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Impromptu, meaning we’re improvising on the spot. That’s impossible for me, and if Sherry can make a song, I’ll be stuck having to sing it. The bar is set freakishly high; I’m pretty sure I can’t meet it. And yet despite my clear refusal, Sherry isn’t backing down.

“You can just randomly hum, Anne. I’ll sing along.”
“I told you, that’s impossible.”
“You can do it.”

On what basis are you so confident in my ability? And you, choir club and staff, don’t look at me with so much expectation. Sure, I’ve tried my hand at song composition during our early days, but since Shirose joined us, I haven’t composed anything.

“I’m really just going to hum randomly, alright?”
“That’ll do.”

The pressure is intense. Moreover, the whole conversation was overheard by the people outside. It’s more of a radio broadcast than a concert at this point—is this really okay? I can only pray that this won’t end up as another dark piece of history.

“Well, I’m going to start.”

I think of an easy phrase and slowly build upon it. I repeatedly hum the same tempo to make it easy for Sherry to sing along, but it seems like it was an unnecessary consideration. She completely adjusted in just a short time.

“That’s all.”
“Uh-huh. That turned out better than I expected.”

I never want to do this again. My stress is piling up like crazy. The tune I hummed was on the subdued side, with my image of it being a song to send off people going home. Sherry seemed to understand the intent and sang lyrics that fit that image. She’s truly amazing.

“Well then, it seems like Sherry got her fill of singing, so our surprise ends here.”
“Thank you for listening. The two of us will work hard to think of ways for our voices to reach everyone again.”
“I told you, I’m not doing this again.”
“That was Sherry and Anne. Now signing off!”

She just forced it to end. I knew it; people married to someone from the twelve families are real eccentrics. Even Kotone’s mother has been worryingly free-spirited recently. I really hope she doesn’t turn out like the other twelve family people.

“That was so exhausting.”
“Look, though. Everyone enjoyed it.”

The choir club members, the staff, and even the park guests outside via the monitor are giving us a round of applause. This certainly does feel great. It does, but that doesn’t change the fact that I don’t want to do it again.

“What are we going to do with the aftermath?”
“The park staff should be able to handle it.”

None of the guests are moving even though closing time is fast approaching. They might be thinking that there could still be more surprises left, but there really isn’t anything else. The park entrance is getting incredibly congested now.

“It’s going to be an unprecedented mess, isn’t it?”
“Let’s quietly slip out through the staff exit.”

You say that as if you didn’t cause this whole ruckus. Still, it’s true that it would cause even more chaos if Sherry were to boldly exit through the main entrance. My face was hidden with a veil on stage, so I should be fine.

“It might be better to push back the video replay to tomorrow.”

The park entrance is so congested, it’s clear as day that we’re going to get back to our hotel later than planned. If we were to watch yesterday’s concert video tonight, we’d end up sleeping late. I likely won’t be able to get the faculty’s permission either.

“What’s this? Are you planning to do something interesting?”
“It’s nothing for you to be concerned about, Sherry. There’s just a matter I need to entrust to someone.”

Besides, this is the last day of my field trip. As a consequence of tonight’s mess, I’ll have to leave early. Still, how do I get home? I haven’t contacted the family, so they can’t exactly pick me up now. I guess I can ask the bodyguards for a ride.

“Perfect timing, I’ll leave it to Kaori and Kotori.”
“What troublesome thing are you going to leave us now?”
“If it’s Kotone’s request, I’ll do my best to accommodate it!”

The two of them were next to me before I even noticed. They really understand me. Even Kotori’s reply implies that she thinks I’m going to ask for something unreasonable. The choir club students are gathering around Sherry. Being a popular artist seems tough.

“It’s nothing much. I just want to entrust tomorrow’s presentation of the concert recording to you two.”
“Can’t you be the one to do it for our group? Though for Kotori’s group, there’s no other way around it.”
“I can’t, this is where my field trip ends.”
“What do you mean by that?”

Kaori has an intense scowl. It’s pretty clear that she’ll be angry regardless of whether it’s a joke or not. Still, I have no choice but to persuade her. The order from the faculty has already been given. I can’t overturn it on my own.

“I’m to take responsibility for causing a racket on this occasion.”
“Didn’t the park staff ask for your help in the first place?”
“This counts as a personal affair. Moreover, the biggest offense here was how I arbitrarily negotiated with the park management. I should have consulted with someone from the faculty or even the principal first, but it completely slipped my mind.”
“The lack of sleep really hit you hard.”

“The faculty has their own responsibilities to uphold, after all. They can’t allow a student to rampage recklessly any longer. I do admit that I might have gone a bit overboard.”
“Let’s make it clear, it wasn’t just ‘a bit’.”

I know I’ve been acting out of line ever since I was discharged from the hospital. But there’s no redoing the past and I don’t regret it at all. I did what I wanted to do. That’s all. It is strange that I didn’t consider exercising self-restraint as an option.

“Kotone. Would it help if I try to persuade them?”
“I’m glad that you want to help, Kotori, but that will only trouble the faculty. It would be best if we impose our authority as little as possible.”

The people who knew the full picture would probably call me out for being hypocritical. They’d say I’m an idiot for contacting the principal just so I can act on my own, and I won’t deny it. Besides, I don’t want Kotori’s reputation to be tarnished. Being known as someone who acts extreme when it comes to me is not a good reputation to have.

“All that’s left is how to get home. Though it seems my only option is to ask my bodyguards for a ride.”
“I’ll send you home.”

Having finished interacting with the choir club members, Sherry approached me with an offer. After experiencing just how insistent she is, I understood that declining would change nothing.

“Well then, everyone. Good work today!”

While everyone responded to Sherry’s words, I realized that this is yet to be the last event of my night. It’s become completely unrelated to the field trip at this point.