Karaoke with a lump of meat.
Just looking at the words, you can’t help but imagine a gruesome crime scene, but in reality, we’re just going out to have fun.
Nanaka was happily swinging her bag. Walking a few steps behind her, I tilt my head, wondering “Is she really that excited about karaoke, even if it’s her first time?”
「Adashino-san.」
「Nnn.」
She uses two tentacles to swing her bag around to her back──although the lump of meat is conical in shape, it’s the side that becomes a shadow from my perspective──and looks behind.
If this were a game, a CG would probably be displayed. Probably a grotesque, bloody game. Definitely not a gal game.
「I’m getting nervous.」
「That’s why you were spinning around in front of the karaoke place for five minutes.」
「First times are scary, aren’t they?」
「They say men need courage.」
「I’m a woman.」
I feel like I’d get complaints from all sides if I acknowledged a lump of meat as a “woman”.
But since Nanaka is apparently a beautiful girl to everyone else, objectively, her statement is probably correct. Whether I can agree with it or not is another matter.
And apparently, she wasn’t happily swinging her bag, but her body was just trembling from nervousness. Probably the same reason she was spinning around.
I thought that despite appearances, the lump of meat might have cat-like habits.
「After all, I should have Adashino-san, who has experience, lead the way.」
「It’s the role of the older ones to watch over the beginners.」
「That’s generally called “abandoning”.」
Perhaps because she had been spinning around for so long, we were receiving looks from people around us as if they were observing a suspicious person. So I guided Nanaka to the wall and somehow managed to lower the level of suspicion. However, we still hadn’t entered the karaoke place.
There’s no sign of her nervousness going away. Would attaching pom-poms and saying “You can do it♡” solve the problem?
「At least let’s enter the store at the same time.」
「Does it have meaning…?」
「Great meaning.」
Apparently, it has great meaning.
I feel like it wouldn’t make a difference whether I’m next to her or behind her, but if she says so, it must be so.
We squeeze into the narrow door of the karaoke place, which is in a building near the station. I can feel the lump of meat through the uniform.
I heard the sound of the mysterious liquid attaching to me, but decided not to mind it. If I leave it alone, it’ll evaporate in a few minutes. It’s like an out-of-season sprinkling of water.
If I were to offer a criticism, it’s that it has absolutely no effect. Having liquid from a lump of meat sprinkled on my uniform doesn’t change the temperature at all, only chilling my liver.
Since she had prepared her membership card while spinning around in front of the store, entering the room was smooth. I can’t understand why it took so long to enter the store.
“Things require the most effort at the beginning”, says Nanaka.
We enter a room that’s clearly too small for more than three people.
「…Hoeh. So this is a karaoke.」
「Shall we go get some juice for now?」
「Yes.」
I take her, who seems impressed, to the drink bar.
──Light Novels──
──Read Here──
I pour some cola and ask, “What would you like?”
After a bit of hesitation, she says “…Oolong tea”, so I pour that and return to the room.
The dim room was slightly air-conditioned. Probably because of the high temperature for spring. As expected, the sprinkling of water earlier had no meaning.
I turn on the lights, pick up the remote control, and book the scoring mode, which is a staple for high school students at karaoke. Because the previous customer had set the volume to an absurd level, a sound that resonated to the core of my body rang out.
「Kyaa!?」
Nanaka, who let out a sharp cry of surprise, clings to me.
I’ve gotten used to monsters by now, so I don’t resist.
I was operating the remote control, wondering what song to enter.
「S-Sorry…」
「It’s fine. I don’t mind.」
「That hurts in its own way.」
I tilted my head at her somewhat dissatisfied look and asked, “Want to go first?” but she declined, saying, “It’s my first time, so I’ll use Adashino-san as a model”.
I’m not very familiar with popular songs since I don’t listen to them much, but will I be okay?
I sing one song while Nanaka claps along timidly.
If it were a large group, it might be fine, but when it’s just the two of us and she’s clapping along, it’s incredibly awkward.
She started turning red halfway through. She’s a lump of meat, so she’s originally red, but even more so.
「…You don’t have to force yourself to clap, you know.」
「…I see.」
As I look at the “82.934 points” displayed on the monitor, a somewhat mediocre score, I hand over the unused one of the two microphones. As I watched Nanaka, who couldn’t decide on a song while I was singing, “I’ve decided!” she said with a voice full of determination, as if about to commit seppuku, and stabbed her tentacles into the remote control.
The intro that flowed out was familiar.
Even I know this famous song.
It’s amusing to think that the singer probably never imagined their song would be sung by a lump of meat.
「───」
The voices of the monster crowd all have the characteristic of being beautiful, and it seems this applies to singing as well. There are plenty of people with good voices who are bad at singing. But Nanaka’s singing was so confident that it was hard to believe it was her first time at karaoke.
She probably likes it. While singing, an aura of “fun” radiated from her form.
「──Hah.」
「You’re good.」
「T-That’s not…」
She scratches her head──or what seems to be her head──as if to be modest, but the “98.124 points” displayed on the monitor is clearly a score that only a good singer can achieve. I sang a few more songs after that, but I still couldn’t surpass Nanaka’s score in any of them.
After enjoying ourselves for about two hours and leaving the store, she stretches fully and lets out a breath.
「That was fun.」
「Yeah.」
「I wonder if it was because I was with Adashino-san, not just because of the karaoke?」
「I don’t think so.」
I can’t think of any “something” about me that would increase her satisfaction.
It was probably just that karaoke was fun.
When I said that, Nanaka puffed out her cheeks (or so I felt).