The Song of Fractured Light (Love Live Superstar x Lantern Male Reader)

Chapter 7 - My New Normal

The next morning I went to meet up with Sumire at her family's shrine after I woke up and got ready for school. After spending the evening catching up with Sumire and Kazushi, I ended up calling it an early night, and so I got up earlier than I'd typically like. Still, it's not like I'm gonna complain, if anything I'm glad to be able to return to the basics.

I can take care of heroics later, and as a way to tell when I am needed, I had the ring program itself to pay attention to police chatter, and if they end up asking for backup the ring will warm up just enough to be noticeable from the pocket it's in. With it taking something like 18 hours for me to completely lose any buildup inside me, it's not like I can always go on patrol.

As I got to the gates, I found Sumire walking that way. "Looks like I was just about on time for once." I said jokingly

"Usually I'm the one who goes to meet up with you. I keep telling you that when you've been in show business like me, some punctuality is important, and it looks like you're starting to learn some from me." Sumire said, half-joking before she said "Morning Y/n."

"You would hope that's the case at the least." I said as I started to walk beside Sumire.

"So are you going to be spending the whole afternoon doing your heroics, or are you going to have the time to spend some time with me. I imagine Kanon and the others would actually like to talk to you some too." Sumire said

"Relax, unless something big happens I won't be going on a patrol or anything. But later I plan on stopping by where Kaen broke out of" I said. I actually still need to figure out how to balance all this. I'm thinking if I have plans with friends then I'll go for an if-needed style, but if I'm off then I'll patrol some.

Come on Naoki, you can worry about that stuff later...

As Sumire and I are walking down the road, I hear a girl's voice ahead of us say "Naoki?"

I look forward to see Kanon, Keke, and Chisato up ahead of us, surprised to see me. I smile and raise my hand and say "Sup, I'm back."

"I'm glad you're back, but where have you even been?" Kanon asked

I shrug as Sumire and I reach them and I say "After that arsonist from the news somehow harmed my brother in an explosion, he sent me away to stay with some family up north until he got discharged from the hospital." I then turned to Chisato and said "That's why I had you deliver the message for them, I was taking a full day trip to get here, and I didn't have much time before I needed to start heading back."

Of course those relatives don't exist, but it's a decent cover at the very least.

"I'm sorry that your brother was hurt, but I hope he's doing better now." Chisato said as the five of us once again started walking back to class.

"Wait, wasn't the guy who stopped the arsonist during all that the same one who made the floating glow sticks during our performance?" Kanon said

Keke was smiling as she said "I think so, it made our first performance even more wonderful, right Naoki?"

I gave her a smile and said "I mean yeah they were surprising but I was more focused on you girls on stage. You girls were seriously amazing."

Keke was smiling so much as she said "Hey Y/n, maybe you should come watch us practice after classes."

I gave her a smile and said "I mean if you girls don't mind then I'd love to come watch." I then started to subconsciously rub the scar of my stab wound through my shirt as I said "If you end up going jogging, I may join in for that since after an incident a bit back I'm not as in shape as I'd like."