“...Please, Senpai. Take responsibility for changing someone's life. You, and amane—are my inspiration.”
“Taira-chan...”
At Taira-chan's words, I realized that before I knew it, I was standing in the same place as Ichikawa Amane was on that day.
‘—My dream is probably to move someone's life.’
‘Just like amane's—the singer-songwriter amane's music did for me. I’d be happy if the songs I made could become that kind of song for someone else.’
I see.
Without realizing it, the songs I created had become exactly that.
“...I know, I know,” Taira-chan continued, unaware of the shock within my heart.
“Even if amane is gone, the songs of amane won't disappear, and the things amane gave us won't vanish. If people like me, who were influenced by amane, create something again—no, even if they don't create anything, if the direction they walk in changes even a little, then there was a meaning for amane to exist. There is a world that amane changed. That's why you don't have any responsibility for the future, Konuma-senpai. I know that. But...”
Taira-chan—the comrade from amane's early days—raised her head and stared intently at me.
“...When your favorite band disbands, it's lonely. You should know that. When your favorite musician goes on hiatus... it's lonely, isn't it?”
“That's... true...”
“What's lonely is that the future disappears. It's lonely that I won't be able to hear new songs. If I can't hear new songs, it's not just lonely; new fans won't increase. If new fans don't increase, people whose lives were changed like mine won't appear.”
Taira-chan looked me straight in the eye.
“Are you satisfied with changing just one person's life, Konuma-senpai?”
“...!”
I didn't know if that ‘one person’ referred to Taira-chan herself or someone else entirely, but—
“...You're right.”
Before I knew it, I had turned on my heel.
“Eh? Senpai? Where are you going!?”
To the studio, maybe.
To write songs, maybe.
To go flip things over, maybe.
To go get things flipped over, maybe.
Taking all of that into account, the words that escaped my lips were—
“I'm going to go get them!”
“Huh!? Who!?”
I wonder who.
It might be amane, it might be Amane, but...
Most likely, the main one is—
“—Myself.”
Because the past me, who expected nothing from others, himself, or his environment, the only thing he actually expected something from...
Was none other than his future self.