on his door in the middle of the night asking if they could sleep together. Five times.
Indirect kisses. Three times.
Touching him while gaming, like caressing his thigh. Three times.
As for the rest of her outrageous behavior, he would rather not list it all.
"I… I want to join too."
Hitori also wanted a chance to take advantage of Toru.
"No."
One of them was already overwhelming. What good would another one do?
Have a 3P?
"Uu…"
Hitori lowered her head, feeling a bit wronged.
In the current progress of reality, she was probably the one falling furthest behind.
Maybe she should enter the simulation world to comfort herself.
Thinking that, Bocchi opened the simulator to check her remaining attempts.
Huh!!
Why are there five tries?
Did I already complete that mission?
When did I kiss Kitahara-kun? I don't remember.
I totally lost out.