Passerby [Open]

Asagiri Aiko never was the most self-confident of individuals. But when she had the chance to play her guitar, there was precious little else that mattered to her. In her mind's eye, it was just her upon a lit stage able to play to her heart's content without anyone else around. The short girl's fingers strummed the chords of her guitar, sound projecting out through a nearby amp that was connected to the instrument. A melody formed after a moment, slow and steady, yet powerful and thrumming. It was moments like these that made the quiet girl happy and content.

The sound drifted out into the hall, the door not entirely closed. It would sound awfully inviting for anyone to pass by and take a peek into the usually unoccupied room.

Guh! Where was Miyu when you needed her? Stupid different classes. Okay, so Yumi had taken some different classes just so she could show people that she did, in fact, operate independently of her identical twin, but that didn't mean she shouldn't be available the moment she was tired of that. Going without her for long periods of time was weird. The girl wasn't in her uniform; she'd been out of class for nearly half an hour and had decided to drop by the class to see if her singing 'coach' was in. Nope. She'd been out for the day.

The technically younger twin was surprised at how empty the building was today; it was only 3pm. Maybe everyone still in the building were in classes or something? She pulled at her striped blue and yellow sleeveless hoodie, trying to figure out what to do to pass the time. At the moment the energetic girl was a little lost in her own world, imagining she was part time pop star, part time super spy. Why? The music coming from an 'empty' classroom.

Yumi's lopsided pigtail appeared around the cracked door just before Yumi herself did. Ahah! Someone trying to sneakily play guitars? How sinister! ... or something. "Ahah!" she popped into the room suddenly, in an exaggerated 'spy girl' pose. "So you're the source of the music around here!" The mischievous grin on her face was hard to miss; regardless of what this girl would think, she was having fun.

Aiko's eyes closed as she continued to strum along, humming with the beat. Yeah, she thought up a pretty good one this time! Maybe she could come up with some lyrics too for it. Her eyes began to open again and a smile was on her face. However, it all came to a sudden and abrupt end as a brunette girl suddenly popped up onto the scene!

Aiko practically jumped out of her seat at the sudden exclaimation and her hand froze across the strings. It generated a rather loud screeching sound that certainly didn't help her excitement either. "H-huh? Wh-wha?" The short girl stammered before looking at Yumi. "Um... Y-yes?" Oh geez, she was so nervous. Compared to the other girl was grinning really widely, Aiko just looked really confused.

Yumi could tell the girl had been rather startled by her sudden appearance. That happened when super spies entered the scene, right? Personally, Yumi was torn between a giggling fit from the reaction, and feeling sorry for her for, well, the same thing. Currently the former was winning, if her happy giggle had anything to say about it.

"I was investigating the source of music from an empty classroom!" she stated in what could only be described as her spy voice. "I wasn't sure if it was ghosts or just a lone girl being visited by the illusive muse, but one can never be too safe." She placed her hands on her hips and nodded, looking rather self-satisfied, like she'd solved a major school mystery or something.

"I'm Nezu Yumi," she finally introduced herself as she lost the spy persona she'd only just barely been holding onto. "I'm a first year here, if you couldn't tell." She made a rather exaggerated bowing gesture after stepping further into the room, for a combination of effect and self-amusement. "I didn't recognize that tune, and I hear a lot of music. Did you make it?" It was worth asking, at least to the girl with the pigtail.

"G-ghosts? Ah, no, um... T-teacher said that I could... practice in here." Aiko stuttered out an explanation. The hand that had been previously strumming the strings on her guitar moved to the top of the instrument's side. She drew the guitar closer to herself, as if holding onto it for comfort. After a moment more, the clearly excitable brunette decided to introduce herself.

"I-I'm A-Asagiri Aiko..." She offered her own name in introduction before continuing, "I'm... a first year too." The shy girl then began to slowly nod her head as a response to the question that Yumi asked. "Mmhm. I like to... play music with... my guitar. It's... really fun. And... comforting. Yeah..." Well, Aiko definitely gave off the impression that she didn't get out much.

Kirika was hanging around the music building, as was usual when she didn't have anything else to do. She had planned on practicing her drums, but this time homework had to come first. So instead, she was sitting on a couch next to the front door, notebook propped open as she worked away. It wasn't too bad. After awhile, she had background music to work to. Someone had started up on an electric guitar, and was playing quite passionately, as though she didn't realize that everyone else in the building could hear her.

After awhile, Kirika reached a stopping point, then packed up her stuff to go check it out. No sooner had she got up, though, but the music stopped. What? No, no, don't stop now. She wanted to see who was playing. Kirika hastily made her way towards the room where the sound had come from, hoping to at least catch the girl before she left. She found her, naturally (a really cute one, even), but also found another younger student excitedly approaching her. Actually, it seemed to be making the guitarist girl nervous.

