While still heavy on the yelling and insults, Shiro has actually become something of a tough-love guitar teacher to Lily, who knows she’s not yet as good as Shiro at guitar even though Shiro’s preferred instrument is the bass. Oto is happy to see them “getting along” and also ensures Tina that she’s welcome in the band. When asked up front, Shiro also tells Tina she seems tough enough to stave off death, and Tina hits her with the Prince Isemi charm.
After grueling practice, it’s back to being a proper refined lady for Lily, who has joined the student council as a stepping stone to Noble Maiden-dom. But while she impresses with her hard work, diligence, and attention to detail, she manages to miff the Student Council President by delivering paperwork to her during afternoon tea, a big no-no that gets her precisely the wrong attention from a top Maiden contender.
A tired Lily walks the grounds, believing she’s alone, and blurts out that she wants to wail on the guitar. Those words are heard by none other than a former Noble Maiden, Takayanagi Yayoi, whose portrait hangs in the school. Yayoi knows what she heard, and Lily can’t convince her otherwise. But Yayoi also seems a lot different than the Noble Maiden Lily imagined.
For one thing, Yayoi isn’t particularly in a hurry to be on time for her appointment with the principal; instead she has Lily take her on a tour of the new school building, which didn’t exist six years ago. Lily seems heartened by the fact Yayoi also practiced her harp so long she forgot about meeting up with her parents, and that neglecting what she desires in the current moment comes before keeping to schedules.
Even so, the principal who helped make her Noble Maiden praises Yayoi for the life she’s led since graduation, and urges Lily to heed her example of “sacrifice and service” to both family and school—even if she is a bit odd. But when Lily asks what Yayoi did to become Noble Maiden, a large factor seemed to be that she contributed half of the funding of the new school building.
Lily’s impression of Yayoi goes from bad to worse when Yayoi admits she quit the harp because her parents told her to, and promises Lily she won’t tell anyone about her electric guitar playing….because she’s just doing it for fun. Before leaving, as dark rain clouds gather, she urges Lily to enjoy her fun…in moderation.
This enrages Lily, and sends her racing to the practice room in the old school building. Otoha is already there playing but Lily doesn’t even acknowledge her existence: she’s long overdue for wailing on her guitar. She doesn’t play just for fun, and she certainly can’t just play in moderation. Guitar is everything to her. If she quit, she wouldn’t be Lily anymore.
Oto seems to realize this isn’t the time to join in, and lets Lily wail away, which reminds Oto of a quote from The Who’s Pete Townshend: “Rock n’ Roll might not solve your problems, or even let you run away from [them]. But it does let you dance all over them.” And dance Lily does.
It looks like she’ll get a chance to dance on a real concert venue stage once more, as Shiro gets a call from MIXHALL’s owner. Their ragtag band may not have gotten any applause in their band battle with Ganache, but they are big on the venue’s socials, and their next performance is greatly anticipated.
With that in mind, the owner asks if they’d be willing to play again. At the same time, we’re introduced to another band chasing that social media fame…a band of freakin’ guys. My assumption is that Lily, Oto, Shiro and Tina will be opening for them, but we’ll see where this goes. Oh yeah, and Arisu now knows about this venue, so it’s highly likely she’ll be there to watch her sister rock out.
