He was still thinking that if Hiko couldn't produce the sheet music now, he would first study the completed piece.
Then, relying on experience, he would try playing it for Hiko to help him find the feeling.
But only a few minutes had passed; they had just finished looking at the sheet music and tried playing it.
And yet, the client had already written down the sheet music for all the instruments in the entire song.
What's more, he even included time annotations.
It was as if he already had the finished product and had only forgotten to bring the sheet music.
But from their earlier conversation, he knew that Hiko hadn't considered the instrument sheet music at all before this.
'Is this what a genius is?'
Miura looked at the sheet music in his hand, then at Hiko.
"Do you have any questions about the sheet music? If so, I can explain it." Hiko noticed Miura's gaze, as if something was still bothering him.
"No, no problems. The sheet music is very detailed," Miura replied simply.
The instrument sheet music was written with great precision; he felt that anyone who followed it would easily achieve the intended effect.
He didn't want to be underestimated by Hiko.
"Since there are no issues with the sheet music, how long do you need before you can start recording?" Hiko asked, testing the waters.
"Ten minutes! Let us try it once first!" Miura responded, then immediately began discussing with the other three.
The other three were spurred on as well, determined to memorize the sheet music in one go and perform directly. They quickly flipped through the pages, committing them to memory.
"What's wrong with them? They look so fired up." Hiko looked at the four-member band, puzzled.
"I don't know either." He shook his head, not understanding the reason.
The sound engineer, however, did know, but he didn't say anything.
An hour later, the initial recording of the song was complete.
Although the four-member band had shown determination to nail it in one go, they still had to redo it several times. Hiko also identified a few issues and made minor adjustments to align it with the original song.
Finally, when the fluctuations were minimal, the sound engineer said that if the differences weren't significant, he could adjust them himself, allowing the recording to finish ahead of schedule.
"Everyone, thank you for your hard work." Ichigo bowed to the four-member band to show his gratitude once the song was successfully mixed.
Seeing his uncle do this, Hiko followed suit and expressed his thanks as well.
The band members bowed in return.
Afterward, Ichigo saw the four out of the room and went to converse with them.
"Alright, the main event starts now." The sound engineer pulled up the waveform of the sheet music, preparing to make adjustments. "Listen to it once first, and tell me if you find any problems. I'll mark them down."
"Okay." Hiko got ready.
The sound engineer played the song through the speakers. Hiko pointed out problems whenever he noticed differences in tone.
Then the sound engineer had Hiko put on headphones to listen again and mark them.
Through these two cross-references, several problematic spots were found, and the sound engineer continuously debugged them until Hiko was satisfied.
Another hour passed, and the song was finally completed.
"Saito-san, fortunately, there's no human voice this time. Otherwise, just finding the right state could take several days, unlike now, where the song was completed in two hours," Taniguchi said to Hiko, relaxing after the work was done.
"Does adding vocals take that much time?" Hiko asked. He had thought recording a song would take about twenty-four hours, but this one had finished in only two.
Then he heard the sound engineer say it usually took several days.
"Yes, and several days is still very fast. Typically, recording an album takes two weeks," Taniguchi recalled.
"Oh, you were talking about an album. I thought you meant one song would take several days," Hiko realized he had misunderstood.
"Since the song is recorded, we're heading back."
Ichigo, who had been sitting and growing impatient, finally spoke up when he saw them still chatting.
Taniguchi waved them off. "Then you all go back."
"Thank you for your hard work today. Please continue to look after us in the future." Hiko expressed his gratitude before leaving.
The song was successfully acquired.
Ichigo drove Hiko home.
By the time Hiko returned, it was already past nine in the evening. Given his current condition, he should have been asleep by ten. But since he hadn't made his plans for tomorrow, he decided he still had time to write them out.
As he wrote, he also turned on his computer to research:
How to train reasonably without overdoing it.
How much training volume wouldn't exhaust a person...
Early the next morning, since it was a holiday, Hiko arrived at Ichigo-Pro's company, yawning.
Because of yesterday's agreement, the group members also showed up one after another.
By around seven o'clock, everyone had arrived.
Perhaps because it was a holiday, some of them occasionally yawned and looked drowsy.
"We should have started morning exercises even earlier, but considering the need for gradual progress, we won't go that far on the first day. From now on, the meeting time will move forward by ten minutes each day until we reach the final morning exercise time."
Once everyone had gathered, Hiko spoke energetically: "So, let's start with physical training now."
"This is the route I planned. From now on, you'll have to run one lap every time we start."
Hiko handed the simple map he had stayed up all night drawing to the five.
"This route would take forty or fifty minutes even at a slow jog, wouldn't it?" Watanabe calculated after seeing the map.
"This will be deadly!" Arisa blurted out instinctively.
"You think this much is deadly? Then maybe you should just quit. Being an Idol isn't for just anyone!"
Hiko immediately shot back at Arisa's complaint.
"I didn't say I wouldn't run!" Arisa felt targeted and shouted.
"Good. Since it's decided, let's start!" Hiko urged the five to begin.
With Arisa's earlier outburst, no one else dared complain about the unreasonable distance.
They could only lower their heads and run.
At first, Hiko wondered if he should run with them.
Instead, he rode his bicycle leisurely behind the five.
"You're running so slowly. Can't you go faster?"
After they had gone a certain distance, Hiko rode up next to Arisa and called out.
"Hoo... hoo... Bastard!" Arisa's chest heaved as she cursed at his nagging.
But speaking disrupted her rhythm, burning even more of her energy.
Ding-a-ling~
Hiko rang his bicycle bell beside her, pressing it rhythmically, as if to push her forward.
"You... why are you like this..." Arisa's running grew more difficult, and she grew increasingly irritated by the sound.
"If you don't run faster, you won't be able to see the others," Hiko reminded her kindly.
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Hiko x Ai - 56: Team
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Hiko x Ai - 95: Study Session
Hiko X Ai - 96: Strict
Hiko x Ai - 97: Bet
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