Girls' Wishing Tree

"Don't make me laugh." Takagi Sakura reached out and, using her height advantage, tapped CHU^2's forehead. "In a few days, I'll release a song called 'Precious Heart' online. Listen to it then and you'll see how high the sky is and how deep the earth is."

CHU^2, with a red mark on his forehead, slammed his foot into a street trash can and yelled frantically, "How dare you! I'm so pissed! Why? Just wait and see!"

But after shouting, CHU^2 still obediently picked up the trash can that was kicked over, and even cleaned up the garbage that was kicked out by her kick.

Chapter 48 Shrines, Festivals, and Monsters: 8, Scoring a Double

The private encounter with CHU^2's Reimu did not affect Takagi Sakura's mood.

In her eyes, he was just a guy who didn't know his own limitations. If he heard a few more of the songs she'd copied from her past life, he'd realize there were always people better than him and feel ashamed of his youthful recklessness.

She edited the opening smoothly and completed the recording and release of the first interview within a few days.

Apartment at CHU^2.

CHU^2, financially well-off, converted the top floor of their apartment into a recording studio, outfitted with state-of-the-art equipment, and the walls and soundproofing were built to the highest standards. Anyone in the know can smell the money burning here at a glance.

But there was no music being recorded here today. Instead, CHU^2 and PAREO were sitting side by side in front of two computers, browsing the web.

That night a few days ago, after her invitation to Sakura Takagi was rejected, she formally invited Yukina Minato.

The result was... a brace.

Minato Yukina's refusal was even more resolute than Takagi Sakura's. Although she didn't flick her forehead, she almost completely cut off the possibility of joining her band.

CHU^2 kicked over two trash cans that night, but she refused to give up. She believed her musical talent was superior to everyone in Roselia's group, and even more so to the woman who had ignored her for writing "Sakura Sakura Wants to See You."

In order to attract Yukina Minato and make the singer-songwriter who works with Popipa realize what a valuable opportunity she has missed, CHU^2 spent three days creating what she thought was a perfect electronic music upload.

In this world, original music uploaded to music platforms has a seven-day release period, during which it can be included in the new song trend chart. She wants to use her own electronic music to surpass that guy's upcoming release of "Precious Heart."

But this matter doesn't seem to be going smoothly.

There is a producer named "Red Ginger" who also released a new song, which is closely following her song on the trend chart. If this continues, she will lose her top spot on the new song trend chart before "Precious Heart" is released.

"Master CHU^2, I got it." PAREO turned the computer screen towards CHU^2. "Look, 'Precious Heart' has been released, along with a half-hour interview."

After hearing PAREO's voice, CHU^2 immediately went to listen to "Precious Heart" released by the online group named "Sakura Shrine Music Lovers Club".

After listening to the song, she fell silent.

The song was played aloud, so Pareo listened to it too. CHU^2 didn't say anything, so Pareo took the initiative and said, "Master CHU^2, this song doesn't feel as good as your music."

"It's amazing." CHU^2 refuted PAREO's words: "I can't write a song like this."

"The melody... isn't very complicated, is it?"

"It's a revival of a specific era. It's the flavor of the time before the bubble economy burst," CHU^2 patiently explained to PAREO. "After more than 30 years, few people can write songs like this anymore. Retro is sometimes harder than innovation."

"Well, Master CHU^2, are we just going to admit defeat?"

"Of course not!" CHU^2 clenched his fists. "The more this happens, the more it stirs my fighting spirit! As long as we get Guitar Miko and Minato Yukina together, we can create the most infectious music!"

CHU^2 said this, but she still clicked on the long video of the "Sakura Shrine Music Lovers Club".

This episode is titled "Sakura's Musician Interviews - Guitarist Episode 1: Tsuzuki Shifune," and the description reads: "This episode is the beginning of a series of interviews with the guitarist Tsuzuki Shifune, who has been active for decades. If the response is positive, the second episode will be released within two weeks. The original track from this episode, "Precious Heart," has already been released as a single."

Tsuzuki Poetry Ship, a name that is well-known among the girls in the band.

CHU^2 put away his inner contempt and began to watch the video of 淇珊俬玖崎3似 seriously.

After the opening credits, the screen showed two people sitting in a training room. One was the girl she had met in LiveHouse before, but today she was wearing a shrine maiden costume, and the other was Tsuzuki Shisen.

Soon, CHU^2's expression turned very ugly - the guitar witch video that she had watched countless times gradually overlapped with the person in the current video.

