Welcome, everyone.

You're gonna help us with practice, right, Miku? You won't be disappointed!

I know I won't.

By the way, where's Kohane?

She's busy taking care of animals for her committee, so she's gonna be late.

Okay. We have some time until she gets here I suppose.

Oh, Miku, I almost forgot...!

We did another STAY GOLDEN and kicked its butt like I said we would!

I wish you were there to see it! Especially how Kohane did!

Yeah, she was just something else. So good that I almost forgot to sing my own part!

I see. That must've been incredible.

...

Akito, what's wrong?

Nah, it's nothing.

I have to think Kohane feels a lot better about herself after what she pulled off...

I think I was finally able to actually support her as her partner.

Yes, I think so too.

But there's a part of me that keeps saying that I would've been able to do this sooner if I had my priorities straight, you know?

I'm not sure about that.

It was probably going to be a long process after she took up street music and met all of you guys, you know?

Wait, what do you mean?

Kohane began singing because of you, An, correct?

That means what she knows about your world is entirely based on what you know, right?

What I know equals what she knows...?

Yes. Especially what it means to sing well...

Your singing ability was her starting point. Thus, I thought that it would be a long process for her no matter what.

As a result, even though she kept improving, she wasn't able to feel confident about herself until now.

Oh, I see...

So that's why her idea of what counts as good felt so off sometimes?

Wait, really?!

Yes. For example, what we practice each day. Currently, Azusawa works on a list of things we prepared for her...

It's mostly just about fundamentals, but that workload also isn't something your average novice can handle.

Right... But she was doing all sorts of stuff even before you guys set that up for her, right?

Yeah. She seemed eager to do more, so we slowly gave her more and more things to work on...

Does she even know how heavy her workload actually is?

Hehe. I knew it.

Really? But...

But it's true. Conversely, she may be under the impression that she's not doing enough.

It also doesn't help that she's seen Akito and I handle even heavier loads.

So Miku was right. Kohane thinks this is normal because of us...?!

Correct.

Geez...

She just kept getting better and better, and just brushed off what we practiced like it was nothing so I never really thought about it...

But she really thinks this is just how things are.

Does that make her some kind of glee monster?

Maybe.

Can't you call her something a little nicer?

But someone told her that she needs to commit and have more confidence in herself, right?

Oh...

Right. It'll be better for Kohane if she figured that out on her own, huh?

She may've been so desperate to catch up with you guys that she never gave herself a chance to see how she was doing...

For better or worse, her world, her SEKAI is only about Vivid BAD SQUAD right now.

It also means that you guys mean that much to her, so I suppose it may not be as closed off as I'm saying it may be...

But in your world, that's not the case, right?

I think it's great how she's performing in events and singing all on her own now.

Wasn't that just about getting more experience and stuff?

Yes, and I believe that she benefitted in that way as well.

But I think her gaining some independence gave her an opportunity to see your world through her own eyes and not just yours.

Through her own eyes...

Just as her meeting you, An, and becoming interested in the street music scene opened doors for her...

Meeting others will also start opening doors for her.

I don't know who this person is, but the advice they gave her might end up being one of the best things that's happened to her, no?

Right...

Yeah, that totally makes sense!

(Oh, that reminds me...)

(I promised to ask about who that person was, but never really got around to it.)

Okay, where is she...?

She does seem to be running very late. Maybe we should call her...?

Wait... Crap!

She messaged me earlier.

<I'm hurrying but it's still gonna take me a while, so please start without me.>

Then let's do that.

Yeah. I'll tell her that she can take her time and doesn't have to rush.