Chapter 69: Upon the Stage
Ai took the stage in her yukata.
In the past, her performances always featured her idol stage outfits; she rarely wore anything else. The hallmark of idol attire is its brilliance—using heavy patterns and vibrant colors to amplify the performer's traits and capture the audience's gaze.
Pink stands for cuteness, red for passion, and blue for serenity; the colors of a stage outfit often mirror the character's internal attributes. Ai's signature purple was a fusion of red and blue, possessing both depth and allure.
An idol in her stage gear is undeniably charming; Hikaru didn't deny that. The light, flowing fabric enhances their sense of girlhood, giving fans a feeling akin to a first love. However, he didn't approve of "pigeonholing" idols. Reality isn't an anime; framing a person within a set of "traits" inevitably smothers their other idiosyncrasies. After all, everyone is multifaceted.
For instance, the image Ai was presenting now had clearly broken away from the idol persona she had cultivated in the past.
An idol, of course, must be a beautiful girl—preferably a radiant one in the prime of her youth.
Standing at the side of the stage, Hikaru kept his eyes fixed unblinkingly on the figure before him.
Ai had tied her hair into a single ponytail, draped from the back over her shoulder. Dressed in her pink-purple yukata, she exuded an aura of gentle tranquility. This was her first time performing without her stage outfit, and her first solo act. She instinctively glanced around out of the corner of her eye, searching for her former companions, but there was no one behind her.
She realized, with sudden and absolute clarity, that B-Komachi was no more. From now on, every performance would be hers alone to complete.
She had to move forward carrying the dreams of the other members.
The intricate, heavy emotions left her feeling stifled. Looking out at the dark mass of people below, Ai instinctively fell back into her practiced idol posture.
"The smile is pretty, but that's about it. Putting on those airs makes it hard to watch." The blonde girl recalled Hikaru's praise and felt he had oversold it. "An idol's smile is infectious, sure, but this is a festival. Not everyone here is her fan; why is she smiling so brilliantly at nothing?"
"At a time like this, she should drop the act and just get loud and rowdy with everyone!"
The scene was indeed rowdy. When Ai first started as an underground idol, the venues were grimy and cramped, but the audience would at least stay quiet and listen to the singing. This experience was entirely different. The festival crowd gave her no special treatment; they did whatever they pleased below the stage, making it as noisy as a wet market.
Ai felt like her performance might be a failure.
Drawing on her past experience, she managed to finish *Racing into the Night* smoothly before stepping off the stage.
Hikaru took the stage immediately after, and they brushed past each other.
"Don't overthink it. You did great," Hikaru whispered into Ai's ear as he paused. "You seem a bit down, like you think you messed up, but look at the crowd."
"Look at the audience. How are they reacting? Isn't the applause enthusiastic? At the end of the day, in a setting like this, no matter how you perform, no one is really going to judge you."
"Don't put too much pressure on yourself. If you absolutely need a standard to judge a performance by..." Hikaru winked. "Just have fun."
Hikaru hadn't changed clothes either; dressed in his solid black yukata, he walked up with a casual air. He hadn't prepared an opening monologue; he simply gave an "OK" sign to the band behind him, and soon, the sound of the guitar filled the speakers.
After finishing *Dry Flower*, there was a scattering of applause from the crowd.
Honestly, the effect of the performance was about the same as Ai's.
*The song is good, and the voice is nice,* Norika Takegawa thought to herself. *But singing a song like this at a festival? It feels more suited for a street busker.*
"I can't believe he's actually Hikari," the blonde girl marveled. "So... all that stuff he said earlier was just him praising himself?"
She made a complicated face. "Well, at least he's cheerful and lively." In the end, she didn't have the heart to badmouth Hikaru behind his back. The others likewise forced stiff smiles.
Was that "lively"? Or was it just being thick-skinned?
"The vocals are indeed excellent, very suited for these kinds of sentimental love songs. If I hadn't seen how he acts in private, I really would have been fooled by this persona."
Beside her, the chestnut-haired girl was clapping away. "By the way, how old do you think he... actually is?"
"He lied about being a university student at first, then said he was already working. A debuted artist can technically say they're 'working,' but my intuition tells me he's not a day over twenty-five!"
The other girls, equally curious, huddled together to gossip. Ultimately, their consensus landed somewhere between twenty-two and thirty.
They tacitly categorized Hikaru as someone in the post-graduation age bracket.
They had no idea he was actually nineteen.
By Japanese law in 2018, he was a bona-fide minor.
And now, this minor was finally ready to break out a bit of that unique adolescent energy.
---On a massive stage like this, what kind of music is the most popular?
Rock, of course. It's the style best suited to driving the atmosphere of a live crowd.
Slow-paced ballads like the ones Hikaru and Ai just sang aren't actually ideal for this kind of venue. If it were a solo concert, the fans would be supportive, but a massive festival can't even suppress its own background noise; few people look deep into the details.
People were still dancing in the streets to the music, swaying their bodies freely to the rhythm. Scattered fireworks bloomed in the air, splashing vibrant colors across the obsidian sky.
The mood was joyful, comfortable, and bustling. Singing a heartbreaking love song in this setting and making the whole audience "emo"... that just wasn't right!
He just had to blend in.
Hikaru gave the "OK" sign to the band again, but this time, he wore a relaxed and joyful smile.
He was here to enjoy the festival. Having been under Ishigami's threat for so long, Hikaru's nerves had been stretched thin, terrified of an irreversible tragedy. Even though the crisis had passed, he still had a lot of pent-up tension.
He really needed a festival to unwind and vent the pressure built up over those days.
Seeing Hikaru's signal, the drummer looked thrilled; he had been dying for a high-energy set. "One, two, three!" The drumsticks clicked together three times, and immediately, the bass kicked in. The drummer followed, with low, dense beats woven into the music, propping up the song's rhythm.
The soaring, dynamic melody instantly captured the hearts of everyone present.
*Ao to Natsu* (Blue and Summer). This was the track Hikaru had specifically prepared for the festival. He intended to use this song to catch the tail end of summer and put a finishing touch on a season where so much had happened.
The song has a clear rhythm and is one of the signature tracks of the rock band Mrs. GREEN APPLE. While its popularity in China wasn't peak in his past life, it was an undeniable heavyweight in Japan. *Ao to Natsu* was incredibly popular among Japanese high schoolers, with over 500 million streams, becoming a classic summer anthem that climbs back up the Oricon charts every year when the heat hits.
Summer is bittersweet and full of vitality—and so is youth.
"A cool breeze blows, bringing the scent of the blue sky."
Hikaru began with the cheerful melody and ended with the same upbeat tempo.
In that moment, he felt a warm glow, as if he were soaking in a hot spring. Initially, he had only viewed singing as a means of survival, but now, it seemed he had genuinely come to love the act of singing itself.
Hikaru looked out at the audience, making eye contact with his acquaintances one by one, before finally turning toward the backstage and locking eyes with Ai's purple pupils.
He couldn't help but curl his lips into a smile as he slowly sang the final lyrics.
"It's not a movie; it's our youth."
"It's not a movie; it's our summer."
---
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