Target Audience: Junior High School Students
Theme: Challenging a New World, Searching for the Lost Sound, Taking a New Step. Courage and Harmony.
Goal: The song performed by Mi-yo and Kakeru’s band, “Lara Mikel,” brings happiness not only to truant children but to people all over the world, much like Kyu Sakamoto’s “Ue o Muite Arukō (Sukiyaki)”.
Current Status of Characters
Miyoko Sakuma, studying composition, is 19 this year. Kakeru calls her “Mi-yo Nee-chan” (Big Sister Mi-yo).
Kakeru, Miyoko’s younger brother, is usually called “Kakeru-kun.” He’s in the second year of junior high this year. His difficult voice change is finally over, and the period when he didn’t want to go to school has passed, allowing him to enjoy happy days. He’s joined the chorus club for after-school activities and is able to spend joyful days with his friends.
The Story Begins Here
One day in April, Miyoko was walking along a row of cherry trees. It was her walk home from music school. Passersby seemed to be looking up at the cherry blossoms, and no one paid any attention to Miyoko.
However, a voice called out from behind, “Mi-yo Nee-chan!”
“Kakeru-kun, isn’t it? What are you doing out at this hour?” Miyoko suddenly turned into the concerned “Mi-yo Nee-chan” and worried about Kakeru.
“Mi-yo Nee-chan, I called your name so many times!”
It was then that Kakeru noticed tear tracks on his big sister’s smiling face.
“Mi-yo Nee-chan, did something happen?”
She silently shook her head in response to Kakeru’s question.
“I’m going to my part-time job. Please take care of Lara and the others.”
A right turn at the corner led to Mi-yo Nee-chan’s convenience store job, and a left turn led to the rickety apartment where Kakeru and his sister lived, and where Lara the rabbit waited.
Kakeru vibrated his throat, which had finally finished its voice change, and softly hummed. ‘What a nice voice,’ he was struck by his own sound. For half a year, no, over a year, his voice had been awful. He hadn’t wanted to talk to people. It might have been one of the reasons he refused to go to school. Now, he could recall those days and give a little chuckle to himself.
Still, why had Mi-yo Nee-chan been crying?
Thinking such thoughts, he arrived home. As soon as he entered the entryway, Lara rubbed herself around his feet.
But that wasn’t all.
Around Lara, there were Emma, Lila, Bibi, and Mofumofu—the quartet, the four members, or rather, the four animals, no, the four bunnies—whatever the right way to refer to them, they were hopping and jumping around.
They were a “souvenir” from a time Mi-yo Nee-chan had taken Lara to a rabbit club gathering. Strangely, the ones who resembled Lara were Mofumofu and Bibi. Emma and Lila had flat noses and droopy ears. Lila, in particular, had a very flat nose. When Kakeru saw her, he tried to name her “Gorilla.” Mi-yo Nee-chan strongly objected, even saying the flat nose was cute.
“Well, then, how about taking the ‘Go’ out of Gorilla and making it Lila?”
His suggestion was accepted easily, and the name Lila was decided. No one would ever suspect the name was “Gorilla” minus the “Go.”
With one thing and another, their lively home became even more dilapidated. Thanks to the disrepair, the landlord didn’t complain about anything. At any other apartment, they would have been evicted long ago with all those animals!
The old man next door would sometimes drop by and play with the “usako” (rabbit kids), saying things like, “I’ll make some delicious rabbit soup out of them someday.”
Once the “usako’s” meal was done, Kakeru suddenly became concerned about Mi-yo Nee-chan’s tears again. For someone as energetic and strong as her to cry, it must have been something really painful. When he asked Lara, she just ignored him, observing the children from a distance. Lara maintained a perfect sense of distance while watching over her young. “I see,” Kakeru thought.
Lara was wrapping the children in great love. Despite being a first-time mother, she was completely unfazed. Maybe the bunny gene included a parenting manual.
While all this commotion was going on, Mi-yo Nee-chan returned home. She spread the leftovers from the convenience store that the manager had given her onto the table.
As the two of them were eating heartily, Lara and her children, the “Hoppity Quartet,” were jumping around the table.
“What happened? Did your boyfriend dump you?” Kakeru asked jokingly before taking a bite of his second rice ball.