"Take it easy, you're scaring the poor girl," Kirika said, putting a hand on the excited girl's shoulder. She looked over to the excited girl, giving her an easygoing smile. "Sorry about that. If you don't mind me saying so, though, you're really good at that."

Yumi might have jumped when she heard the older girl scold her from behind. And by might have... yeah, she did. She hadn't been expecting reinforcements! The brunette spun around and held her hands up in what might have been a karate-looking gesture to the untrained eye, but for anyone else... it probably just looked like a kid who was mirroring something they'd seen on tv a few times. "Wah! Who's scaring? I'm not scaring! Where'd you come from?!" Based on her tone, it was probably Kirika who had done the scaring just then.

She quickly lowered her "guard" when she realized it wasn't a teacher or someone who was going to bust her for some reason, and looked back and forth between the pair. "Er, Heh." She'd probably scared Asagiri-chan again when she'd been surprised, herself. "Do you two know each other? I wasn't expecting reinforcements. Who are you?" Okay so it wasn't the most respectful way to talk to an older student, but no one had ever claimed the Nezu twins were the epitome of respectable.

It was at that point that Yumi's imagination kicked in. She knew already about some of the girls who went here. A grin reappeared on her face - a sly one that said her brain was up to no good. "Oh! Were you two coming here to make a secret rendezvous?" The look on her face probably made it rather clear what she was thinking. "How scandalous!" she joked. It might have been hard for the others to tell if she was joking or not though.

O-oh... Now there was a second person too. UM... Aiko was unsure what to do. Part of her was saying she should speak up, but another part was saying she should pack up and get out of there. It was the nice words that the redheaded girl said that really brought Aiko back down to reality once more. A faint blush began to appear on the short girl's cheeks as she began to stare at her guitar.

"U-Um... Th-Thank you..."

Then the brunette started insinuating some kind of "rendezvous". Whatever Yumi was implying was lost on Aiko as a confused expression appeared on her face and she looked at the other first year oddly. "What... What do you mean?"

Wow, this girl was all over the place. She reacted as though Kirika had been the one doing the scaring (okay, she might have, since she'd snuck up on her), then calmed down a bit...only to immediately ask if she knew Asagiri (no, at best, Kirika had only seen her in passing before). Also, something about reinforcements? How was it reinforcements if she was just trying to get the girl to calm down a bit.

She smiled back at Asagiri as she thanked her, but it was short-lived as the other girl immediately jumped into something about a secret rendezvous. Oh come on. Kirika was a flirt, yes, and she was completely shameless about that, but she didn't work that fast. "No, no, nothing like that," Kirika said. "This is my first time meeting her too. I can't work that quickly." Okay, maybe that last part wasn't necessary. But...ah, whatever. "I was just hoping to listen to her play for a bit." She glanced back at Asagiri. "If you don't mind, of course."

Back to the excitable girl. "And you shouldn't be making comments like that about just anyone. You might upset someone."

To some, Yumi was random and all over the place with her reactions. To others (Mostly Yumi and her sister Miyu) they were reacting with appropriate gusto to the things life threw their way. All the world was a stage and all the the people actors, so why not stand out enough to be a main character, right? "No rendezvous, huh? That's almost boring." She shrugged to herself. She'd been hoping for some fun discovery despite knowing better. Though, maybe the fact that she'd found someone practicing an original song was enough.

"I'm not trying to upset people!" she insisted after a moment, inching closer to the shyer of the two girls who were in the room with her. "I'm just saying, a girl who can play an instrument like that surely has some admirers, and serious girl has already admitted to wanting to hear your music! It's like... all the basics you need for a romantic secret meeting." she shrugged as if it wasn't a big deal despite the fact that she was the one enthusiastically pointing this out. "It's kinda romantic, isn't it? I mean, if you're into that sort of thing."

Not that Yumi was, but she was open-minded about these things. Plus it wasn't like they had any boys to meet here, so this was her best chance for some sort of fun romantic scenario playing out! Yumi sat down next to where Aiko had been sitting with her guitar, elbows on her knees and chin cupped in her hands. "You should play for the girl. I mean, can you really say no to such a cute face?"

"Uh... Um.. That's... Um..." Aiko began to stutter again as the total focus went from the new girl right back to herself. Especially since Yumi kept going on about romantics and insinuating that Aiko and that other girl were meeting or something and... Why was she inching closer? Nnnnng... She didn't want to be here right now...

And then Yumi plopped down right beside her and started insisting on her to play for the other girl. "Ah..." She didn't want to say no, but... Aiko looked to the other girl for some kind of cue one way or the other. Her nervousness pretty much spelled out with the expression on her face right now.

Kirika blinked as the excitable girl just kept going on, looping right around to how it should have been a secret meeting but wasn't. And she was getting closer to Asagiri-san, then just sat down next to her as if she wasn't already nervous enough. For a moment, Kirika was at a loss. Was this how people saw her in her more...affectionate moments? Maybe not as excitable, but shamelessly sitting close to people and going on about something romantic or other?

