After dropping out of school, I chose to join a girls' band.

Seeing Taozi's eager gaze, Yue couldn't bring herself to spoil her mood any longer, so she swallowed her words of disinterest and began to think about ghost stories in her mind.

Yue suddenly remembered the ghost story about Afterglow that she had heard from her seniors.

Yue then made a commander's gesture, crossed her hands in front of her mouth, and began to speak slowly in a low voice.

"As everyone knows, there are usually seven incredible legends circulating in schools."

“Oh, speaking of which, our school has them too,” Li hope said. “There’s this story about a senior student who jumped from the third floor and was unharmed, and there’s this story about a moving bear in the school.”

"And there are also legends about the London Underground leading to Japan, and elevators leading to underground stages," Momoko chimed in.

"Of course, Haneoka Girls' Academy also has such incredible legends, such as the piano that plays automatically when no one is in the music room, and the moving human figures. These all sound like miracles just to make up the numbers."

After hearing that this had happened in Haneoka, the lamp curled up and moved closer to the moon.

"What I'm about to tell you is what I heard from my senior about what happened to Afterglow."

After hearing about the legend of Afterglow, Lixi couldn't help but move closer to Yue.

"Afterglow's seniors returned to the school the night before summer vacation to retrieve the instruction manuals they had left in the classroom, and then unexpectedly got locked inside the school."

"After thinking it over, the senior students decided to leave from the gymnasium. As they went down the stairs, they counted the steps. There were twelve steps as usual, with no extra step. But suddenly a voice shouted '13'."

"It must be... someone playing a prank," Deng said, her voice trembling slightly, clearly frightened by Yue's ghost story.

"It's not over yet. The seniors continued walking forward. This time, to bolster their courage, they sang as they walked. Just as they passed the music classroom, the piano inside suddenly started playing, and it was Afterglow's song."

"Eh!" The lamp completely curled up into a ball, burying its face in its knees, only revealing a pair of small amber eyes looking at the moon.

"Maybe someone didn't go back and is deliberately playing the piano..." Li hope said uncertainly, trying to find a reasonable explanation.

"Lixi, sometimes the legends on campus aren't necessarily false. If you don't know the sheet music, there probably aren't many people who can play it after only hearing it a few times."

Peach deliberately tried to scare Lixi, her voice carrying a hint of mystery and terror, making Lixi even more nervous and uneasy.

"After hearing the piano, some of the Afterglow seniors were so frightened that they ran away. The other two could only chase after them because of the sound of them running away. When they passed a mirror, the guitarist, Mocha Aoba, suddenly realized that for a moment, the keyboardist, Tsugumi Hanazawa, was not reflected in the mirror." Tsuki continued to narrate in a deep voice.

The candlelight in the room began to flicker, casting strange shadows on the walls. The shadows on the walls swayed and changed into bizarre and distorted shapes.

“…It must be the wind.” Lixi continued trying to find a reasonable explanation.

"The doors and windows in the room should have been closed... so why is there still a draft?" Deng asked softly, her voice filled with doubt and unease.

"It's quite windy and snowy outside, so it's normal for a little wind to get in..." Peach explained.

Yue glanced at Taozi, who had been quite lively just moments before, but had now gradually fallen silent. She gripped her cup tightly, sipping her cola slowly.

“That’s right, the subsequent encounters of Afterglow’s predecessors were also related to the wind.” Yue continued in a low voice, her voice echoing in the dimly lit room along with the whistling wind.

"The seniors finally managed to gather their energy again in the stadium, but suddenly all the lights in the originally brightly lit stadium went out, turning it pitch black."

"Just then, the seniors' flashlights also broke down, so they could only search for the exit in the dark. Suddenly, a gust of wind blew into the closed gymnasium."

"The seniors thought there were windows or doors open, and they could follow the sound of the wind to find the exit. However, the stadium was too spacious, and they were not very familiar with it. Just when they couldn't find their way, a voice suddenly spoke."

"Here, here, right here!"

"They followed the sound, but the lights in the gymnasium suddenly came on. In front of them was the emergency exit door. The seniors thought they could leave, but they found that the emergency exit door was locked."