She paused the interview video and clicked on the guitar witch's video to confirm.

There is no official version of the guitar shrine maiden's playing video. It was all filmed by people present with their mobile phones and then released on the Internet. Due to the long shooting distance, the face was not very clear. In addition, when Takagi Sakura met her for the first time, she was not wearing a shrine maiden costume. She really didn't expect that the girl who went on stage to sing "Sakura Sakura Wants to See You" with Popipa was the "guitar shrine maiden" for which she offered a reward of 5 yen.

The cherry blossom-colored hair and the confident yet unassuming expression indicate that it is the same person in the two videos.

The guitar shrine maiden and Minato Yukina, whom she wanted to recruit, both clearly expressed their refusal on the same night.

CHU^2 felt a little regretful - the other party had extremely strong guitar playing skills, a beautiful voice, and could compose, but he asked her to be the second lead singer.

But now she could only scratch her head and continue playing the video.

"I'm Takagi Sakura, the shrine maiden of Aikuoka Sakura Shrine. The person next to me is Tsuzuki Shifune, a renowned guitarist and owner of Tokyo's first livehouse primarily for female musicians. We're honored to have you here for an interview today. Could you please play some guitar for us?"

This performance only lasted about a minute, but it can be seen that Tsuzuki Shifune has not given up on the guitar, and can be said to be "still as good as ever".

What surprised CHU^2 was that Sakura Takagi also took out the bass to accompany Tsuzuki Poetry Ship, and she played very well. She neither lacked presence nor gave people the feeling of "stealing the main role".

"Okay! Thank you very much! Hearing your guitar playing, it feels like we've been transported back to the days when rock music was all the rage. Now let's begin the interview. What made you start learning guitar?"

"It was around 42 when I saw the pioneers of Japanese rock perform. I saw the older guys on stage playing guitar and making really powerful music. At that time, I wanted to play guitar and make something cool."

"It was really a long time ago. Can you tell us about the most memorable thing about your time as a musician?"

"If I had to say it, it was the band name. At the time, our band was called MiraculousScarlet. When we went on tour in New York, the local staff said that seeing the name, they knew we weren't an American band, because people from English-speaking countries definitely wouldn't name their band that way. Since we chose the band name to have a Western feel, it left a deep impression on me."

The two talked in a very harmonious rhythm, from Tsuzuki Shifune's career as a musician to the establishment, operation and closure of LiveHouseSpace, throwing out a lot of information that outsiders didn't know.

At the end of the show, Tsuzuki Shifune and Takagi Sakura performed the song "Precious Heart" together.

CHU^2 finally understood why Sakura Takagi wrote a song that deliberately imitated the style of the Showa era. She also admitted that it was very appropriate for this song to be played at the end of the program interviewing Tsuzuki Shisen.

The songs on the show are different from the singles released.

The single is sung by Sakura Takagi and features drums and keyboards.

But in the show, Sakura Takagi and Shifune Tsuzuki sat opposite each other, holding a bass and a guitar respectively, and sang a section each, as if a senior was entrusting their musical dreams, and sang the song with the feeling of sparks passing on between female musicians.

After watching the entire episode, CHU^2 reluctantly gave the show a thumbs up.

Chapter 49 Shrines, Festivals and Monsters: 9, Pig Head Guitar Hero (2IN1)

The interview with Tsuzuki Shisen quickly became a popular video on the Internet.

Many musicians forwarded this video, including juniors and students of Tsuzuki Shifune’s former teammates, and bands such as Roselia that have been taken care of by Tsuzuki Shifune.

The first episode was so successful that the system also issued a task.

[Host, please introduce 5 guitarists to the audience on the show. Each video must be viewed over 50 times within a week and have a positive review rate of over 90%. Completing the task will reward you with a random instrument playing skill (advanced). Exceeding the target will result in additional rewards.]

Takagi Sakura decided to strike while the iron was hot.

While playing guitar with Ichiri Goto in the video, she made a request: "Ichiri, I'd like to invite you to be a guest in the next guitar interview video."

The pink guitarist on the other side of the screen immediately shrank into a ball in fear. "I can't do it... Ask someone else. The first guest was Tsuzuki Shifune-san. How can I compare to him? I can't..."

Gao Muying sighed: "Well, Yili, you don't have to show your face or use your real name. Just wear a headband during the show. I will call you GuitarHero."

"That's not allowed! Anyway... it's not allowed!" Goto Ichiri still shook his head like a rattle.

