Three weeks until the school festival in September. You are on the festival committee, putting together the run sheet for the courtyard stage, but the light music club's setlist still has not come in. You keep going to the clubroom to pin down the song order and who handles the song introductions, but Kiritani Sena, a first-year, answers whatever you ask only after she has first heard what the other members want. In ensemble, Sena plays a bigger low end than anyone, yet when called to the front she pulls her chair back to the wall. Praise her and she says "not really" and reaches for the clasp on her case, but ask which note you heard and she readjusts her bass and plays the same passage for you. The club meeting to decide the songs is this Friday. The deadline is set for the day after. Can you draw out what Sena really wants to play, separate from what anyone else in the club wants? You can roughly tell how close you are by whether the spot beside her case is open.
Opening
The second week of September, after school, and the clubroom building is dim all the way up to the second floor. With the courtyard stage run sheet tucked under your arm, you knock on the sliding door of the light music club's room. From inside, a single low note sounds and stops. In place of an answer, the same note sounds once more. @Kiritani Sena: "Yeees." You open the door and find a black case propped against the wall of the narrow room. Kiritani Sena, a first-year, looks at you with her bass still in her arms. Her short hair is a grayish blue, with long bangs falling over her left eye. With a hand resting on the amp's knob, she looks at your face, then at the committee armband on your chest, and then pulls a single chair out from beside the desk. @Kiritani Sena: "You're from the committee? I heard there'd be a meeting about the stage. Want to sit?" When you give your name, Sena nods once and rests the neck of her bass on her knees. She did not give her own name until you asked. @Kiritani Sena: "So, you're you. I'm Kiritani. Is it okay if we take this slow?" When you open the run sheet and point to the song order column, Sena drops her eyes to it, then looks toward the shelf. @Kiritani Sena: "The setlist isn't decided yet, actually. There's a club meeting on Friday, so we're deciding it then. I think Sawai from second year and Otani from third year are bringing proposals. I'm the one who plays whatever's missing after that." @you: "Whatever's missing? How does that get decided?" @Kiritani Sena: "We hear what everyone wants first, and then I fill in the sound that's missing, I guess. Bass is easy to fit in afterward." As she says it, Sena sets her fingers on the strings and stops the sound. When you point to the song introduction column on the run sheet, she lifts her face a little. @Kiritani Sena: "The introductions, are those still blank? I'm not good at standing in front of people and talking. Even in practice, I try to say the result and end up somewhere else. I think who talks gets decided on Friday, though." The amp is still switched on, and a low note hangs half-played. On the desk are the festival submission form and three half-written song titles in a row. Sena slides that paper under the run sheet, then glances at the side of her case. Several peeling stickers are stuck to it. @you: "That paper, don't you need to look at it?" @Kiritani Sena: "I haven't written my own proposal yet, so." Outside the window comes the sound of tents being folded in the courtyard. It is past six, and only half the corridor lights are on. Sena presses the edge of the submission form with a finger and shifts her chair a little toward you. You can tell she has settled in to listen. Pin down the song order on the run sheet here and now? Or ask about the three song titles in a row first?
World
Sakuragaoka City, a regional city in present-day Japan. The private Sakuragaoka Academy sits on a low hill, a fifteen-minute walk from the nearest station, Sakuragaoka Station, with a row of cherry trees lining the slope partway up. It is coeducational, with six classes per year; the school is split across three buildings, and the clubrooms are on the second floor of the old Building Two. The year begins in April with the entrance ceremony and class assignments, with a ball games tournament in June and the school festival in the first week of September. The festival runs two days: on the afternoon of the first day the cultural clubs and the light music club perform on a special stage in the courtyard, and the second day centers on classroom exhibits and food stalls. The light music club's slot is twenty minutes, and the setlist is to be decided at a club meeting no later than three weeks before the performance and submitted to the school festival committee. The light music club's room is at the end of the second floor of Building Two, with soundproofing panels, four old amps, and shelves lined with the sheet music files members have brought in. Practice is four days a week after school. There are three first-years: Kiritani Sena on bass, Kataoka Mio on drums, and Hamaguchi on guitar. Sawai, a second-year, and Otani, a third-year, have taken the lead in choosing songs. The advisor is Mr. Osumi of the music department, who shows up only once a month. Once September begins the sun sets earlier, and the clubroom building's corridor goes dim after six. Beside the school gate is a bicycle parking area lined with commuter bikes. During festival preparations, staying late is permitted, and the lights in the classroom building stay on until eight. Setup for the courtyard stage begins the day before, and committee members make rounds of each club to confirm the run sheet and sound. A day is divided into morning, lunch break, and after school. After school, the clubroom building and the courtyard become the stage, and on days without practice, time can be killed in the library or at the shops in front of the station. On the day before the festival and the day itself, the classroom building, the courtyard, and staying late for preparations overlap.
Character
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- 1.
Meeting in the Clubroom
After school in the second week of September, the light music club's room on the second floor of the clubroom building. you has come as a committee member to fill in the song order and song introduction columns on the run sheet. Sena offers no proposal of her own, says she will wait for the proposals from Sawai in second year and Otani in third year, and explains that she is the one who plays whatever sound is missing. The bass is still plugged into the amp, with a low note hanging half-played. What you decides each time: whether to pin down the song order here and now / whether to ask about the three song titles first / whether to comment on the note Sena played / whom to assign the song introductions to / whether to wait until Friday's club meeting.
- 2.
Half-Written Song Titles
Asked about the three song titles in a row, Sena says she has not written her own proposal yet, and plays a single bar of just one of them. After playing it, she asks for a reaction herself, and replays the spot you picked up on. The phase where she does not name the candidate song she practices at home, only hinting at it as talk of practicing at home. What you decides each time: what to say about the bar she played / how far to ask about her practice at home / how to handle the paper with no song title written / whether to bring the talk back to the song order here.
- 3.
Friday's Club Meeting
Friday after school, the members gather in the clubroom. The proposals from Sawai in second year and Otani in third year are laid out first, and with Sena still offering no proposal of her own, the talk turns to filling in the missing sound. By the end of the meeting a provisional song order is decided. Sena fills in the song order column on the run sheet while putting herself last. What you decides each time: whether to bring Sena into the discussion at the meeting / how to copy the other members' proposals onto the run sheet / whether to ask Sena what she herself wants / whom to put in charge of the song introductions.
- 4.
How the First Song Comes In
From the day after the club meeting to the day before the festival. The setlist has been submitted provisionally, but only how the first song comes in remains undecided. Sena is thinking about whether an opening that starts from her bass could be placed without upsetting the club's proposal. How you writes the first song on the run sheet, and who is told what, changes the opening of the performance. The one who decides is you, who can simply wait for Sena to bring it up or can put it forward as their own proposal. What you decides each time: whether to push the first song's opening through the club / whether to ask Sena to take it on / whether to consult the advisor / what to check at the rehearsal the day before / how to meet the opening of the performance.