"Just as the elders were desperately wailing and calling for help, hoping someone would hear them and open the door for them, the door opened just as they hoped." Yue paused here, seemingly deliberately keeping them in suspense.

"Seniors... I'm so glad you're alright," Deng said with emotion.

"The security guards must have heard the noise during their patrol and opened the door," Li hope said.

"No... There was no one outside the door. It was only then that the seniors remembered what the seventh mysterious legend of Haneoka was. It is said that every night, the ghost of a student would wander around the school, looking for playmates and playing all sorts of pranks."

"At the same time, they felt something pass by them, and the seniors ran out of the school screaming in fear." Yue took a sip of her cola; she was also a little thirsty after telling ghost stories for so long.

After putting down the cola, Yue looked at everyone's reactions.

"Light...don't be afraid." Lixi looked at the lamp and curled up into a ball. Although her own voice sounded a little scared, she subconsciously comforted the lamp.

“She must be very lonely… wandering around the school all by herself, so she wanted to find someone to hang out with,” Deng said.

"So... you weren't scared after all."

"I was a little scared at first, but when I thought that the ghost hadn't harmed anyone and was just playing a prank, I wasn't afraid anymore."

"Moon, your ghost story wasn't that scary at all. I wasn't scared at all," Peach said stubbornly.

Yue glanced at the half-full glass of cola in Taozi's cup. If she remembered correctly, Taozi had raised her cup about ten times while Yue was telling ghost stories, but Taozi hadn't even finished a single glass of cola, which was enough to show how nervous Taozi was.

“I’ve finished. Now it’s your turn to tell your ghost story. Let me see how scary it is.” Yue looked at Taozi.

"Ahem, the story I'm about to tell you happened at Seisho. It was told to me by a senior from the 100th class. The story also happened at night. A senior finished practicing late and left, taking the last train." Peach began to tell her ghost story.

"It sounds just like Kisaragi Station." As Tsuki listened to Momoko's story, the famous horror station legend immediately came to mind.

"She was the only one on the last tram. She was tired from practicing and fell asleep leaning against the tram. When she heard the station announcement again, she found herself surrounded by all kinds of foreigners."

"When the senior realized she was surrounded by foreigners, she was so scared she didn't dare to move. She watched helplessly as a black-haired girl chatted with a giraffe outside the door for a few words before getting into the car. The car seemed to be waiting for the girl, and it didn't start again until she got in."

"..." Upon hearing that a giraffe appeared in the story, Yue realized that what Momoko was talking about was not a horror story at all, but most likely a true story.

"For some reason, even though she found herself in a strange place and encountered strange things, she should have been too scared to sleep. However, after the vehicle started moving, a strange drowsiness washed over her. When she woke up again, she found herself alone at the tram station near Seisho."

"To be taken to some unknown place and still manage to come back safely, senior is really lucky." Lantern didn't focus on the scary part; instead, she was happy that the senior Momoko mentioned was able to return safely.

Lixi, on the other hand, was wondering if she might encounter such a thing.

"Peach, are you telling the truth?" Yue whispered in Peach's ear.

What does "moon" refer to?

"The giraffe section... can be directly connected to the two places by subway?" Yue asked softly.

"I don't know either. This is what I heard from my seniors. I also asked Giraffe, and he said that he can reach any place with a stage." Peach replied to Yue in a low voice.

"That sounds like a really convenient ability," Yue remarked.

Before the Stage Opening: Chapter Thirty-Three - The Night of the Training Camp (4k)

The girls ended the ghost story session for the evening because no one else wanted to tell ghost stories.

Lixi and Deng returned to the next room, leaving only Taozi and Yue in that room.

Yue lay on the bedding, and Taozi, who was sitting across the table from her, also lay down after the lights were turned off.

The moon gazed at the ceiling in the darkness.

The voices of Lixi and Deng next door gradually subsided, as if they were also getting ready to fall asleep.

After a long and tiring day of travel, Yue thought she would fall asleep quickly.

