< Walk on and on | Story
Toya's Room
Toya
I wonder how I can write a song like Souma-san did, one that can move someone's heart...
Toya
(Helping out Souma-san makes me feel as though I'm adding to my repertoire. It's truly a good learning experience.)
Toya
(But, it's still not enough. I need to find out what it is that I'm lacking...)
Flashback
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Souma
That's why your priority should be figuring out what you want to convey——I think doing that will be a good first step.
End flashback
Toya
What I want to convey...
Toya
(Thanks to Akito and the others, I thought I'd become a little more aware of my own feelings recently, but perhaps I still haven't managed to figure myself out entirely.)
Toya
...What feelings do I want to put in my music?
A Few Days Later
Hospital
Hospital
Souma
Hmm hmm hmm~♪
Toya
Souma-san, you must truly love music.
Souma
Eh? Ah, I guess so. It's always been a big part of my life.
Toya
Always been...? Were your parents involved with music, perhaps?
Souma
It's not like their jobs or anything, but... My parents loved reggae and jazz, so it was playing at our house 24/7.
Souma
Thanks to that influence, I naturally ended up listening to music. The first thing I really got into was pop music, though.
Toya
So it wasn't as if street music was your interest from the very beginning. ...I suppose I'm the same way.
Souma
Hahaha, you got that right~ former classical boy!
Souma
When I was in elementary school, I bought an instrument and tried to learn how to play it. But I was self-taught, and I have a habit of getting bored easy, so I never got anywhere with it.
Souma
And that's around the time I started stopping by Vivid Street, and ended up seeing one of RADder's street performances by coincidence.
Toya
RADder...! You saw Ken-san and the others on the street!?
Souma
Yep. There were so many people crowded around them, and you could hardly get by.
Souma
They went at it with this piercing momentum that went beyond what anyone would ever expect, and it made me realize that music like that existed.
Toya
Impressive... By the time I started coming to Vivid Street, Ken-san and the others were already inactive, so I'm a little envious.
Souma
Even back then, apparently it wasn't often that they'd do street performances. Since so many people were gathered there, they only played one song and then left.
Toya
That's amazing. Exactly what I'd expect from Ken-san...
Souma
Yep, you're right about that!
Souma
And it wasn't just Ken-san and the others. There were other artists, tons of audience members, the entire town was overflowing with music...
Souma
"This is where I belong!" I realized, and I got attached to Vivid Street as soon as that happened.
Souma
And then, after I got into middle school, I started singing on Vivid Street too.
Toya
Is that so... Were you partnered with Touno-san from the very beginning?
Souma
Nah, it was just me at first. The reason I partnered with Arata was our music class.
Toya
Music class...?
Souma
Yeah, usually in music class, it's embarrassing to have other people listen to you sing, right? But that guy, it didn't seem like he was bothered at all.
Souma
His singing wasn't just skillful, there was more to it than that. How do I put it...I felt like he just had an amazing sense for it!
Souma
I thought——I wanna hear this guy sing seriously! So I reached out to him.
Toya
I see, so Touno-san has always had that presence to him.
Toya
...Um, I've wanted to ask for a while, but what kind of team did you and Touno-san have, Souma-san?
Souma
At first, we just hung out and played around, so we didn't have the same serious passion as you and your team, Aoyagi-kun. We were just taking it easy and having fun as we went, y'know?
Souma
Ah, but if I had to pick out the worst part, the first day was pretty tough. It was hard deciding on a team name.
Souma
Cause that guy would keep saying stuff like "I don't mind, you can decide it yourself". Like it wasn't obvious he was just trying to avoid doing it.
Toya
(A team name. Akito decided on ours when it was just the two of us, and Azusawa suggested the word SQUAD for our team name now.)
Souma
I thought about it for like, three days, and with the image of cutting through the wind to carve a path forward, I decided on the name "Gurney flap".
Toya
The image of moving forward... It's very you, Souma-san.
Souma
Eh? You think?
Toya
Yes. I felt as such when I was helping you with composing. That song also has a pleasant sense of speed.
Souma
Ahh, haha...that's a little embarrassing.
Souma
But it was actually pretty smooth sailing for us.
Souma
Thanks to Arata, people started remembering our name almost as soon as we became active.
Souma
Arata's musical instincts were beyond what I'd imagined.
Souma
I can only really call it genius. Right from the start, he had a great sense of how to win the hearts of our audience.
Toya
...I feel like I understand where you're coming from.
Souma
Ahaha, it makes sense, right? He was always so easygoing that I could never really tell what he was thinking, but he was always really dependable when it came to performing together.
Souma
And it was right around when we got to high school that our music started changing...
Toya
——When you saw RAD WEEKEND.
Souma
Yeah. It was a really special event for me, and it changed the course of my life forever.
Toya
(I only saw footage of it, but even still, I was able to feel from the atmosphere that it was something truly special...)
Toya
You went to the venue together, didn't you?
Souma
Yeah. Arata was...well, I might've dragged him there pretty forcefully...
