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

Yue truthfully explained the situation to Aine.

"I see..." A fleeting look of sadness crossed Aine's face, but she forced a smile and said, "It's alright, I'm sorry to have troubled you, Yue. I can practice by myself."

Yue felt that Aine's expression was familiar; when she left Seisho, she saw the same expression on her face in the mirror.

As Aine walked into the subway station, Yue instinctively wanted to reach out and grab her, but she pulled her hand back as soon as she reached out.

I have absolutely no way to help Aine; even if I try to keep her here, I can't do anything about it.

Now, we either need to let Aine figure out her relationship with Ronna and the band herself, or we can only try to help Aine improve her guitar skills as quickly as possible.

But she couldn't do either of those things.

--------

After some time, Ai-yin returned home and, ignoring her parents' questions, hurriedly ran upstairs and locked herself in her room.

Lying in bed, Aine closed her eyes and all she could see were images of Rakuna playing with ease and grace.

"I... am completely no match for Renai..."

She originally thought that since she had finally found the feeling she had when she formed a band in junior high school and practiced the scenes from Kasuga Kage, she should be able to take on the role of guitarist in the band.

After hearing the demo of the piece made by Lixi today, she knew that Lixi had reduced her guitar part as much as possible, but in reality, she was not confident that she could play it well even when faced with this kind of sheet music.

"It's exactly the same as before..."

Ai Yin turned over, rested her wrist on her forehead, and stared at the ceiling, her mind filled with images of her time studying in England.

She went to study in the UK full of confidence and wrote a self-introduction with confidence. However, after other students gave their self-introductions fluently, Ai Yin felt extremely nervous and even stammered when she said the self-introduction that she had memorized.

"By the way... how about we ask Nana-senpai? Maybe they know a guitar teacher."

Thinking of her life in England, Aine immediately remembered what her senior, Nana Oba, had said before: she could ask her for help if she had any difficulties.

Desperate, Aine sent a message to Nana Ohba, who was far away in England.

When the Stage Opens: Chapter Forty - A Helping Hand from London

Because of the time difference, Nana Ohba, who is far away in the UK, is currently waking up in the morning.

Nana Ohba, rubbing her eyes as she climbed out of bed, glanced at Hikaru Kagura, who was fast asleep in the next bed because she had been video chatting with Karen Aijo late the night before, and gave her a loving smile.

That's right. Because Nana Oba and Hikari Kagura are both studying at the Royal Academy of Drama and are in a foreign country, they are currently sharing an apartment in order to save some money and improve their quality of life (by Hikari Kagura).

"How about we make some sandwiches for breakfast today?"

While thinking about the desserts she would make that day, Nana Oba changed into her everyday clothes. After she finished washing up, she picked up her phone and saw a distress message from Aine.

"Help! Ball'6, Nana-senpai, do you know any guitar heroes in Japan?"

"Guitar Hero? What's that?"

Having spent a long time in the UK, Nana Ohba was not unaware of the recent changes in Japan, but she truly couldn't understand the term "guitar hero."

"She's a high school student who plays guitar and has recently become very popular on social media. Her name is Guitar Hero."

"Hmm, let me see, is she very famous?"

After replying to the message, Nana Ohba took a moment to switch to a non-existent video app, searched for the term "Guitar Hero," and found the video blogger that Ai-on had mentioned.

"The view count seems pretty good."

After clicking through, Nana Ohba discovered that most of the other person's videos were solo covers of various songs. Even though she didn't know how to play the guitar, she could tell that the other person's skills were indeed quite good, and the title of "hero" truly suited her.

"Of course, Guitar Hero is super famous among us guitarists."

Aiyin replied.

"So, Aine wants to find this guitar hero? But I don't know how. I'm not even in Japan, and I didn't even know what a guitar hero was at first."

Nana Oba took a break and took out the remaining toast from the refrigerator. She cut it diagonally, skillfully fried the bacon and eggs in a frying pan, and finally placed the washed lettuce between the two slices of bread. A simple sandwich was then ready.

After finishing breakfast for herself and Hikaru, Nana Oba looked at the message that Aine had replied to her.

"It's not that I want to find the guitar hero himself. I just want to ask if Nana-senpai knows anyone who can play the guitar and can save me like a hero."

Even though they were separated by an ocean, Nana Ohba, the mother of everyone from the 99 graduating class of Seisho Music Academy, sensed Aine's loneliness from just a few words on her phone screen.

Is there something wrong with Ai Yin's band? Do they need another guitarist?

"No, no, no!! There can't be any more guitarists in the band."

Aiyin replied quickly.

"No more? That means there's already another guitarist."

Nana Ohba probably already knows why Aine came to her looking for the "Guitar Hero".

However, she was also in a dilemma, since she didn't actually know much about bands or anything like that.