But to her surprise, once she was actually lying in bed, she felt somewhat empty.

This feeling of emptiness arose in her heart after that revue with Momoko at Tokyo Tower that day.

However, the news of Peach winning the lottery and preparing for the trip was overshadowed the next day.

Now that she finally had some free time, this feeling of emptiness rose from beneath the surface and appeared in her mind.

It's a feeling of emptiness that arises after a class reunion, when everyone has eaten and drunk their fill, says goodbye, and returns home to find the house empty.

It was time to set off for a new stage, her heart told her.

Yes, a new stage.

The stage of the past has come to a complete end in her peach's revue. The stage named Shengxiang, the stage belonging to Starlight, has come to a complete end.

But... where is the new stage?

The giraffe has said that it has been attracted to a new stage, but what exactly is this new stage?

A blizzard suddenly started outside the window, and the cold wind, carrying snowflakes, banged against the windowpane.

In the snowy night of Hokkaido, Yue felt lost about her destination.

The lamp had told her that even if she got lost, she should keep going. But after taking a step forward, she was still at a crossroads, and she still needed to decide which direction to take.

"Moon, are you troubled?" Peach turned around and looked at me across the table in the middle.

"Peach, how did you know?" Yue didn't choose to be stubborn. In her opinion, maybe Peach could give her some advice.

"Moon, we're currently in the final stage of our performance, not yet ready to move on to a new one. All you need to do is prepare, and the stage will come to you, stage girl." Momoko said something that sounded somewhat ambiguous to others.

However, Yue, who was also a stage girl, easily understood the meaning behind Momoko's words.

"Is all that's needed to prepare?" Yue repeated.

"Yes, all we need to do is prepare. Let's get ready between the stage curtains." Momoko crawled out of bed, moved the table that was separating the two of them aside, and dragged her own bedding to Yue's side.

"Peach, what are you doing?" Yue's question seemed so superfluous.

"Alright, I understand your worries, Yue. After all, I've struggled with this kind of thing before." Momo lay down next to Yue, and even though there was a blanket between them, Yue could vaguely feel the warmth emanating from her.

"Has Momoko ever had any troubles?" Yue seemed surprised that Momoko Kurosawa, who always shone brightly in Seishō and always led everyone forward, would also be troubled by not being able to find her way.

“I’m not some kind of superhero, of course I have troubles too, and even superheroes have troubles too.” Peach spit + 囷兒疚球污衫(八琦（一）山槽道。

"And to be honest, I feel like I've lost my goals right now," Peach said.

"Does peaches feel this way too?"

"Yeah, I've had this feeling ever since that revue. Originally, all I was thinking about was how to hold a Seisho Festival that surpassed the seniors'. After Yue left, I kept thinking about bringing Yue back. Now that I know Yue doesn't plan to come back, I don't know which direction to take." Momoko's voice was somewhat dejected.

"Aren't you planning to continue preparing for the Sacred Feast?" Yue asked.

"Of course, we will continue to prepare for the Seishō Festival, but this year's festival has just ended, and there is still some time before next year's Seishō Festival." Momo paused here, "And what I want to talk about is something even further ahead."

"Things that are going much further ahead... Momoko is only a sophomore in high school, and she's already thinking about the future?" Yue said.

"Actually, it's partly the teachers' fault too..." Peach touched her nose somewhat awkwardly.

"It seems to be because of a certain senior. It is said that when that senior submitted his application form in his senior year of high school, he submitted a blank form, which made the teacher particularly worried." Taozi continued to talk about some past events of Shengxiang that Yue did not know.

"Who told you all this? I haven't heard a thing about it." Yue was skeptical of the truthfulness of what Taozi said.

"I heard this from a senior from the 101st cohort. She once received guidance from that senior." To verify its authenticity, Taozi even took out her phone and found a photo of herself with another girl.

The sudden flash of a cell phone light in the dimly lit room made Yue involuntarily squint.

After gradually getting used to it, Yue could see the photos on Taozi's phone clearly.

Peach was talking to a girl with short brown-green hair. Yue vaguely remembered seeing her in an upperclassman's classroom before.