She adjusted her bass case on her shoulder and began the walk home, her footsteps falling perfectly in time with the rain.

The girl beamed. "Yes!"

She shouldn't. She was tired. She wanted to go home and drink hot tea.

The rain in Yokohama fell with a persistent, drumming rhythm, turning the city lights into smearing watercolors against the glass. Inside the cramped rehearsal space, the air smelled of rosin, old wood, and the faint, metallic tang of sweat.

"Too much treble," she murmured, her voice barely a whisper. Her fingers moved on the neck of the bass, not playing a song, but dampening a string. Thump. A dull, heavy sound. "The foundation needs to be invisible."