Fateful Competition — Part 3

TL: Daemon

ED: PuffyPyjamas

“Wooow! It’s quite cramped in here ♡”

It was Saturday, and Hiiragi-chan and I came to a karaoke in order to put in training for the Miss Contest.

Inside the dimly lit room, the display seemed weirdly bright.

“Sensei, you haven’t done karaoke before, right?”

“Ummm… Eheheh. Wait, it’s Haruka-san right now!”

I never went during my high school days. I was considered a late bloomer as the first time I did go was during college.

However, it was a good thing that I went at that time.

“Ummm, Seiji-kun… what do I do with this…?”

Hiiragi-chan, who had immediately moved in front of the terminal, looked like she had a bunch of question marks floating above her head.

“You can use that to search for songs that you want to sing by inputting in the name of the song, artist, or keywords.”

Hiiragi-chan blinked her eyes rapidly.

“A-amazing…! That’s like science fiction!”

“That’s an exaggeration.”

“I mean, don’t you look at a book and enter in the number normally?”

That’s quite old! Hiiragi-chan’s knowledge of karaoke is like from the Showa era… If I say that though, she’ll get mad, so I’ll stay quiet.

“I guess for people who have never come before, the latest equipment may as well be the future.”

“Seiji-kun, what are you going to sing?”

No, really, I think it’s great that I experienced this during college.

After bringing my girlfriend here, I won’t say that I’m too embarrassed to sing. If I do that, I might be thought of as a pretty pitiful man.

“Maybe the song from that rock band. It’s also the main theme song for an anime—”

If it’s this song, it should be considered pretty safe. There should be many people in the same generation that recognize it.

I would only go karaoke when I’m invited, but luckily, my singing ability is neither good nor bad. It’s not really a singing voice that warrants a round of applause, but it’s also not one that is so bad that it requires special consideration. The normal.

Hiiragi-chan seemed to be sparkling as she jumped towards me.

Her eyes were telling me that she wanted to listen.

“After this, Haruka-san will be singing, okay? It’s training.”

“Okaaay.”

She rattled the maracas after picking them up with her hand.

I searched up the song name in the console, and sent in my input. The screen transitioned and the music intro came flowing out. Hiiragi-chan stared at me with fervent expectation as I continued to hold on to the mic.

I-it’s hard to sing like this…

Once the intro ended, colored characters displayed the lyrics. I matched it and sang along. Hiiragi-chan, who was next to me, matched her hands with my singing and shook the maracas. Without taking even 5 minutes, the song ended.

“Seiji-kun, you’re really good!”

Shashashashashashan! She’s super into those maracas.

“Well, you pretty much sing like that.”

Taking a break, I took a sip of the juice that I ordered earlier from the drink server.

“What should I sing?”

“I think you should just sing a song you like.”

“A song I like, a song I like…?”

Hiiragi-chan kept pressing on the console. Ah, maybe what she likes isn’t on there?

“What should I sing if I don’t want to lose to Sana-chan…”

I see. Just singing isn’t good enough for her.

A popular teacher singing a popular song that everyone knows really doesn’t have much impact. This is going to be karaoke for the Miss Contest. It will be judged. That’s why a song with impact would be better.

… Depending on your ability to sing though, it might leave a bad impression.

“Then, why don’t you start by picking something random?”

When I nodded, Hiiragi-chan operated the console. What she picked was a song that was popular during my middle school days. At this point in time, it would be about 2 or 3 years before.

Hiiragi-chan stood up with the mic in hand and started to sing.

“~~♪ ——! ——♪”

Just as I was wondering how good Hiiragi-chan’s singing ability was, Hiiragi-chan sounded quite good. With my level of singing I couldn’t really judge it.

That’s good, that’s good. However, with this, at worst, things will work out as long as the right song is picked.

——Ah, that’s right.

“Fuuu. How was it, Seiji-kun?”

I responded lightly with a “Uhh, yeah, it was good,” as I was picking the next song.

“Aah, you weren’t listening, were you!?”

The mic was still on so a sharp screeching sound rang out.

“I was listening, I was listening!”

“Really?”

Hiiragi-chan sat down, and since we were nice enough to have a private room without anyone else, she clung onto my arm. She placed her head on my shoulder and whispered to me, “It’s a nice cozy room ♡”

“Haruka-san, your breasts…”

“You don’t like them touching you?”

“…If I didn’t like it, I would have shook you off with my arm.”

“Seiji-kun, you pervert ♡”

Which one of us is!?

Hiiragi-chan rolled around asking to be spoiled. Her mouth formed a shape like this ω. During that time, I picked a song from the console.

“Haruka-san, do you want to try singing something like this?”

“It’s okay, but this is…?”

It has it’s risk, but if it catches on it’ll have a huge impact. If she could sing this well, then that risk will decrease. It’s quite a good idea by me.

Hiiragi-chan was fidgeting around with her cellphone when she let out a gasp of surprise.

“What’s wrong?”

“Natsumi and them are also at karaoke.”

I heard that Sana and Natsumi-chan were also going to karaoke today, but I never thought we would overlap. We even purposely chose one that was 5 stations away from our nearest train station.

However, the chances of her chasing after us after looking at the GPS is pretty high.

With Natsumi-chan’s teasing power, it’s very possible.

I decided to have Hiiragi-chan practice the song that was chosen with the scoring mode on.

During this, I decided to go spying. After asking Natsumi-chan for their room number, I secretly peeked inside.

“Why are we just singing anime songs!?”

“It’s because Sana wants to sing that so it’s fine!!”

Pukuku, they’re fighting, they’re fighting.

“Eeeeeh… but that anime is the one that kids watch, right?”

“The Lightning King, Breig is an anime that not just children, but adults can also enjoy. If you don’t watch it, then you have no right to insult it.”

What? So she’s talking about Breig.

That’s right, Natsumi-chan. If you don’t watch it, then you have no right to insult it. The opening theme is super good, and is quite the work.

“I’m not insulting it at all. Hey, are you really going to sing this for the contest?”

“Is there a problem with that?”

“That might lose to Haru-chan, you know?”

“Ugugugu… B-but Sana doesn’t know any other songs…”

“A ballad, or maybe a more heartbreaking song.”

“Breig’s song is super heartbreaking. Sana felt like she was going to cry part way through as she was watching the video. It’s such a moving scene!”

“Of course! You would be the only moved by this! I don’t care anymore!”

“Ah, you said it! Breig is amazing! I’ll make sure to give you a serious presentation about that next time!”

“Gosh, you’re already trying too hard on things that don’t matter!”

Well, leaving Breig aside, it doesn’t seem like things are going that well. I was hoping that the two of them would take this as a chance to get closer to each other.

When I returned to our room, Hiiragi-chan was busy passionately singing.

Once the song was finished, the scoring point total was revealed with a drumroll.

Don!

[94 Points!]

“Seiji-kun, look, you see!”

T-that’s amazing!?

Hiiragi-chan jumped around in pure joy.

There was no mistake in the song I chose. I feel bad for Sana, but we win with this. Gahaha!