Rooftop.
"No way... Is this really possible?"
Seeing that miraculous scene up close, the girl in the broadcast room was utterly shocked.
Only she, being on site, could know that not only the light falling from the sky, but also the moment that girl began to sing loudly, the strong wind that had been howling on the rooftop also disappeared.
Just as Asakura Takuma, the rumored Shadow Student Council President, had said.
When that pink-haired girl started to sing, even the sky would stop for her.
But not only that, even her singing seemed to carry magic, making people uncontrollably indulge in it, experiencing the incredibly strong emotions she conveyed with the undulating lyrics.
So rock is something that makes one's heart pound (Dokidoki) and sparkles (Kirakira) like this?
At this moment, it seemed another person had fallen under the charm of rock.
—The answer, of course, was no.
Gotō Hitori, after all, was not a specialized vocalist; her singing skills were completely negligible compared to her guitar technique. The reason why the girl's singing was so infectious was entirely the effect of the [Song].
The light falling from the sky was a stage effect after Asakura secretly used the composite magic [Scale] to pierce through the clouds when he pointed to the sky and gave the girl some encouragement. Since [Scale] is a continuous magic, the small patch of sky above their heads would not have clouds appear again until Asakura dispelled the magic.
As for the disappearance of even the wind on the rooftop, that was naturally because Asakura had enveloped the entire rooftop with the magic [Scale].
"However, Hitori has indeed grown quite a lot. If it were her in the past, standing on such a stage, she definitely wouldn't have been able to perform so well."
Asakura, with his arms crossed, tapped a rhythm on his arm with his fingers—he, unaffected by the [Song], was actually the one who could truly enjoy Gotō Hitori's singing the most—and softly commented.
It must be the certain degree of confidence she gained from the Founders' Festival and the recent series of humming Live performances, which allowed even her guitar, which used to be somewhat messy during ensemble performances, to start performing at its proper level as it gradually fell into rhythm.
It still felt a bit thin, though; if a keyboard or rhythm guitar could be added, it felt like there could be further improvement.
Speaking of which, Anon seems to play the guitar?
Asakura turned his head to look at the pink-haired girl beside him, only to see Chihaya Anon with a look of broken conviction.
"What's wrong?"
Asakura couldn't help but ask.
"The gap is too big..."
Perhaps because the boost from the [Song] was truly immense, even Chihaya Anon, who was an outsider... an outside girl? clearly felt the gap between herself and Gotō Hitori, completely losing her past overconfident demeanor.
Just thinking about her plan to get along with the other members of Kessoku Band and seize the opportunity to join and replace Gotō Hitori as the lead vocalist, Chihaya Anon felt that in the face of absolute strength, her petty schemes were already laughably clown-like.
Her joining Kessoku Band would only lower their level.
After realizing this, Miss Chihaya Anon, who was quite realistic in a certain sense, abandoned her unrealistic ideas and instead only wanted to get along with them, hoping that after her own band was formed, they could give her a leg up.
After all, in Chihaya Anon's opinion, Kessoku Band was definitely already professional-level; what they said in their previous conversation about 'hovering on the passing line between being allowed to perform Live on stage and being eliminated' must have just been modesty!
After one song, Gotō Hitori, who had sung to her heart's content, took a light breath and moved away from the microphone.
At this moment, the visitors in the front and middle courtyards suddenly erupted in a remarkably synchronized shout.
"Encore! Encore!"
This made Gotō Hitori feel somewhat flustered.
"Don't mind them."
But Asakura said without hesitation: "Just leave the instruments here. Get ready, we're going to escape."
"Eh?"
Gotō Hitori showed a dazed expression.
"What are you talking about...?"
The girl from the broadcast room asked, regaining her composure.
"I remember your name is Izumi-san, right? I'll leave the equipment here to you."
Asakura gave her a business-like smile, then pulled the bewildered Gotō Hitori and ran towards the door.
"Wait for us!"
Ijichi Nijika followed in a hurry, while Yamada Ryo still had the leisure to fiddle with the bass, leaving a comment of 'well-maintained' before stuffing the bass into the broadcast room girl's arms, then leisurely followed.
Originally, Chihaya Anon was as bewildered as the broadcast room girl.
However, as Asakura passed her, he said, 'If you don't want to be mistaken for Hitori and dragged away by the people who will rush up later, then run quickly,' which made Chihaya Anon shiver.
Indeed, Soubu High School's teaching building was quite tall, so even from the relatively close middle courtyard, it wasn't easy to clearly see the scene on the rooftop. However, Gotō Hitori's pink hair, which swayed with her singing and guitar, undoubtedly became the biggest distinguishing feature.
If someone really came up to look for Gotō Hitori and mistook her, who also had pink hair, for the other person and dragged her away, that would be too unfair...
Even though she really wanted to be famous, becoming famous due to such a mix-up would be too embarrassing.
After realizing this, Chihaya Anon, who was quite realistic in this sense, also quickly followed Asakura and Kessoku Band to escape the rooftop, leaving only the broadcast room girl, who had to retrieve the equipment, standing in the wind, disheveled.
By the way, later, a large group of people indeed ran up to the rooftop specifically to find the legendary Miss Siren who sang, but they found nothing. Instead, they were attracted by the broadcast room girl and were scouted by many talent agents.
Whether she accepted or not is another story.
Originally, Amakusa Shino was still a bit worried that too many people rushing onto the rooftop at once might cause some malicious incident, but the fact was that the rooftop's railings were unusually sturdy (they had actually been reinforced by Asakura using [Scale]), so everything was still under control.
The only thing that gave the Student Council President a headache was that just when they had finally sent away a large group of satisfied tourists, and the remaining guests had barely reached the normal capacity of Soubu High School's Founders' Festival, a new batch of curious guests, who had heard about a mermaid girl appearing on social media, emerged, forcing the Student Council members, who had just managed to relax, to operate at full capacity again...
Regardless, the most dangerous moment had passed.
...Probably?