"I'll send you the interview questions in advance, and I'll also prepare a guitar piece for you. I guarantee it's perfect for you. How about that?"

"Repertoire and stuff..." Goto Ichiri's eyes lit up for a moment, then dimmed again: "It's okay to let someone else play it, right?"

Takagi Sakura hadn't expected Goto Ichiri to be so resistant. After a brief pause, Sakura dropped another bombshell: "Ichiri, we'll split the video revenue in half. If it's as popular as the first episode, we can buy each of us a guitar."

"Buy a guitar!" Goto Ichiri swallowed her saliva - her guitar was left to her by her father and was already an "antique". Although a musical instrument is not unusable just because it is old, a new guitar is still very attractive to her.

Goto Ichiri thought about it for two minutes before he reluctantly decided to refuse: "Guitars and other things...will be there. I still won't appear on camera...right?"

Takagi Sakura used her last trick and communicated with Goto Ichiri through her mind through the dialogue box next to her: "If you don't come, I will go to your house, catch you and eat you."

"Woo woo woo! Ichiri is going to be eaten!" Goto Ichiri was so scared that he was like a duck with its neck strangled. His limbs kept paddling and his eyes were wide open.

The fear of being eaten by a monster ultimately outweighed the fear of appearing on the show.

Goto Ichiri agreed to record.

Takagi Sakura sent the questions she planned to ask and the music she wanted to play on the show, and agreed to record it two days later.

Two days later, Sakura Shrine.

A young girl had a funny headgear on her head, as if she had taken off her doll costume but kept the headgear on while going to work handing out flyers. She had a guitar bag on her back and was wearing a pink tracksuit with a black miniskirt over her tracksuit pants.

If you look closely, you can see that she has a lot of rock music-related badges hanging on her chest, and she is wearing seven or eight bracelets alone.

From a passerby's perspective, it was already strange and suspicious. Luckily, there were many girls playing in bands these days, and there was even a pink bear that played DJ, so not many people paid attention to Goto Ichiri walking down the street.

"Sakura, I... am here! Please don't eat me, monster!" Goto Ichiri shouted as he entered the shrine.

Gao Muying walked out of the training room and laughed out loud: "Puchi——"

She knew that laughing might make Goto Ichiri even less willing to cooperate with the interview, but she really couldn't help it - Goto Ichiri was wearing a crudely made boar headgear and was covered with all kinds of rock music peripherals, looking like a strange boar man NPC who played rock music.

"Come in, have a cup of tea and take a rest." Sakura Takagi brought Ichiri Goto into the training room and threw her a bottle of tea.

"I...bought a headgear at a used shop. It looks...okay, right?" Goto Ichiri held the pig's head with both hands and shook it.

This was clearly a long-unsold cosplay item or fursuit part that had been found somewhere. Only someone like Goto Ichiri, who wouldn't refuse, would buy something like this.

"How was it? It cost me a month's pocket money."

"Very...very good." Takagi Sakura continued what Goto Ichiri said: "Ichiri, this is a necessary investment. After the video is released, I will go with you to buy a new guitar."

"New guitar," Goto Ichiri finally calmed down a little. She sat on the tatami, opened the guitar case, and played a short piece of "Hotel California".

This was the song Sakura Takagi and her had agreed to use for the opening. It was a near-must-play guitar piece, and it performed remarkably well on both electric and acoustic guitars. By the time they finished playing it, Goto Ichiri was practically ready to record the show.

"Hello everyone. This episode, we've invited the internet sensation GuitarHero. She's a young online guitarist who often covers popular songs, and her guitar skills are widely recognized online. GuitarHero, come say hello to everyone?"

Goto Ichiri held his headgear with both hands to ensure that his face would not be exposed, and then he spoke timidly: "Um... I'm GuitarHero. Thank you very much for watching my playing video! I will keep playing in the future!"

"Let's play a piece of 'Hotel California' first. Let's play a two-guitar version." Takagi Sakura took down the guitar hanging on the wall and played this classic piece with Goto Ichiri. Takagi Sakura mainly played the supporting role, leaving the most brilliant part to Goto Ichiri.

The difficulty of the song is not high. This segment was designed to relieve Goto Ichiri's stress.

The effect was indeed very obvious. As the piano music sounded, Takagi Sakura could clearly feel that Goto Ichiri was becoming more and more relaxed.

After playing Hotel California, Takagi Sakura took advantage of Goto Ichiri's good form and continued the interview topic: "How did GuitarHero start playing guitar?"

