Chapter 21: Recording
"Ren? What are you doing here?"
Upon seeing Ren, Anon was quite surprised, then cautiously glanced around but didn't spot any fox spirit matching Ren's description. It seemed he hadn't been followed.
"I have some business to take care of here. Are these the band members you found?"
Ren smiled at Ritsuki and the others, only to notice that Ritsuki also seemed surprised, apparently not expecting him to know Anon. The gray-haired girl shyly shrunk back, while the brown-haired young lady watched him with a smiling gaze.
"Not exactly confirmed yet. This is my childhood friend Ren. Everyone just needs to know his name."
Anon said somewhat troubled. Although she had found people, their discussion hadn't gone particularly well.
Since the gray-haired girl, Takamatsu Tomori, couldn't play any instruments and was the vocalist, wouldn't her ambition of becoming a guitarist-vocalist be cut short?
Moreover, Ritsuki was quite fierce, Anon really didn't know what she had done to offend her, only that she kept making unpleasant faces.
Nagasaki Soyo with the brown hair was much better, perfectly matching her imagination of a Tsukinomori Girls' Academy young lady, elegant, polite, and gentle.
"Then I won't disturb you all."
After exchanging names, Ren sat down on a sofa at another tea table and placed an order with Ritsuki.
After a while, the most efficient bassist Yahata Umiri arrived first, carrying her bass. Surprisingly, she actually knew Ritsuki, turns out it's a small world after all.
"Here's the score."
After Umiri arrived, Ren handed the musical score to her.
Maintaining a professional attitude, Umiri took the score. She had been impressed from the recruitment stage, and seeing the actual score made her even more respectful.
This wasn't just fooling around, Ren had actually created a piece combining bass, piano, and various types of string instruments.
"Are you the vocalist?"
Noticing that Ren hadn't recruited a temporary vocalist and glancing at the lyrics, Umiri asked curiously.
The music industry was currently in the era of all-female bands, with male singers and bands nearly extinct. She hadn't expected Ren to be an extremely rare male vocalist.
"Yes. If you think the score looks fine, please review the contract as well. I'll pay the deposit after you sign."
Ren nodded and produced the contract.
This surprised Umiri even more. As a professional session musician who had participated in over thirty bands, she had never encountered such formal arrangements before.
But this suited her working style perfectly. For 200,000 yen, avoiding unnecessary trouble was ideal, and having a contract made receiving the payment more secure.
Taking the contract, Umiri carefully reviewed it, she didn't want to be unknowingly taken advantage of.
Ren's contract was naturally problem-free, being a standard agreement, so Umiri signed it.
Seeing her so straightforward, Ren directly gave a 50,000 yen deposit.
After confirming there was real money involved, Umiri's earlier worry about being taken advantage of vanished without a trace.
"Not everyone has arrived yet. Let's have something to eat first—my treat."
Currently, only Umiri had arrived. As the boss, Ren could easily treat his subordinate to a meal.
"Yes, boss."
After signing the contract and before the song was recorded, Ren was her boss. For such a generous spender, Umiri wouldn't hold back—being polite might even seem disrespectful.
Later, the violin, viola, and cello players arrived one after another, and without exception, they were all beautiful girls. This made Anon glance over at Ren, feeling puzzled when she didn't see the pink-haired girl. What was her childhood friend doing hiring so many beautiful girls? Had he fallen into depravity?
Ren wasn't aware of Anon's thoughts. The other members had the same attitude as Umiri—after confirming the contract was fine, they signed it readily without trying to raise the price or raise objections.
However, the pianist was late. After waiting for half an hour and realizing it was already ten minutes past the agreed time, Ren frowned and sent a message to the other party.
[The Weak Me Has Died: I'm outside the shop now.]
After receiving the reply, Ren looked toward the door and saw only one person walking into the shop—a blue-haired, golden-eyed beauty with twin tails, whose noble lady aura felt much more authentic than Nagasaki Soyo's.
It seemed the pianist was indeed her.
But before she could enter the shop, Ren saw her freeze in place with wide-eyed shock after noticing something, then without a word, she turned and walked away, gradually speeding up until she ran off.
"?"
