What neither of the two girls expected was that, while they were busy arguing, Tomori had actually run away.
"Tomori!"
Seeing this, Taki wanted to chase after her, but Anon directly grabbed her arm with a no-cooldown hard crowd control.
As a result, she could only watch Tomori's figure disappear farther and farther into the distance.
"You… what are you trying to do?"
Taki's attitude had already been bad to begin with, and now her face went completely dark.
"Tomori is my friend."
"Your friend?"
Taki flung Anon's hand away, and the two of them—unsurprisingly—started arguing.
"Are you sick or what?!"
In the end, after finding out that Anon wanted to pull Tomori into forming a band together, Taki gave her verdict.
"Anon: 'Huh?!'"
Finally, the camera cut to Tomori's lonely figure all by herself, and the first episode came to an end.
"What are 'normal' and 'only natural,' anyway?"
"I'm holding a ruler in my hand yet I can't measure it at all"
As the ED song began to play, the girls all showed slightly forlorn expressions.
That's it… it's over?
And aside from them, quite a few people were feeling about the same right now.
"So this is a newly released band anime? Interesting."
"The band already disbanded in the first episode—how's the story going to develop after this? I'm really looking forward to it…"
"After K-On!, there's finally another band anime that's actually watchable…"
"It ended already? If there's no next episode soon I'm going to die."
"So this is what bands are like? Why does it feel kind of scary…"
A certain pink-haired girl who had always admired bands was trembling after finishing the first episode.
Although there had been no prior promotion or advertising, it was, after all, broadcast in the prime-time slot on Fuji TV.
This was one of the country's five major television networks, with a massive viewer base.
In Kamijou Mutsuki's previous life, MyGO!!!!! had never received treatment this good.
What's more, the environment of this world was completely different from his previous one.
Perhaps because there were relatively many people who actually played in bands in real life, band anime in this world were, on the contrary, mostly not very good.
Compared to the fierce competition and chaos of gods and demons in Kamijou Mutsuki's past life, this world only had a single band anime worth mentioning—K-On!.
Thus, with the right timing, the right place, and the right people all aligned, MyGO!!!!!, which already had solid strength to begin with, generated enormous popularity after just its first episode.
Many people, after finishing the first episode, couldn't help but recommend this special band anime to their friends.
And MyGO!!!!!'s sudden popularity also made some acquaintances of the girls learn about this anime, leaving them all shocked.
Why do the characters in this new show look so familiar?
Aren't they their classmates (friends)?
As for all that, the girls themselves naturally had no way of knowing yet.
After finishing the episode, they all started questioning the true culprit.
[Taki: What exactly is this anime? Why do you know our situation so clearly?]
[Anon: This is literally what happened in our real lives, isn't it? You actually turned it into an anime… isn't this an infringement of our portrait rights and privacy?]
[Stray Cat: Interesting anime.]
Looking at the messages sent by the girls on his phone, Kamijou Mutsuki was clearly not surprised at all.
[Capitalist: I know you're in a hurry, but don't rush.]
[Capitalist: I'll answer one by one.]
[Capitalist: First, Anon-chan's question. Don't worry—this anime is a story about band girls, and it won't involve real personal privacy.]
[Capitalist: Also, all of this is actually written in the contract. The portrait fees will be transferred to you later.]
Contract?
What contract?
After Kamijou Mutsuki said that, Anon finally remembered that she seemed to have signed a contract with him.
As for the contents of that contract…
All that could be said was: even skimming it a little would've been better than not reading it at all.
[Anon: The contract even included stuff like this?]
[Capitalist: You didn't read it carefully—are you blaming me for that?]
[Anon: That was trust! Can you really say you didn't let us down?]
Feeling a bit guilty, Miss Anon chose to strike first and flip the accusation around.
[Capitalist: That's enough already.]
Kamijou Mutsuki hadn't tricked them in the contract at all—in fact, the terms were far above industry standards.
[Anon: You…]
Anon puffed up her cheeks angrily, looking like an inflated pufferfish—extremely cute.
[Capitalist: As for Taki-chan's question… all I can say is that I learned it from watching MyGO!!!!!.]
Kamijou Mutsuki never lied.
[Anon: Huh? What are you even talking about?]
Anon clearly couldn't understand his answer, feeling that it didn't address the question at all and was downright baffling.
[Taki: Let's put this man aside for now. We should talk about your problem first, Chihaya Anon.]
Watching the exchange between the two, Taki—who should've been on Anon's side—suddenly turned her guns on her instead.
[Anon: Me? What's there to talk about with me?]
Anon hadn't expected this betrayal from a teammate, though what she felt even more strongly was guilt.
[Taki: At this point, you're not seriously thinking of bluffing your way through this, are you?]
[Anon: Bluffing what?]
Anon still tried to struggle uselessly.
[Taki: You never planned on seriously forming a band in the first place, did you?]
[Taki: And I don't know what happened yesterday, but your guitar playing is obviously not proficient at all.]
[Taki: You invited Tomori just because her reputation would make you look better, right?]
[Taki: What do you even think a band is?]
A place you're prepared to devote your whole life to, damn it!
At this moment, Anon was like the trash boss who had taken a full course of Sun Breathing from Yoriichi Tsugikuni—even though she knew the correct answer, she was still left completely speechless.
[Anon: It's not like that.]
After a long silence, that was all Miss Anon could say.
[Taki: So you're saying the anime is all fake now? That's not what you said before.]
Anon was completely at a loss for words. Taki's attitude might have been bad, but everything she said was true.
[Taki: If you just wanted to mess around, wouldn't it have been fine to find some random band?]
[Capitalist: Taki-chan, that's enough.]
[Tomori: Taki, stop.]
Seeing that if Taki kept going she really would drive Anon out of the band, Kamijou Mutsuki and Tomori spoke up almost at the same time.
[Anon: Tomori, you don't have to speak up for me. She's right.]
However, while things quieted down on Taki's side, the pressure on Anon's side made her completely snap.
[Anon: Everyone was playing in bands, and I was afraid of being left out, so I wanted to play in one too.]
[Anon: I'm not even good at guitar at all—I've only barely learned the basics. Yesterday was because of special circumstances.]
[Anon: Inviting Tomori was just because of my vanity. Maybe I wasn't suited for this band from the start.]
The conflict that was originally meant to erupt in episode five was detonated early because of the anime.
At this point, Anon was completely done caring—whatever happens, happens.
....................