All or Nothing

[PREVIEW 2] All or Nothing Volume 4

After a stroll through the campus and back towards the school, Kiyotaka traversed to the third floor of the special building. His destination was the music room, where the rest of the KiyoKei band members were practising.

In just a short few seconds after climbing the stairs, he was already in front of the music room. But before he could enter, he heard the sounds of instruments and singing inside the room. He already understood that the group wanted to practise today, but the pianist wasn't present. Theoretically, the band shouldn't have been able to practise perfectly with a missing band member, unless...

Kiyotaka knocked on the door and proceeded to enter with an "excuse me".

Satou Maya. Mori Nene. Matsushita Chiaki. Hasebe Haruka. Miyake Akito. And, of course, Karuizawa Kei. All the current band members were present. Instruments or phones to read lyrics in hand. It was as he thought, the band had been practising without him already.

Kiyotaka looked towards the piano and confirmed his suspicions. Sitting on the stool for the grand piano, helping the KiyoKei band practise their performance, was a teacher, one Kiyotaka knew quite well since the beginning of the second semester. The teacher had brunette hair that stretched down to her chest, reading glasses and a somewhat skimpy outfit, though calling it skimpy was a stretch.

Hiromu Akane, the music teacher of the Tokyo Metropolitan Advanced Nurturing High School, was her name.

"Sorry to have taken your place, Ayanokouji-kun. But your friends were quite desperate to practise and you weren't here, so I stepped in to help for a bit," She said as she stood up from the stool.

"It's fine, Hiromu-sensei. I just had something to deal with so I couldn't come straight away. In fact, I'm thankful you were able to get these guys on track while I wasn't here for the time being."

Other than Chabashira, and until Ryuuen's blatant announcement of their rivalry, Hiromu was the only teacher in this school who was aware of the maid cafe idea they had and the performance the KiyoKei band were intending to present at the maid cafe. In addition to that, as the band was without a guitarist, Hiromu was the one teaching Haruka how to play guitar. Therefore, her helping the band in his absence was a welcomed benefit.

"On another note, Ayanokouji-kun. How was your little meeting with Horikita-san and Kouenji-kun?"

The question came from Mori, who was smirking through her eyes. The obvious provocation and teasing wasn't aimed at him, but the blonde haired girlfriend reading through some lyrics with Satou. Unsurprisingly, she reacted, but not in the intended way Mori was hoping for. Instead of pouting and putting up a hissy fit, she just looked at her boyfriend and friend with curious eyes.

"It's not what you think. You heard the conversation back then, right? It was just to negotiate a lower price with Akiusha." Kiyotaka answered.

"Ohhh? And how did that go?"

"Thanks to Horikita's and Kouenji's offer, we snagged a lower price for the equipment. However, we'll have to work and perform at the restaurant at some point. The deal was already made so I hope you're all okay with that."

"Another new venue for the KiyoKei band!? Sign me up!!!!" Mori excitedly exclaimed.

The rest of the band members all glanced at each other and smiled, thinking the same thing. The group had come together because of the Talent Show, and it was originally only meant to be just for that. The coming together of both groups, the Ayanokouji Group and the Karuizawa Clique, was done after that and the band soon got together again for the upcoming cultural festival.

"I must admit. The Talent Show really gave us a chance to have fun. I don't mind if we continue being a band at this school. Perhaps that could be our future in the end too!" Satou joked, but part of her statement was also quite serious.

"Right!? This is our band! The KiyoKei band. We need to see it through completely!" Mori replied again, her excitement flying out of bounds.

"...While we're on the subject, can we change the name from KiyoKeis to something else?" Kiyotaka finally decided to ask.

The unspoken question that plagued his mind for ages finally came out to the group in front of him. If it was not apparent already to the readers of this book, Kiyotaka really, REALLY, didn't like the name of their band. It was a name conjured up by Mori, unsurprisingly. No one had argued with her at the time and since there were no other ideas, the name stuck.

But the more Kiyotaka heard it, the more he cringed at it. He thought the Ayanokouji Group was bad, but the KiyoKeis really went beyond his expectations. Having two groups named after him was downright bizarre.

"Ehhh!? We can't just change the name, Ayanokouji-kun! People have already talked about the KiyoKei Band across the school. We can't just disappoint and confuse them by randomly deciding to change our name." Mori was the first to react, as Kiyotaka had expected.

The rest of the members watched Kiyotaka and Mori with bashfulness and amusement. They too had thoughts about the name of the band, but letting one of the founding members argue was probably better than them.

"We're a high school band. It's not like we're famous or anything outside of this school. It would be better to change the name young while we still can."

"But when a band creates a name, it's daylight destruction to change it! What's wrong with the name KiyoKeis!? Being named after our favourite couple!?"

"It's cringey. Embarrassing even. I'd rather be named Kessoku Band than KiyoKeis."

"Named after zip ties!? What are you!? A Bocchi the Rock fan!?"

The comedic dynamic between the leader of Class B and the teaser of the band was, to put it loosely, amusing to watch. It was at that moment the two realised the rest of the band members, even Hiromu, were watching with enjoyment.

Instead of making her feel embarrassed, Mori instead smirked for the tiniest of seconds that even Kiyotaka almost missed it. But that expression immediately changed into darkness as she glared at Kiyotaka while smiling.

"Listen, Ayanokouji-kun. Once a band name has been chosen, it can never be changed. At all! Never ever! It stays! Got it!?"

Her yandere-like face actually almost scared Kiyotaka, at least on the inside. He almost felt a sweat drop from his face. Well, he knew it was going to end with him not being able to change the name, but at least he tried.

Knowing it was fruitless now, Kiyotaka sighed and relented. Mori, therefore, also retreated, smiling normally again in victory over her leader. The rest of the band members laughed at the result of the interaction.

A/N:

Another preview! Like the Bocchi reference I made? I'm a huge Bocchi the Rock fan so I thought it would be kinda funny to reference it here.

Anyway, progress on Volume 4 is going great. The time you're reading this preview is the time we have hit 50% completion of Volume 4. I am currently at 115 pages on Google Docs. For reference, Volume 3 was 160 pages in total, including Short Stories, whereas Volume 1 and Volume 2 were nearly 240 pages. I am aiming to beat 240 pages for Volume 4. Wish me luck!

Please keep up the support and patience. I promise you All or Nothing will be GREAT AGAIN with Volume 4! Next preview releases at 75% progression!

- G-String