Speaking of which, it seems that Karen-chan previously tried a stage play related to a band with Hikaru and classmates from another school. Maybe I can ask Hikaru about it.

"Aine-chan, wait a moment, let me ask for you."

"Okay, thank you very much, Nana-senpai."

Speak of the devil, and he appears. Hikaru, whom Nana was talking about, also came downstairs at that moment, still wearing a shirt and looking sleepy.

"Nana, what's for breakfast today?"

Hikaru sat down at the dining table and asked Nana Oba, who was in the kitchen.

"It's a sandwich, Hikaru."

Nana picked up the sandwiches she had just made and placed them on the table.

"Mmm, delicious!"

Kagura Hikaru took a bite of the sandwich made by Oba Nana. After being hungry all night, she immediately felt the deliciousness filling her tongue and couldn't help but smile with satisfaction. She closed her eyes and enjoyed the fresh and fragrant taste of the sandwich.

While Hikaru was eating, Nana took the opportunity to ask Aine about the matter she had just been asked to do.

"Did Xiaoguang learn guitar before because of a stage play?"

"Aww." Kagura Hikaru took another bite of her sandwich, wiped the residue from the corner of her mouth, and looked at Ooba Nana with a blank expression. "Yeah, why would Nana ask that?"

"Aiyin wants to ask us if we have any guitar teachers who can teach him to play the guitar."

Nana Oba then began to explain the cause and effect to Hikaru Kagura.

"Guitar teacher?" Kagura Hikaru patted her pockets and found that she couldn't find her phone.

"Nana, have you seen my phone?" The three-year-old, seeing that his phone was missing, immediately turned to Nana's mother for help.

"Sigh..." Nana Ohba sighed. It was obvious that this wasn't the first time Hikaru had lost something, and she couldn't say anything to her own child in this state.

"Xiao Guang, when was the last time you saw your phone last night?"

"By my pillow...it should be?" Kagura Hikaru's answer was not certain.

"Let me think... After waking up in the morning... Xiaoguang must have been all messy after taking off her pajamas... drinking water while still wearing her skirt..."

"Mmm..." Hikaru continued eating his second sandwich, while looking at Nana Oba with starry eyes.

"Then she packed her things and fixed her hair, probably next to the table, right?"

Detective Nana Oba expertly analyzed Hikaru's daily routine every morning.

"I'll go check!" Xiao Guang, with a sandwich in his mouth, went back upstairs. After searching around, he successfully came downstairs with his phone.

"Nana, you're amazing..."

"It's just because you lose things several times a week, Xiaoguang. You need to organize your belongings properly."

Nana Oba is now very curious about how Mahiru Tsuki took such good care of Karen Aijo and Hikari Kagura back then.

"Found it." After searching through her phone, Kagura Hikaru successfully found the rabbit profile picture with the nickname "Hanazaki Tae".

"This is my guitar teacher. She is the guitarist of the band Popipa. If needed, I also have the practice methods of Masumi Toyama, who taught Karen."

Kagura Hikaru then pointed to a contact with a star icon on her phone.

"Okay, I'll go talk to Aine-chan. I'll trouble you, Hikaru, to talk to them about whether you can mentor Aine."

"Aiyin-chan, Hikaru knows the guitarist from Popipa. She can ask if she can come and give you some pointers."

Nana Oba sent a reply to Aine.

When the Stage Begins: Chapter 41 Let's Go See Our Seniors Together

Ai Yin was sitting on the floor, nervously looking at the phone placed on the small table in front of her.

"Ai-chan, Hikaru knows the guitarist from Popipa. She said she could ask if she could come and meet you."

Aine read through Nana Ohba's reply word by word, her nervousness turning into joy, and she quickly replied, "Really? Thank you so much, seniors."

"It's okay, Aiyin just needs to prepare well for the performance. If Xiaoguang and I come back from our vacation in a while, we'll have to see your band's most perfect performance."

"Yes, I will do my best."

------------

"Xiaoyue, can we go see someone together after practice tomorrow?"

Just after Yue finished taking a shower that evening, she received a message from Ai Yin.

"Sure, who does Aine want to see?"

While drying her hair, Yue asked, curious about who the person Aine, the one Yangjiao wanted her to meet, was.

"Hehe, I found a guitar teacher!"

Aiyin replied with a smug emoji. (5) Baling 4 Spirit.

"Who is it? How did Aine find it?"

Yue was very curious about how Ai Yin had found a guitar teacher on her own in just two hours, even though she had just asked her if there was anyone who could teach her how to play the guitar.

"I have to thank two seniors I met in the UK for this. By the way, they both graduated from the school I attended a month ago, Seisho Music Academy."

Aine offered her explanation.

"Huh? What a coincidence! But aren't they in England?"