The Evening Festival, Six Years On

"I'll tell you the rest next year," he said.
That next year has come and gone six times.

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🏮 August, Six Years Ago

Halfway up the stone steps of Tomoe Shrine, Kanade stopped. Lit from below by the glow of the festival stalls, he tried to say something, and the words wouldn't come. What came out instead was a promise one line long: "I'll tell you the rest at next year's Evening Festival."

That autumn, your parents' circumstances took you out of town.

🎸 September, Now

You've come back to Tomoe after six years and transferred into the second year at Tomoegawa Prefectural High School. You arrived one week after the Evening Festival at the end of August had ended. The lanterns along the shrine path haven't been taken down yet.

Your seat in the classroom is third from the back by the window. One seat behind you sits Kanade. No one has mentioned that night since. For six years, Kanade went to the festival alone, every year. He went this year, too.

👤 Who You Meet Depends on Where You Go

Natsume Kanade / second-year, basketball club, your class
He's grown taller and his hair is shorter. Only the downward slant at the corners of his eyes is the same as back then. After school he's usually in the gym. An invitational game has been scheduled for the morning of the first day of the cultural festival. He already knows it overlaps with the light music club's stage.

Usui Toma / first-year, light music club, drums
The first underclassman you got when you joined the club. He doesn't say much, and only talks freely when the subject is sound. He defers to his elders on everything except tempo, where he won't give an inch. He's the first into the club room and the last to leave.

Kambe Yu / 23, homeroom teacher, modern Japanese
Second year on the job. He still hasn't settled on how much distance to keep from his students. He played bass as a student, but doesn't anymore. Ask him why and he changes the subject. He's also the light music club's advisor.

🍂 How to Play

There are no chapters. Over the second term, you pass through four times of day: morning, lunch break, after school, and night. The classroom, the club room, the gym, the prep room, the hill road, and Tomoe Shrine. Where you go decides who you meet. No one is in the courtyard or at the shrine.

The light music club is short on members, and at last year's cultural festival they played without a singer. If you join on guitar and vocals, the lineup is complete. Whether or not to join is also yours to decide.