Ren showed a deeply puzzled expression, then looked down and saw a message from the pianist who had applied, saying she couldn't take the job due to personal reasons. Ren had no idea what the specific problem was.
"Boss, what's wrong?"
Noticing Ren suddenly covering his face with a helpless expression, Umiri curiously pressed for details. They were all waiting for the last person to arrive, but the other party was late, and Ren's expression changed noticeably after checking his phone—the outcome seemed clear.
"The pianist who was supposed to come ran off. Forget it, I'll step in myself. Let's go."
Ren sighed and decided to take over. He had originally planned to just relax and sing, but unexpectedly, the pianist had fled as if she'd seen something terrifying.
"You can play the piano too?"
Umiri had thought Ren only knew how to compose, write lyrics, and sing, but she hadn't expected him to play the piano as well—that was a bit surprising.
"I know a little."
Ren nodded and led the members to the recording studio he had booked. Now he would join the practice session to coordinate with Umiri and the others.
Being able to play alone wasn't enough; he needed to harmonize well with his teammates to present a perfect piece of music.
This was where the requirement for at least semi-professional technical skills proved its value. Though they were meeting and collaborating for the first time, their solid skills allowed them to quickly adapt to each other.
In just an hour, they could play through an entire song completely. While the coordination wasn't perfect yet, the efficiency was remarkable.
After five hours of practice like this, no one felt tired. Instead, they were excited because the composition, lyrics, and vocal performance Ren provided were outstanding, and his instrumental skills were the best among them. They could see the birth of a song destined to go viral, and they were part of it.
Even though the copyright belonged solely to Ren, having their names appear in the credits as instrumentalists was an invaluable opportunity for exposure and something to be proud of.
Thus, they worked even harder than Ren had anticipated, extending the session from the originally planned evening until closing time.
Half a day was sufficient for them; though not perfect, it achieved the results Ren wanted.
So at 9 PM, Ren began recording the video. Neither he nor Umiri and the others showed their faces—the camera only focused on his hands playing the piano.
The recording concluded smoothly, and everyone except Ren wore expressions of excitement.
Most of them were involved in bands or followed the band scene, so they knew good music when they heard it. This song, "Lemon," was bound to be a hit.
Their eyes shone with excitement as they looked at Ren—a rare lead vocalist who could write lyrics, compose, and play instruments. Forming a band with him would make performing at Tokyo Dome a realistic dream.
Unfortunately, they were only temporary collaborators. Though tempted, they refrained from impulsively inviting Ren to start a band.
Ren himself had no intention of debuting. Besides creating a legitimate way to earn money, his main goal now was to write a song for Hitori that would move her deeply.
"If there's a chance in the future, let's collaborate again. I'll keep writing songs," Ren said, feeling somewhat reluctant to end the session. The experience of playing and singing freely wasn't dull at all; the emotional release through shouting made him feel incredibly light, and his throat didn't hurt at all.
"Mm."
Umiri and the others gazed at Ren with admiration, then asked where he planned to release the song, promising to help promote it both online and at school.
"Boss, are you serious??"
After Ren shared his Twitter handle, Umiri and the others who went to follow him all twitched their mouths, their previously admiring expressions turning indescribably complicated.
"Ahem, just a personal preference," Ren said with an embarrassed smile. As mentioned earlier, he enjoyed using abstract usernames online—his Twitter handle was "A Maiden's Sweet and Fragrant Armpit."
"An eccentricity of genius, perhaps..."
Umiri and the others didn't look down on Ren because of this. A username was just a username, and in reality, Ren's talent was so exceptional that they categorized his naming preference as just another quirk setting geniuses apart from ordinary people.
With that, the recording session concluded perfectly. As for copyright registration, Ren left it to the system to handle. His only responsibility was uploading the video and aggressively buying promotions. Even if his singing were terrible, he would spend heavily to ensure his song reached tens of millions of views—let alone now, when he sang even better than the original artist.
After completing all this, Ren rested. Meanwhile, "Lemon" spread across the internet at an incredible speed. Nearly everyone still browsing videos received the push notification upon refreshing their feeds.
Bolstered by the system and the song's inherent excellence, both Ren and his music went viral.