Souma
By the time we got in, COL was already packed full of people, and we couldn't even get close to the front. We had no choice but to watch from the back, but——
Souma
When Nagi-san came out, she had her eyes closed, and I remember wondering what was going on.
Souma
I heard her take a deep breath——and the moment she started singing, the atmosphere changed instantly.
Souma
When Nagi-san's song finished, I don't even know how to describe it. The only thing I could do was shout, and the people around me felt the same way, enough that COL was shaking from all the voices!
Souma
But, Arata was watching right next to me, and he didn't budge at all. Even though the people around him were raising their voices, he was so silent it was almost eerie...
Nagi
Let's——make a legend together!!
Souma
When I called out to him like, "Oiii!"... Arata was staring at the stage with a look on his face I'd never seen at school or on the street.
Souma
I'd never seen Arata get such a passionate look on his face, so it kind of surprised me.
Toya
(That's how Touno-san experienced RAD WEEKEND...)
Toya
(But——it's true, Nagi-san and the others performed with such intensity...it seemed that passion was rising from the depths of their hearts.)
Souma
And for the last performance, Ken-san and Taiga-san came out to join her——
Souma
RADder's singing was just amazing. It was nothing even close to when I heard it on the street.
Souma
The world of music that RADder brought me to that day, it showed me that music could go even further. And at the same time, it made me feel that I needed to surpass that event.
Souma
And when I said, let's surpass RAD WEEKEND! He looked at me, smiled, and said, "Sounds good to me".
Toya
(——Yeah. Touno-san told us the same when we first met him.)
Flashback
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Arata
Surpassing RAD WEEKEND is less my dream, and more his.
End flashback
Toya
(Souma-san, just like us, was seriously trying to surpass RAD WEEKEND.)
Souma
And after that night, we got serious about music. It felt like we'd decided exactly how we were gonna live our lives, moving forward.
Toya
(Decided how they were gonna live their lives, huh...)
Flashback
Akito
After I saw it, I knew exactly how I wanted to live my life.
End flashback
Toya
...Akito said something similar.
Souma
Ahaha. If he didn't feel like that, he wouldn't have kept it up for as long as he has. Back then, there were way more people like that.
Souma
Everyone was thinking "It'll be me next!" and the entire town was so enthusiastic about it, all you could here were singing voices everywhere.
Toya
And you both were singing in that crowd.
Souma
Of course we were. We wanted to get in as much experience as possible, so it didn't matter if we were singing in the street or at a venue.
Souma
We sang, and sang, and sang, and sang some more, we just kept singing.
Souma
Quality was nowhere near our first priority, so both Arata and I sang until our voices were hoarse, and we couldn't speak unless we screamed.
Toya
That's...quite a lot of practice you must've gotten in.
Souma
Yeah. Back then, we both threw caution to the wind and did such unreasonable things. Looking back on it now, it's amazing that we managed to keep that up.
Souma
But I really believed that as long as I was with Arata, we'd definitely be able to surpass RAD WEEKEND!
Souma
As soon as we got serious, Arata got even more impressive! When I was singing with him, it was like a gear clicked into place.
Toya
(It's somewhat strange, but it almost feels like I'm looking at myself. Perhaps it's because I've had similar experiences.)
Flashback
An
Whew—! That felt amazing! You're pretty good, BAD DOGS!!
End flashback
Toya
(For me, that might've been the moment.)
Toya
(When we first sang with Shiraishi and Azusawa in SEKAI, I was surprised by how addictive it was.)
Souma
We reached a point where we were pretty satisfied with the tracks we were making, and Arata's performance kept getting better and better.
Souma
At Vivid Street, we kept getting invited to all sorts of events.
Souma
We were doing so well that a couple hurdles couldn't stop us. We had the wind at our backs, and we had everything at our fingertips——or that's what we thought...
Souma
It's a shame, but I guess I couldn't reach it.
Toya
Ah...
Souma
...So, Gurney flap disbanded. But now Arata's putting in enough work for the both of us.
Souma
That guy came back after polishing his skills. And now he's with you and your friends, Aoyagi-kun, so I'm not worried about him!
Toya
...Yes. I'm glad we can help.
Toya
(The way Souma-san entrusted his dream to Touno-san. How Touno-san must feel carrying that dream on his shoulders...I feel like I understand that now.)
Toya
(...But, even when Souma-san loves music this much——)
Toya
(I'm sure he must want to realize that dream himself...)
— Some time later —
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Souma
Man—, the sun set in no time at all.
Toya
Ah, you're right. I was supposed to help you, but...I apologize.
Souma
No, it's fine. Actually, I'm sorry I wasn't able to help you learn at all.
Souma
But...it was fun looking back on those days for the first time in a while.
Toya
Thank you very much for letting me listen. It was a pleasure getting to know both of you better.
Toya
Please allow me to continue learning from your songwriting.
Souma
...Yeah! Thank you for helping out, too.
Toya
(...My song, huh.)
Toya
(Souma-san doesn't just love music. In the past, and likely even now, he's facing his music with very strong feelings.)
Toya
(I'm also going to have to face my music, and think about what feelings I want to put into it.)