"My father taught me the basics. Before he got married, he was the guitarist in a band. After that, his band members all got married, and the band stopped being active. When I was a kid, I would watch my father play the guitar and would pester him, so later on, he taught me how to play the guitar..." Goto Ichiri's answer was a little stiff, but she still expressed what she needed to say.

"Well, it seems that GuitarHero picking up the guitar can be considered a kind of inheritance." Takagi Sakura looked at the guitar in Goto Ichiri's hand: "I can see that this Gibson has many traces of time."

"Yes, nitrocellulose lacquer...it can easily preserve the traces of time. The metal parts of this guitar are very well maintained, but the paint will wear out a little." Goto Ichiri gently stroked the guitar in his arms, as if he was strumming his pet.

Takagi Sakura instinctively felt that this shot would definitely be very popular.

"Hmm, it really is a taste of time. GuitarHero always releases recordings based on popular trends. Can you tell us about the techniques for transcribing?"

"Ah... When it comes to transcribing music, I usually look at the main melody, determine the key and melody direction, and then listen to the chords. It's not easy to hear them at first, but after listening to them more, I can roughly feel the chord direction, and the speed of transcribing the music will be very fast..." When talking about playing the guitar, Goto Ichiri's nervousness disappeared a lot.

Tsuzuki Shifune has been playing guitar for a long time and has many stories to tell, so Takagi Sakura focused her interview on storytelling. With the young Goto Ichiri, however, she was less likely to share stories and instead guided him to share his insights and understanding of guitar and music.

"...I talked a lot with GuitarHero today. Before we start our ensemble, I have one last question for you. Are you looking forward to performing live for your fans?"

The pig head Goto Ichiri was wearing shook a little - this was a question that Takagi Sakura had never asked her. Moreover, she had to admit that this was a question that struck her heart.

She practiced guitar hard in front of the closet, but of course she didn't want to play it in front of the closet for the rest of her life.

But if she was asked to perform in public, she felt that she was not capable of doing so with her social skills.

Through the pig-head mask, Takagi Sakura couldn't see Goto Ichiri's expression. She suddenly asked this question because she wanted to confirm whether Goto Ichiri had the courage to say that he wanted to start a live show under the mask.

They were both using their elders' old guitars, practicing at home until they were exhausted, and if Lenai dared to go on stage, she would be the one to do it. If Goto Ichiri didn't dare to give an answer here, Takagi Sakura would have to reassess her ability to play in the band.

If she doesn't dare, no matter how good she is, she will just be a good bedroom guitarist.

Half a minute passed and Goto Ichiri still didn't speak.

Her body was trembling slightly, one hand pressed heavily on the fretboard, the other hand's little finger hooked on the pickup, and the index finger and thumb kept rubbing the pick.

Just as Takagi Sakura was about to click Goto Ichiri with the dialog box, Goto Ichiri spoke: "I want to make a living by playing the guitar... I want to stand on the stage... I want to be a guitarist in a band."

The sound is not loud, but very clear.

"Okay, we are all looking forward to that day. Now, please let GuitarHero bring you a song "(Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence)." Takagi Sakura suppressed the excitement in her heart and spoke in a more formal tone.

In a previous life, this piece was written by Ryuichi Sakamoto, and Takagi Sakura directly adapted guitarist Michiya Haruhata's version. The first half uses clean tones for narrative expression, while the second half switches to distortion, creating a strong emotional flow through a lot of string pushing, vibrato, and tapping. Because some parts require the use of a tremolo, Goto Ichiri used Takagi Sakura's ST guitar.

Sakura Takagi played the bass for Ichiri Goto, giving all the highlights to Ichiri Goto who was wearing a pig's head.

Goto Ichiri cherished this interview opportunity. After receiving the score, she practiced the piece hundreds of times at home, using a metronome. Relying on the clean section, she quickly entered the state of play, even standing up from the tatami mat and swaying to the beat, calmly and effortlessly executing each technique to near-perfection.

Sakura Takagi was originally a little worried that this song would need to be recorded several times, but she didn't expect it to be perfect in just one take.

In this way, just cut out some of Goto Ichiri's hesitation in answering the question and it can be published directly.

"Ichiri, great! You played really well!" Takagi Sakura gave Goto Ichiri a thumbs up. "But we should record the song a few more times so we can pick the best version and release it as a single."

Goto Ichiri took off the pig head mask.

Because she was wearing a hood while traveling and recording, her sweat had made her pink hair a little sticky, with her bangs sticking to her forehead and her sideburns sticking to her hair.