<Author's Comment>
I realized that this is the 300th post, so I quickly swapped it out! Thank you so much for reading 300 chapters up to this point.
I love amane.
That feeling was my initial driving force.
I listened to 'Watashi no Uta' over and over, listened to 'Boat' over and over, and started struggling with the arrogant wish in my heart to be able to do something like that myself, or perhaps create a masterpiece even greater than those, about three years ago.
A lot of things have happened since then.
My middle school years.
Admiring amane, practicing my instrument like crazy, composing my first song in my life, letting my childhood friend hear it, only to have the song completely rejected.
My first year of high school.
Even so, I couldn't stop composing, and while I couldn't tell anyone that I was still making music, I spent my days in a gray haze.
June and July.
Meeting Ichikawa, meeting Azuma, and reconciling with Sako.
Getting tangled up with Erina-san, talking to Ando for the first time, and getting caught up in the trouble with Hazama.
And then, at the first Lock-on, the singer-songwriter amane made her comeback.
Summer vacation.
Meeting Taira-chan and Hoshikage-san at the summer camp, somehow helping to clear up the misunderstanding about Azuma's bullying scandal, and performing 'Boat'.
Going to the Ichika-cho fireworks festival with Sako, where she pushed me to bet my life on this path.
Getting a flick on the forehead from Azuma, regaining my sense of pitch, and creating 'Kyousou'.
The school festival.
Having a fight with Ichikawa over Tokugawa-san that I had no right to pick, being helped by Sako and Azuma, and starting to walk forward once again.
Being moved by the Instrument Club's live performance, Taira-chan's declaration, and Erina-san's courage.
Performing 'Anata no Uta'.
And then, I buried the possibility of the debut of amane—the singer-songwriter I love most in the world—and conveyed my most important and selfish feelings.
October.
Erina-san went through a heartbreak, and we made 'Omamori'.
Having my reason for existence shattered by Ariga-san, learning the meaning of 'Kyousou', and standing up again.
Shouting my heart out in 'Start Line', receiving Azuma's feelings, and 'Weekdays' became an even more special song.
After performing 'Song of Tomorrow', amane explicitly became a band.
And then, today, a little over three years have passed since then, in the high school studio.
"Sako-hasu, Amane, maybe you could turn up the volume of your instruments a bit more?"
"Got it. ...Is this okay?"
"I'm ready too. Well then, Konuma-kun, give us the count!"
What I thought was a sentence that wasn't different by a single word, yet in reality, it carried three years worth of feelings and held an almost entirely different meaning.
"1, 2, 3..."
I love amane.