“I don’t even have a boyfriend!” she shot back, twitching her nose just like Lara.
“Then tell me what happened! You don’t keep secrets from your one and only little brother, do you?”
Reluctantly, Mi-yo Nee-chan began to tell Kakeru.
“The truth is, I submitted the song for the composition contest to the professor, and the results came back. The grade itself wasn’t bad, but the critique said, ‘It’s somehow unsatisfying. Your music is lacking something. It’s cool, or maybe flat, and it simply doesn’t move my heart.'”
After hearing the story, Kakeru said, “Maybe your professor needs more exercise.” Even though he cracked a joke to try and make her laugh, Mi-yo Nee-chan just waved the fork she was holding and didn’t smile at all.
That day ended just like that.
The next day, halfway to school, a thought suddenly struck Kakeru. He hadn’t just played games during the year he refused to go to school. In the thin light of the closet, he had written down words that came to mind.
I am all alone in this world.
What lies beyond the silence?
Who will reach out a hand
to me, struggling in this world?
To me, like this,
to me, with nothing,
I want to disappear…
But a voice called out to me.
Kakeru-kun,
Life is just beginning.
Kakeru-kun,
Let’s walk together.
He remembered. The voice belonged to Mi-yo Nee-chan, and the silent voice in Lara’s heart.
That evening, Kakeru offered the notebook to Mi-yo Nee-chan. The notebook was filled with many poems, or just rambling words that may or may not be called poems.
Mi-yo Nee-chan silently accepted it.
The next day, many sheets of music paper were spread out on the table, and a chaotic stream of tadpole-like notes flowed across them. “Kakeru, I’m sorry, I stayed up all night, so don’t wake me.”
From that day on, Mi-yo Nee-chan’s composition work truly began. She wrote notes while humming. Listening to her humming, Rabbit Lara would twitch her nose or make strange chirping noises. Even her children were jumping around. Lara and her family, who were particular about sound, disliked any slightly unpleasant noise. Of course, Kakeru couldn’t tell the difference.
A few days later, Mi-yo Nee-chan changed her clothes and left for school. “Today is the final deadline. Time to submit the song I poured my soul into!” She raised her right hand to Kakeru and the Lara family at the entrance and set off, saying, “Aye, aye, oh!”
A month passed, and the only one feeling anxious was Kakeru. Mi-yo Nee-chan just went back and forth between school and her part-time job as usual. The Lara family was also hopping around as usual.
On the day of the results announcement, Mi-yo Nee-chan left just as she always did. However, she soon came running back at an incredible speed—to Kakeru’s school.
“Grand Prize!“
“She won the Grand Prize!“
Her voice, loud enough to be heard a hundred meters away, was screaming from the schoolyard. Kakeru recognized her voice and, embarrassed, approached the window to tell her to stop. But then, to his shock, even the principal was leaning out of the staff room window, shouting, “Congratulations!”
He was utterly flabbergasted.
Spurred by the noise, windows all over the building opened, and a chorus of “Congratulations!” erupted. Mi-yo Nee-chan was that popular!
From that day on, Kakeru received special singing training from Mi-yo Nee-chan. Honestly, the Lara & Quartet—as he decided to call them from now on—were stricter than Mi-yo Nee-chan. If he was even slightly off-key, they would start hopping around him. If he successfully finished a song, they would do figure-eight jumps.
A chance came to show off the results of their practice. They were invited as guests to the school’s Cultural Festival. After that, things got busy. They were invited to cultural festivals, regular festivals, and even company ceremonies all over the place.
The members of the Lara & Quartet always accompanied them. They wouldn’t overlook even a small mistake. They’d come right onto the stage and start hopping around. The audience loved it. Any mistake was instantly forgotten.
A year flew by in all that commotion. Thanks to the strict sound guardians, Mi-yo Nee-chan became aware of the sound that had been missing. She was able to create profoundly warm songs that permeated everyone’s hearts, and Kakeru was able to sing effortlessly.
School was a good place after all. When Mi-yo Nee-chan won the Grand Prize in the composition division, the whole school rejoiced.
Life is good.
Friends are good.
Working hard for what you love is good.
Kakeru thought this while looking at Mi-yo Nee-chan.
And of course, the members of the Lara & Quartet must have thought so too. After all, they were hopping and jumping all around him.
The End