The next day Akira worked hard. She had to do every dance again. She knew she would do it all wrong if she didn’t practice the dance with the exact piece of music that went with it. She worked hard, unbelievably hard.  Shinpei was happy with the effort that she was putting into it. She wanted to work hard. She actually had fun yesterday after the shock. She was thinking about being a permanent and official Takeru imitator. She always liked dancing, she liked any kind of sport too and that’s why she chose basketball in college. She still went to college, but she had vacation at the moment. Though she had called of every basketball competition, but she thought it was worth it. Her friends weren’t too pleased though, but she told them she would explain when she got back from vacation. She also had called her parents with some kind of excuse, but they didn’t really care. They were too busy with work. “Don’t slack off now!”, the teacher shouted. She had set her parents out of her mind and went on. “Good! Very good!”

Shinpei and the others were busy with their instruments. They cleaned them up, tuned them and then they went and played them. Every song in the order of the concert was rehearsed. There weren’t many problems, except for Chiyu who sometimes just stopped in the middle of a song to take a break. Then the manager would rush in, scold him, put him back on stage and left until Chiyu was playing again. The others didn’t bother. They knew this would happen, as it happened every time.

Akira came in. “Can I practice with you guys?” They were startled. “Do you think you are ready for it?”, asked Chiyu.
“Yes, I am. Go fetch the other dancers. Let’s practice.” They agreed. The other dancers were fetched and told to stay in the neighbourhood, so that they can come up when they need to. They started and everything went fine. Shinpei was amazed by Akira’s learning ability. He realized that he didn’t know much about her. She was synchronic with the others and everything. Shinpei felt proud actually, seeing her there, it was like seeing his daughter. Of course that was a weird thought. He shook his head. The manager came in and was pleased with what he was seeing. When they had finished, they all went to the showers. The band was full excitement talking about Akira. But Shinpei didn’t want to participate in this talk. He was with his thoughts somewhere else. He was thinking about not knowing much about her and if it was a good idea to go through with this. He was thinking about Takeru, who couldn’t participate in the fun. When everyone had showered and put on clean close they went outside. There the manager was waiting for them. He was happy and offered to take them to a restaurant.

“Girl, you did an awesome job.”, the manager said. “How did you manage to learn that much in such a short period of time?”
“I was always lucky in my childhood. I have everything. I am a sportswoman and I have brains. Every teacher praised me. I was an elite on my own. I am used to learning and taking in stuff in a short period of time.”
“It’s admirable.”
“I heard that a lot.”
“Actually I am curious if you are also lucky to have the vocals with you.”
“I don’t know, as I’ve never learned how to sing properly.”
“Well, let us go to friend of mine. He is a teacher in vocals. Maybe you can do that too.” Shinpei got angry and slammed his fists on the table.
“She doesn’t need to replace Takeru! She’s here until he gets better!” Shinpei left. Everyone stopped eating and placed their silverware on the table.
“I never intended to replace Takeru.”, the manager said shocked.
“I’ll talk to him.”, Yuji said.