For a second, she wondered if she shouldn't tone it down in the future, but quickly dismissed the notion. She was better at reading people than that - she always backed off she was making people uncomfortable (never mind for a moment that she didn't always realize that right away). At any rate, she needed to smooth this over before the excitable girl made it worse. "Sorry about this," she said to Asagiri-san. "I'm Yoshinaga Kirika. Third year, drummer, and apparently the serious one for once. I would like to hear you play more, but I won't force it if you don't want to. And if she tries to force it, I'll...I don't know, pull her outside or something."

Yumi tilted her head, her chin still resting on her hands in a posture that was much more relaxed than her demeanor. She blinked a few times, confused on her end for once. "Aw come on, I'm just having fun," she insisted as she blinked innocently before standing back up. She was a bit restless. "I mean, I liked the music too. I'm a singer, so of course I appreciate it!"

The short-haired twin crossed her arms and looked between them. Somehow they were taking this whole thing way too seriously! She was just trying to get people to laugh. "As detective extraordinaire Nezu Yumi, it's my job... no, my passion to discover the sources of talent like yours!" she might have been laying it on a bit thick, especially with her pretend detective persona.

"But that doesn't mean I'm trying to make you uncomfortable, Asagiri-Chan!" Yumi quickly moved back to stand close to the overly serious Kirika instead, like she was part of a potential audience. "Whatever you want to do. If it'd help I could think of something to sing with you. Then it wouldn't be all on you! What do you think?" It didn't make a big difference. Their personalities were too opposite for Yumi to have proper fun with, and they kept reacting in ways that were impossible to please together while she was still having fun. People around here were so different from the simple country folk that had found her so charming. Fortunately she didn't much care. She'd have fun and make friends with the people willing to have fun too.

The newest arrival finally spoke her name as well. Yoshinaga Kirika, a third year and apparently a musician as well. She was grateful for the other girl's offer to drag Yumi off, but Aiko didn't want that to happen. After a bit, the excitable girl began to talk once more. She started talking about being a detective or something and then about being a singer. Admittedly, the offer to sing along did kinda of ease her nerves. Silence passed through the air for a few minutes before Aiko finally made her decision.

The short girl nodded her assent and then focused her eyes down on the guitar. Just pretend they weren't there, her mind was saying. Focus on the guitar and playing the music. She repeated the line a few more times to herself mentally before taking a deep breathe and releasing slowly. After a moment more, her hand raised and began to strum the chords. A slow methodical rhythm began to form, adding an idle ambiance to the room.

Ah! Great, she'd agreed. Kirika nodded back, then walked over and took a seat where she would be out of Asagiri-san's way. Wouldn't want to make her uncomfortable by being too close after all. She sat back with a relaxed pose, trying not to seem too expectant. Then, as Asagiri-san started, Kirika focused on the music. The white-haired girl started with a slow, simple rhythm. A little too simple to do much with, but Kirika could tell that she was just getting started. She needed a moment to get comfortable.

Nonetheless, Kirika started tapping her leg with her hand. Quietly enough that it wouldn't be distracting to Asagiri-san. Or more likely, not even noticeable. But in her mind, the rhythm was just loud enough to come in under the guitar line, like a supporting structure. Until Asagiri-san did more with her guitar, she couldn't do much more than to tap along with the beat. But it had potential.

Well, she hadn't exactly said she wanted someone to sing with her, so Yumi decided it best to keep her mouth shut for the moment. Yes, Yumi knew how to keep her mouth shut for a performance. She was a performer, herself, after all, and much as she enjoyed the idea of thousands of screaming fans, there was a time and a place, and a small audience was not one of them! She was a little twitchy though, unlike Kirika. She changed her sitting position about three times in the first minute, until she settled on using two chairs for her watching.

She glanced at Kirika. Yeah she probably thought Yumi was moving too much. If she didn't have to worry about making the girl with the guitar stop playing she'd probably be poking Kirika to get her to lighten up. What was that she'd said about being the serious one for once? Was this girl normally funny? That'd be interesting to see. Oh, right, performance.

Slow and steady, calm and precise. Those words repeated through her mind as she played the steady melody. But now, it was time to start really playing. Her fingers began to move faster, sliding along the chords at the neck of her guitar while also quickly switching places and eliciting new sounds into the song. A catchy beat was starting to pick up steam while Aiko's head began to bob to the beat. Briefly she looked to both of the other girls before staring down at the guitar again, her fingers flying across the strings.

After a moment more, she looked up again, staring a bit at Yumi as if waiting for something. Or more accurately, the singing she had talked about. After a moment, she began to notice Kirika tapping along to the beat and seemed to adjust for the addition of the tapping.