As soon as the doors opened, it was clear that Mitakihara had been waiting for The Smile’s grand opening. Months of curfew, followed by a lockdown that had turned going out after dark little more than attempted suicide, had left such an impact on the city’s youth that any place peddling affordable beer and loud music at this point could have been inundated with students starved for a place to call theirs. 

Yet The Smile is more than that. Hundreds of people have made its existence a possibility, either by pouring their meager savings into the project, helping out with the ambitious refurnishing, or simply advertising on campus. The result can be called a venue for live music in the same way a computer can be called a calculator. It has cosy chairs and couches, pool tables, arcade machines and a bar stocked with just about anything you could reasonably flush down your throat and survive, and even the bathroom walls are decorated with vibrant street art. During the day, The Smile is the city’s youth’s beating heart, a defiant phoenix risen from the ashes of its collective trauma.

But at night, this place is Alice’s. The speakers were baptized in the sound of her guitar. She was the first to see the blinding spotlights pointed straight at her face. She had given this place everything she had, and tonight, the time had come for it to pay its dues.

Tonight, her band played the best gig they’d ever played.

They weren’t the headliners, of course not. She had been asked to curate an unforgettable opening night, and had miraculously managed to book a band with actual records to its name, actual up-and-comers who’d managed to get some of their singles on the radio, had caught the attention of people who didn’t go to the same school as them, and were even in talks to provide the theme song for some television series or anime or phone game scheduled to be released next year. But none of that mattered.

Their band didn’t even have a name. The flyers billed them as a “surprise opening act”, even though everyone with a half functioning brain knew this venue wouldn’t open its doors without the two of them on stage. Yet they couldn’t call themselves what they used to call themselves. Half of that band wasn’t in the band anymore, and besides, Alice had decided that the old name was embarrassing now, as were all of the many suggestions for new names Yui had put forward. But none of that mattered.

They could tell the audience were there to see their hometown heroes return to the stage; the lack of a name — or, up until three days ago, a drummer — be damned. Alice and Yui had been skeptical of Kiyoshi Tanemura when he showed up to their auditions, a hastily extinguished cigarette butt still between his lips. He was older than the both of them, looked like he slept under a bridge, claimed to have a job but couldn’t really explain what it was and his favourite song of theirs was, in his own words, “the one with the guitar solo”. Perhaps most worryingly, he had, once upon a time, before everything went to shit, been Shiori’s drummer, and neither Yui nor Alice were comfortable mirroring any of the decisions Shiori has made in her short but tumultuous life.

But there was a purpose and eagerness in Kiyoshi’s eyes that was impossible to deny. He hadn’t been there to be the band’s backbone, he wanted to be its legs, propelling it to all new heights. He was an animal behind the kit, pounding his skins with a ferocity and intensity that would make his usual demeanor look like a front if people didn’t know better. 

Tonight, Kiyoshi Tanemura showed them what their future looked like. Nothing else mattered, especially not the bands that played after them. They left as soon as they’d taken their bows, probably needing to go to bed early so they could get up to meet with label executives the next morning. At this point Alice doesn’t even envy them. She and her bandmates are the ones being welcomed like royals. From a table all to themselves at the back of the venue, they get to experience the fruits of their labour as one acquaintance after another comes to offer their congratulations.

Midori: (barely able to contain her excitement, she has finally made her way to the band’s table, hugging Alice from behind) We did it, you guys! I mean, you did it, but we also kind of did it, didn’t we?

Alice: W-Well, we certainly did our best, yeah… I’m glad we finally get to see what the city thinks of it.

Midori: Did your—That was one of the best performances I’ve ever seen!

Alice: For now. I dunno, just me on the guitar doesn’t sit right with me, especially not with these rabble rousers on the rhythm section. (she tilts her head in the direction of Yui and Kiyoshi) Plus, I’d like a backing vocalist.

Midori: You do know false modesty is really off-putting, right, babycakes? Here— (she holds out a bottle) Have a beer.

Alice: (she shakes her head) N-No, thank you… I should keep an eye on the glucose, if that’s okay—

Midori: Party pooper!

