“Wait, Yuri, what about school?”
“No, is that something you should be saying, Konuma...? Aren't you lacking self-awareness? There's a huge mirror right here.”
“True...”
Looking at myself reflected in the mirror covering one side of the studio wall, the guy there looked just as exasperated.
“But isn't it a big deal for you to skip school, Yuri? Is the Youth Club President going to be okay?”
“I don't remember joining a club with such an awesome name. ...Ahem,”
Yuri wore a mysteriously smug expression.
“I can't afford to skip out on my youth just so I don't skip school,” she said.
“What is that, a famous line from a manga or something...?”
“I-It’s my original! If you make fun of it, you’re dead, got it?!”
“You’re as crazy as ever, Yuri.”
“Better than you!”
And then.
“You’re as cool as ever, Yuri.”
“...Better than you.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“That’s my line.”
Yuri laughed a little, then muttered,
“...An incredible song has been born.”
“Yeah. ...Though it might end up amounting to nothing again.”
“Maybe.”
“Aaaaah.”
I threw my upper body back down, lying on the floor again.
“Why is it that even when a song is this good, there’s a possibility it won’t go anywhere? I mean, I’m still not convinced at all that ‘Omamori’ didn’t pass the listener screening.”
As I spat those words toward the ceiling in lament, Yuri responded with a “Yeah.”
“I used to think the reason was that it wasn't as good as we thought it was.”
“Is it not?”
“It’s not that... I just realized while listening to this song that that stuff doesn’t really matter.”
“Doesn’t matter?”
“Yeah. It doesn’t matter, and it doesn't care. I mean, there’s no point in being evaluated for anything other than your own best work. If something you didn't think was that great got praised to the heavens, wouldn't you feel uneasy, thinking ‘Is this really what they like?’”
Yuri’s words resonated with me strangely well.
“I guess that’s how it is...”
“That’s why it has to be amane, right?”
“...You understand everything, don’t you, Yuri?”
“When it comes to what you’re thinking, Konuma.”
“Why though...”
“Truly, I wonder why.”
Yuri laughed as if exasperated with herself.
“Well, look.”
She raised the tone of her voice to brighten the mood.
“Even if it doesn't go well,”
Even so, she didn't say, 'You can just make a better song next time.'
“At that time, you can just regret it to death again. Make a face like it’s the end of the world. Because it actually would be the end of the world.”
She offered that suggestion.
“I guess so.”
“So, when that time comes, let's end it all. There doesn't have to be a next time.”
“Is that how it works? Instead of continuing?”
“Yeah, it’s always like that. You have to work as if you’re making the very last song.”
“I see.”
Yuri's logic—I couldn't tell if it was positive or negative—felt strangely right, and I couldn't help but laugh.
“You know, I got so many messages from the people who used to make fun of me. DMs, LINE, all that riff-raff.”
“Ah...”
I remembered when Yuri's middle school classmates showed up during the school festival.
Because people like them mocked her for writing lyrics, Yuri had started hiding the fact that she wrote them.
“I put it out under the name Yuri Azuma, not Yamatsu Rui. They were all like, ‘Is this Azuma-san!?’”
...And so, at some point, she had started writing lyrics under her real name.
“Yeah, I thought, finally, my words have flipped the world. It’s become a world where the people who made fun of me are now sucking up to me.”
“How did it feel?”
I felt it was a mean question, but I couldn't help asking.
Yuri made a face like, ‘You’re really going to ask that?’ before answering.
“It felt soooooooo good.”
“I bet...”
I have almost no way of contacting anyone I knew before high school (well, or maybe it’s just that nobody cares to look my way, but anyway), so no such messages came to me. But if they did, I’d probably feel the same way.
In fact.
“Can I be honest too?”
“Go ahead, I’m probably the same.”
I quietly confessed.
“When I saw the video views going up, I thought, ‘My music wasn't wrong after all.’”
“Haha, you’re the worst. ...Me too.”
“But you know,”
“Yeah?”
What an endless road this is, I thought, letting out a dry, exasperated laugh.
“...It wasn't exactly ‘happy.’”
“Right. I thought, the future I want isn't down this path.”
“Yeah.”
I don’t know exactly what Yuri means by flipping the world, but it seems we have to make it happen by walking a path of thorns.
“Can amane... still do it again?”
“Who knows. But it doesn't change the fact that you should do it thinking it's the last song.”
“Maybe so.”
If that’s the case, then there’s no need to think about what comes after.
“Even so, disbanding is going too far. I wonder why Amane said such a thing?”
“She’s stubborn, or maybe she has strong preferences... she always does things her own way.”
“I wonder if that’s it.”
“Hmm,” Yuri made a thinking gesture.
“Despite how much I’ve followed amane-sama, I still don’t really understand what Amane is thinking.”
“Even for you, Yuri?”
“It’s not like I’m actually reading everyone’s minds.”
“Was that so...?”
Since she always seems to read my mind, I thought she might be a telepath...
“I wonder what Amane is trying to choose. And also—”
She let out a breath.
“—I wonder what she’s trying to be chosen by.”
Yuri bit her lower lip.
“I see...”
“Well, no point thinking about it. I have to write god-tier lyrics for this god-tier song immediately!”
Yuri stood up with a pop.
“Konuma, are you staying here? You’re going to do the arrangement and stuff, right?”
“Oh, yeah.”
“Then, can I write the lyrics here? Let’s just send the DEMO today.”
“That’s fine but... wait, can you write them that fast?”
“Yeah, I’ve already decided on the song title!”
“Seriously...! What’s the title? ...Can I ask?”
“Fine. This is a special exception, okay?”
Yuri smirked and wrote four large characters on the whiteboard.
The song title written there was—
『ラスト！』 (Last!)
“‘Last!’... Even though it’s the end, it’s quite energetic.”
“This ‘!’ is like my prayer, or maybe my wish.”
“Prayer? Wish?”
As I tilted my head at her usual high-context comment, Yuri winked at me.
“Just turn a blind eye to the fine grammar.”