I sent a message on my phone to my band mates, who should be at the venue, and Suzuki, and called them for a meeting.
The members who saw the message gathered one by one in this unused waiting room.
I explained the situation to them and bowed my head.
âPlease, help me for Shiorin and her friendsâ sakeâŠ!â
As soon as I said that, I could hear everyone sighing.
âYou know, Shion-kun. Personia isnât supposed to be here. Me and the rest of us are going to be fine, but youâd be put under suspicion, Shion.â
âThatâs right. Since youâre from the same school as them, itâd be inevitable for people to think that you came just to watch them.â
âI donât really mind if my true identity gets exposed⊠For Shionâs sakeâŠâ
âShion, werenât you insistent on keeping your true identity hidden, no matter what? After all, you said that you didnât want to cause trouble for your family and your cute imouto.â
I raised my head at Xylemâs question.
Then, I stared back at the serious gazes of all my bandmates.
âYeah, but⊠I want to help Shiorin and her friends! I donât know if this is the right thing to do⊠But still!â
Before I could finish, Xylem started roughly patting me on the head.
âYou fool. You donât have to worry about being âwrongâ or anything.â
âWe were the ones⊠who were wrongâŠâ
âYeah. Besides, that was how you brought us to where we belong (Personia), right Shion?â
âSimilarly, you want to protect where they belong as well, right? Weâll help you. Itâs a wonderful trait of yours, Shion-kun, being unable to leave people in trouble alone.â
âYou guysâŠ! Thank you!â
I desperately fought back tears as I asked Suzuki.
âYou have our masks and costumes, right?â
âYeah, theyâre in the car outside, so I can bring them right over. I had them in there for the rehearsal later, after all.â
âBut Shion⊠your hair is all ruffled upâŠâ
âItâs okay, I have my hair wax with me. I donât know how to use it though.â
âWhoa! Youâve finally awakened to the importance of your sex appeal! Here, Iâll give you a quick grooming at that sink over there!â
Xylem then proceeded to fix my hair up in about 5 minutes.
We all put on our masks, and with that, Personia was ready to go.
We then exited the waiting room.
The staff of the venue were surprised to see us suddenly appear from the waiting room.
We simply told them, âWeâre going to perform,â and had a quick meeting with the sound and lighting staff.
Some of the stage crew had worked with us once before, so they readily believed that we were the real Personia.
All of the staff were in awe as they rushed to get ready.