Yui: (Yui sort of sidles in along the noise towards the table with Alice and Midori) Holy fuck, babe! Can you hear anything aside from this crowd?

Alice: (she points at her ears) Earplugs. I asked if I should order some for you, too, remember?

Yui: Nah, I still don’t need ‘em. This energy is way too intoxicating even without the cheap beer!

Midori: Just so you know, the beer’s only 40% off because it’s opening night, Yui.

Alice: (she scoffs) Now who’s the party pooper?

Kiyoshi: (a tall scrawny young man in a plain black T-shirt drenched in sweat joins them, still holding a pair drumsticks as he plops down in the seat next to Yui’s, and mumbles) Someone’s gotta say it.

Midori: Well look what the cat dragged back in! How’d that job outta town work out for you?

Kiyoshi: Maybe I’ll tell ya when I’ve got some more beer in me. (he takes the beer Midori offered Alice off the table) I can have this, right, chief?

Alice: Be my guest.

Midori: Seriously, though… What has you back in town all of a sudden. I thought you vanished off of the face of the planet.

Kiyoshi: Give it a couple of hours and I will. (he takes a good swig of his beer)

Yui: …Stealing that one, fuck.

Midori: Tsh. Fine. Keep dodging the questions, why don’t you—

A sudden thud cuts through the conversation, followed by some yelping and a commotion around the bar area. As if on instinct, Alice’s attention immediately turns to the incident, as she jumps out of her seat.

Yui: …What the fuck?

Alice: What was that? What’s going on?

Midori: (she gets up as well, leading over Alice to get a good look at what is happening) Chill out…! Someone probably dropped a glass or whatever. I’m sure Tada’s got it under control!

However, the commotion doesn’t seem to die down. Instead, more and more people begin to gather around the scene, some of them raising their voices in a panic.

Alice: God damnit. I’m gonna go check.

Midori: It’s probably nothing, Alice—We’ve got tons of staff behind the bar to deal with it.

Alice: No. This ain’t happening. Not today. (she raises her voice) Hey! Cut the music!

Midori: Alice! Come on, man!

Yui: Nah, I’m with Alice. This seems serious.

Despite Midori’s protests, Alice makes her way through the crowd, eventually reaching the centre of their attention — a young woman is lying on the floor, motionless as the audience gawks at her, unconscious. She is white as a sheet and her short, platinum hair lies sprawled out on the ground around her head, like a halo.

Alice: No way…

A quick glance at the unconscious body reveals she is holding a seemingly inconspicuous cup, though its contents have predictably been spilled all over.

Alice: Goddamn… (she turns to the crowd as someone finally manages to turn off the music) Don’t just stand there! Call an ambulance!

Yui: (Her eyes remain locked on the cup) Oh hell no…

As if snapping out of a trance, several of the onlookers produce their phones and head outside, trying to make sure their phones have proper coverage as they call emergency services.

Alice: Hey— (she slaps the unconscious person’s cheek a few times, not too forcefully) Hey, can you hear me? Are you okay?

Midori: (making her way through the crowd as well, she hunkers down next to Alice and the woman) Oh shit… Oh, no way, you—

Alice: She’s still breathing. Help me roll her over on her back. (without hesitation, Midori complies, and the two manage to position the woman on her back) Now, lift her legs, prop them up about a dozen inches. Yui? (as Midori does as she is instructed, Yui arrives as well, followed by Kiyoshi; and Alice turns to them) I think she’s been drugged. Think you can find the fucker who did this? Gonna guess he ran off just now. I’ll… go with her when the ambulance gets here.

Yui: Motherfucker better hope the cops get to him ‘fore I do… (She cracks her knuckles, promptly vanishing into the crowd)

Alice: Thanks. (she clutches the unconscious woman’s hand)

Kiyoshi: (he hunkers down on the other side of the woman) Should we carry her out? Fresh air might do her good.

Alice: Probably a good idea. Thanks, Kiyoshi.

Kiyoshi: Don’t mention it.