Itaru Chigasaki/A Watchful Hymn

Request to Appear at a Music Festival

Backstage Stories

Part 1Part 2

Rento	I have a favor to ask, Isuke-san…!
Itaru	(Hm? That voice just now…)
Manager	What is it?
Rento	There’s a music festival coming up in Veludo… If you’d like to, would you be interested in performing!?
Manager	Oh, so it’s a performance request.
Rento	C-Correct!
Manager	…Hm? Ah, Chigasaki-kun. Are you heading back to your room?
Itaru	I am, but…?
Manager	Did you happen to hear what we were talking about?
Itaru	A music festival, right.
Manager	Right! A winter music festival, how wonderful~!
	I’ll talk to the Director then.
	Director~! A music festival’s requested MANKAI Company to perform!
Rento	Eh, that’s not what I…!
Manager	Ah, Chigasaki-kun, please join too if you’re available.
	Director, where are you~!?
Rento	T-That’s not how this was supposed to go…
Itaru	(Manager’s obliviousness sure is something.)
Itaru	I’m home.
Izumi	Itaru-san, welcome back.
	Right. Manager told me that Itaru-san can partipcate in the music festival…
Itaru	Eh?
	(I don’t remember giving him an answer for that.)
Izumi	I’ve talked with everyone, but we still need a few more members…
	So if you don’t mind, could you join?
Itaru	(Ughh… There’s no instrument I can play well enough to perform publicly, so that’ll be a problem..)
	It’s fine, but I don’t think I’ll have much time to practice, so just handbells or something easy like that.
	(Well, I doubt there’d be handbells.)
Manager	We’ve got handbells! They’re really music bells, though.
Itaru	Seriously… Where did you even come from.
Manager	I’ve been right here~!
Izumi	I’m glad we have handbells! So, it’s okay for Itaru-san to join, too?
Itaru	(Since I said that earlier, there’s no way out…)
	Okay, I’ll join.
Izumi	Thank you so much!
Manager	Chigasaki-kun, we’ve got lots of different handbells colors, so which one would you like?
Itaru	Just the normal one…

	*ring* *ring*
Itaru	♪~♪~
	…Is that right?
	(At any rate, as long as play the right notes, I should be fine.)
Homare	Oh, Itaru-kun. Are you practicing the handbell?
Itaru	Something like that.
Homare	I have some experience with handbells, I could mentor you if you’d like?
Itaru	I looked it up on the internet, and since I’m only using three of them, I think I can manage.
Homare	Hmm, it looks like you’re using music bells. If that’s the case, perhaps you don’t need my teaching…
Itaru	Are there other types of handbells?
Homare	Yes. There’s English handbells, which much harder to play than music bells.
	They’re one octave, and can cost as much as hundreds of thousands of yen.
Itaru	No wonder we don’t have one in the dorm.
Homare	It’s expensive, yes, but its sound is so magnificent that it’s been dubbed an angelic harmony.
Itaru	Heh, it’s that beautiful, huh.
Homare	I’ve heard it’s sound, and it was so beautiful I can only describe it as truly heavenly music.
Itaru	(…I lucked out not getting that bell.)
Homare	Now then. Could you show me the score you’ll be using?
Itaru	Ah, yeah. This is it.
Homare	Hmm…
	Itaru-kun, here, at this part of the song…
	You’ll need to ring all three handbells in a row, so it might prove difficult to change hands.
Itaru	….Huh, you’re right. I hadn’t gotten that far yet, so I didn’t notice.
Homare	I’d recommend carefully practicing this part so that you don’t ring the wrong bell or mistime it.
Itaru	Got it.
	(I thought this would be a piece of cake, but guess I’m wrong…)
	Alright, let’s try this again today.
	(Homare-san said I still can’t do it right, I’ve gotta do something about this before the performance…)
	*ring*
Itaru	….Gh!
Chikage	What’s wrong?
Itaru	Eh? No…. it’s nothing. Oh, speaking of, I’ve got a game to play.
	I’ll practice more tomorrow.
Chikage	….Okay then.
	*door closes*
Itaru	…Sigh. Senpai, you left at a good time.
	(My controller is…. found it.)
	Ouch…!
	(…My wrist hurt when I moved my finger, guess I hurt it from practicing the handbell…)
	Well, this blows. I can’t play games or practice.
	*door opens*
Chikage	…Here, a compress. Put it on.
Itaru	Eh?
Chikage	….Your wrist hurts. You aren’t allowed to game today, either.
Itaru	…How did you know?
Chikage	Anyone would understand seeing that reaction.
Itaru	…In exchange for taking this, I’m not gonna be like, indebted to you, right?
Chikage	Just what do you think of me?
	A certain someone was trying to hide it, and he didn’t seem like he was going to put one on himself anytime soon, so I brought it to him.
Itaru	You see everything, huh.
Chikage	Who knows.
Itaru	I thought I could make it this time…..But, well, I’m grateful to use it.
Itaru	Yawn…
Homare	Good morning, Itaru-kun.
Itaru	Good morning.
Homare	Oh? What happened to your wrist?
Itaru	Ah, this… I think I hurt myself practicing the handbells.
	My hand can’t hold anything heavier than a controller…
Homare	It’s not the weight that’s the issue, it’s the way it sounds!
Itaru	Really?
Homare	It’s probably the result of your hard practice… The bell is not something you should shake so blindly about.
Itaru	I thought it was fine as long as it made a sound.
Homare	I knew it, I should have taught you from the beginning.
Itaru	Really wish you did…
	When my injury’s healed, please help me start from square one.

BAYLI