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It's a peaceful day at Leblanc. Sojiro has a couple customers in his shop, both sipping coffee, one eating a curry. Mellow music is playing, the lighting is cozy, and the coffee is as good as ever.
He nods a greeting as Akira enters the shop on her way home from school.
Shiho grins playfully and steals a dumpling from Akira's bowl while she's distracted with the sauce.
Akira's closed her eyes to savour the taste for a moment, taking her time. When she opens her eyes to discover a gyoza is missing from her bowl, she blinks, then cracks up.
"You're using the power of the gyoza against me!" She grins and shakes her head. "I guess I should've known you were a thief."
She reaches out with her chopsticks towards Shiho's bowl, but pauses. " — I'd just grab one but these chopsticks have been in my mouth, it'd be —" an indirect kiss "— rude."
"I learned from the best," she teasingly replies. Blushing and still grinning, she gestures encouragingly. "Go ahead."
"Alright." Akira snags a pork dumpling, dips it, and pops it in her mouth. "Mmmmmh. Yeah, you're right, these are better. The chicken ones are no slouches though. Really glad you brought me here."
"I'm happy to share it with you," she replies. "I'm looking forward to sharing the music, too."
"Yeah. Shall I get it out, or...? I'm just kind of realizing that most of these artists I like because they're sort of dark, and that... I don't actually want to listen to dark music right now. I feel light with you. Maybe I could get out some Aural Vampire, they're... in the zone where they're more spooky than haunted, yeah?"
Shiho nods. "Yeah, I get that." She pulls out her phone, plugs in the splitter, and flips through a few songs before nodding again, firmer. "Okay, found a good first one."
She plugs in her headphones, then pops another gyōza in her mouth.
Akira plugs in her headphones as well.
"Okay, whenever you're ready."
She pops another gyoza in her mouth, and waits for the music to start.
Akira doesn't know what she was expecting, but these bouncy, jazzy piano chords sure wasn't it. Then the tambourine and drums come in, and she starts to bob her head along. The bass hits and she starts to groove, listening along.
The lyrics are about two girls going off on an adventure together, their hearts floating up into the sky, eating sweets together, spending time together... she's not sure if that line about "going off in search of something entirely different" is supposed to be an innuendo, but it's definitely a romantic song.
It passes, eventually, and she's left smiling.
"... That sounded wonderful," she says.
"Yeah, it's one of my favorite happier songs. I'm glad you liked it."
She blushes and looks down a bit, smiling warmly.
Akira takes the opportunity to steal one of her dumplings while she's distracted — then gives Shiho back one of her own in exchange.
"Who's the group? Would I have heard of them?"
"Wait, the touhou circle? The ones who make — silly stuff like Overdrive and Cirno's Perfect Math Class? They did this?"
"Yeah! They do some serious stuff too, but it's not as popular, because everyone's used to their goofy tracks. This is one of my favorites."
She pops the chicken gyōza Akira gave her into her mouth with a smile.
After she swallows, she queues up another song. "This one is a sadder song, but I think you'll like it."
She hits play.
Akira closes her eyes and listens.
It's in a very different style from the first song, starting off with a vocoded woman's voice singing dense lyrics over electronic texture.
It tells a story of a doll who, given life by her creator, finds love with them, only for it to end in heartbreak as she becomes independent and grows slowly away from the person she loves. She mourns the inevitable passing away of the relationship, and in turn the person she loves, but at the same time rejoices in having known them.
The song ends on the words:
"Ah, for me, my very own soul."
The song trails away, and Akira is left to sit in silence.
Is it over...?
It's over, isn't it.
... not just the song...
Not just the song.
She blinks back tears and offers a bittersweet smile to Shiho.
"Yeah," she says softly. "It's in the past now. I'm my own. I always have been. And..." She fumbles for words, the feeling inside her not quite settling into a shape she can say. "... I want it to have been for something, and it was for something. It was for me. For making me. And I think I'm — myself, despite everything they tried. That's the... hurt and the joy of it."
She smiles tenderly and takes Akira's hands in her own. "Yeah. You are. We both are, despite everything that tried to happen to us. And you've got some people who are discovering we really like who you are."
Akira smiles, deep and genuine, and nods.
"Yeah," she says. "Yeah, I do."
Akira listens.
A lone synthesized horn plays in a slow intro, wistful and distant; then cymbals and strings come in, and the tempo picks up to a rush. It washes over her like a flowing river, dense and energetic: then the tempo falls again, and the lonely horn returns.
It seems like the song will trail off on that sad note — but then all at once the cymbals crash in again, and a final chorus of horn, tambourine, string and cymbals carries the piece to a happy conclusion.
Akira comes back to herself after the song, and realizes she's smiling.
"That's good," she says. "I think I like the lonely parts more than the energetic ones, but it... feels whole. That's also by IOSYS?"
"Mhm! Their discography is a lot more diverse than most people give them credit for. And yeah, me too."
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