Hey there been awhile everyone. No intro again reason for sudden return and why I haven't been uploading down below.

Chapter 10: One Step Closer

Takuto's POV:

A negative outcome huh? What Eli said earlier really bothered me. I was in the courtyard beside a tree sitting in the grass. "I can't exactly disagree with her mentally, but she didn't have to be so harsh about it. I mean the girls have been working really hard, especially Honoka." I said aloud to myself.

"Having some trouble there?" A familiar voice asked.

"Hey Nozomi." I greeted my senpai. "Something like that. I know the girls and I have been working hard. But we don't exactly know what we're doing; writing music from high school level poems, doing some basic chorography, hell we don't even have a proper image or name yet and don't get me started on the fact we don't actually have a song done yet. Eli saying this could be more bad than good just hammered in home that we aren't prepared for this."

"Hmm well…" She started. "You know what they say in order to fix a problem you must admit to there being one. You got the first half done, but how are you going to fix it?"

"You know that's not really helping my situation right?" I asked her raising an eyebrow.

"Well from what you just said 2 of your problems aren't really problems just things you want to improve. Regarding your name and image that can come later since it shouldn't be that hard to come up with ideas. However your problem with the song is the true issue." She pointed out. I was just about to speak up when she raised her hand to stop me and continued. "Have you done anything to fix that issue?"

"Well Honoka tried to ask Maki to help us, but she completely turned us down." I told her.

"Have you asked her?" She asked.

"I just said we did." I said getting slightly annoyed.

"No, you said Honoka asked her. I asked did you ask her." She said pointing at me.

"Why would it matter if I asked her?" I asked confused.

She turned around and started to walk off. Before she got too far she slightly turned her head and said, "Let's just say if you asked her, and tried persuading her she might say yes." Then she continued to walk off back into the school.

"I have no idea what that was." I said placing my head into my hands. That girl always seems to be nearby when either I or the girls are having trouble. Wait has she been watching over us this whole time? I leaned back and looked towards the sky. I saw a small bird flying overhead; it was getting pushed back slightly from the strong winds. No matter how hard the winds blew it just kept pushing forward. Just then a memory popped up in my mind.

Flashback Start:

A younger me was sitting in my room watching tv. Dad was sitting in the chair beside my bed. He and I were watching a nature program about birds. It showed the daily lives of several different species; ranging from eagles all the way to penguins.

"Hey dad?" I called out.

"What is it kiddo?" He responded with a smile.

"How can those birds live like that?" I asked him.

"You mean how can they live in those harsh environments?" He said knowing exactly what I meant. I nodded to confirm his guess. "Well they learned to adapt to their environment."

"Learned to adapt?" I asked.

"Yep. They were able to find a way to move forward and live." He stated with a know-it-all grin. "However, it's not just that. They also needed the will to do so. They wanted to live and move forward, so they muster the strength to do so. Kinda like how you wanted to be friends with the girls."

"More like Honoka wouldn't stop bothering me till I played with her." I said with a sigh.

"And yet you still kept going back to that park, played with her, Umi, and Kotori; and always came home with a smile on your face." He teased.

"Dad!" I pouted.

"Relax son." He said patting my head. "Takuto don't ever change."

Flashback End

As I opened my eyes I couldn't help but smile. "Been gone for over a year now, and you're still helping me grow as a person." I said as I got up and dust the grass from my legs. "Thanks dad" was the last thing I said before making my way back to the school. I went back to class and saw that girls were chatting in the corner.

"Hey guys. What's up?" I asked walking over to them.

Honoka jumped up from her seat and rushed over with a huge smile on her face. "Hey Taku, guess what?!"

I back step a bit, afraid that she might slam into me. After I composed myself I gave her a response. "Uh what's got you so happy?"

She just giggled and shoved a small piece of paper in my face. "Look my plan worked we got a name."

I slowly backed up to get a better look at the name. "Muse?" I asked.

"Wow! You understood what it said on the first try!" Honoka said like me reading a word was impossible.

"Well yeah I can read ya' know." I said slightly annoyed. "So is this what you girls are gonna call yourselves?"

"Not like we had any other submissions." Umi said with a sigh.

"Well I think it's perfect." Kotori said in her always positive tone.

"Alright then. From now on this group will be known as muse." I said with a slight chuckle. I then remember what both Eli and Nozomi said. "We now have a name we just need one more member to make this official."

"That's right I nearly forgot!" Honoka said slapping her forehead.

"Of course you did." I teased.

"Hey!" She pouted.

"Relax I'm just messing around; and I think I can solve both our member and song problems." I told them.

That got their attention. "How?" they said in unison.

"Maki." I said.

"But she said she didn't want anything to do with this." Kotori reminded me.

"Don't worry I got this and we are also out of options if we still want to do this." I reminded them.

"Ok then let's get to it." Honoka said ready to make a beeline for the door.

"Hold it!" I told her. She looked back at me confused. "I said I got this. If we all go she will just feel uncomfortable again. So instead I'll be the one to talk to her alone."

Honoka was slightly reluctant to let me do this, but shook her and gave me a reassuring smile. Kotori and Umi also gave their approval. With that I started to make my way to the music with one massive thought on my mind. I hope Nozomi was right about me.

Hey everyone! It's been like forever since I last uploaded, over a year to be exact. The short summary is this: I have another new job, I'm back in college going for cyber and network security(basically a good kind of hacker), and best of all I got a new laptop which is what I'm using now. The whole time I've been gone has been hectic but I can say I'm somewhat back and will be uploading hopefully more often now. Sorry for this incredibly long awaited return to those who actually like this story. Also I know this seems a bit half-assed but I hate paragraph updates I wanted to give you guys some content plus I had this chapter semi done for a while now so I thought might as well upload it.

So as always thanks to those who enjoy and like this story; and hopefully that continues. I'm Azure and I'll see you all later.