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I was shaken by the bus for an hour. Actually, I was asleep, so time passed by in the blink of an eye for me. Kaori, who was next to me, smacked me awake, but I don’t feel like I’ve slept at all.

“Sleepy.”
“You were completely fast asleep. Though it’s only natural, since you were up all night.”
“Why did you stay up all night?”

Kaori and I were sitting next to each other. And behind us are Harumi and Miyako. For the most part, the four of us will move together today. And the one who popped her head from behind and asked the question was Harumi.

“We just had some reminiscing last night. I did the talking and Isami, the listening. An unsightly battle also went underway, ending with not getting any sleep.”
“Reminiscing from Kotone, that sounds interesting. Was it about how you met with Isami and the band?”
“Not really. Besides, our meeting isn’t worth recalling to start with.”

Kaori is the only person here I can actually tell about my past life. For the others, I still want to keep it a secret. In the first place, I don’t think they’ll believe it. Even Kaori didn’t seem like she fully believed it.

“In the first place, when did you learn how to play the bass, Kotone? You didn’t fall behind the pros at all, you were actually in perfect sync.”
“I’m curious about that too. I didn’t notice any signs of Kotone moving about in secret, I think.”

I’m stumped on how to respond to Harumi and Miyako. I’m sure everyone who saw the concert had the same questions they did. And I haven’t prepared an answer for that. After all, whatever I might choose to say, it’ll end up being a lie.

“I’m also curious about the answer, but we’re the only ones left here.”

Kaori woke me up because we’re at our destination. All of our classmates have already left, so we’re the only ones remaining inside the bus. We can’t make the others wait, so we have to go. Besides, if this was actually Kaori covering for me, I’m really grateful for it.

“I’ll tell you about me and the band at another time. I’m not in the condition to talk much, after all.”
“I don’t really mind if you don’t want to talk about it. But I’d like to see more of yesterday happening periodically.”
“Don’t be so unreasonable, Harumi.”

If I had to do guerrilla concerts like those periodically, I’m going to end up being considered a formal member of EXIST, you know. Moreover, it’s not going to be a free concert anymore. You think that you’ll have a free invitation as a friend? That was a one-time only thing.

“Still, it’s been a long time since I’ve seen Kotone’s casual clothes, but your style’s changed a lot.”
“Kaori coordinated the outfit for me. I’ve received complaints that my outfit is always the same, you see.”

Miyako is staring at my clothes; it’s different from my usual white t-shirt look. Kaori told me to at least dress better for the field trip, and this was the result of our shopping. Adding to that, I also have the hat I used during the escape incident and fake glasses I borrowed.

“She wouldn’t wear anything cute, though. In the end, we decided to go with a dignified look.”

I feel really uncomfortable wearing skirts or feminine clothes. It’s been more than half a year since I’ve become Kotone, but there’s still no sign of this getting better. I don’t even know what’s the reason for this. So in the end, I probably have no choice but to just get used to it.

“Why change the hairstyle too?”
“It’s simply to serve as a disguise. How effective it will be, I have no idea.”

A hat, glasses, and a side ponytail. Will people really not recognize Kotone with just this? It went well yesterday, but there’s no telling if it will today. It’s naive to think that something that worked once will work again the second time.

“Also, the people behind us have a scary glare.”
“Miyako, give up on them. It’s the consequence of yesterday’s happenings.”

The people behind us, shooting threatening glares to make sure they absolutely never lose sight of me, are my bodyguards. It’s unusual to see all four of them from the get-go, but I guess that’s just how much yesterday’s incident affected them. Don’t worry, I don’t plan on running off this time.

“I’ve heard about it, sounds like you went pretty wild.”
“To think that you’d enjoy Kyoto by yourself without us.”

Can you really call that enjoying Kyoto? If we were close to being found, we’d immediately move. I even limited where we’d go to places where we’d be unlikely to be found, so it was pretty restricting. Still, it is true that we got to see a few places.

“It wasn’t my fault, no one there tried to stop me.”
“Don’t go shifting the blame. It couldn’t be helped since the people with you were enablers, but this time I’ll be your stopper.”

Both Nako and Ruru are the type to fan the flames rather than stop me, after all. Part of the reason it happened was because there wasn’t anyone acting as a stopper. If Ran was there, she’d probably do that but unfortunately for that time, she wasn’t around.

“I’ll leave our destination to you three. I really don’t feel like choosing.”
“It’s pretty unusual for someone to be so down in a dreamland like this.”

Kaori. Don’t forget that I didn’t have any sleep last night. This isn’t something that can be fixed by just an hour of sleep on a bus. It would be strange if I wasn’t tired at all. Night buses exist for a reason.

“Let’s go for places that would probably form a long line first. After that, we’ll go around focusing on places each of us like, then see the parade…”

While the three are deciding our route, I’m just staring blankly at the sky. The weather’s good but the wind is cold when it blows. It’s the winter season, after all. While I did choose warmer clothes, it’s still pretty chilly. Got to be careful not to catch a cold.

“Kotone, any attractions you’re bad with? Like thrill rides or scare attractions?”
“If I answer, we’re likely to predominantly go for what I say, so I won’t.”

Hearing Kaori’s question, I gave a safe reply. Flashing in my mind are the idiots that exclusively chose the type of rides I specifically didn’t want to ride. In the middle of it, I gave up and the others ended up getting pretty groggy too.

“We’re not going to do that. I just want to know, for reference.”
“I don’t enjoy thrill rides. It’s not to the point that I can’t ride one, but I don’t like the feeling of weightlessness.”
“Then let’s go for one of those first to scare you wide awake.”