Nezumi and Hatsuharu's wife and children had prepared the park pavilion for the concert. It was an exceedingly rare occurrence for Nezumi to venture out. 

Despite the fact that he designed the electronic setup Mirage used, and maintained their website, Hikaru had only met him three times before. Rin liked to joke that he was a vampire. Ryuske refuted that on the basis that vampires had to touch other people in order to feed, and Nezumi hated touching other people.

Hikaru also had no idea what Nezumi's real name might be. Though she suspected Ryuske must know in order to pay him, she never asked. She felt that his obvious wish for privacy ought to be respected.

Ryuske exchanged his keyboard for the violin, slid his headset on and jumped up on the impromptu stage as Hikaru, Rin, and Hatsuharu finished connecting to Nezumi's setup.

He called out to the surprisingly large crowd already gathered, "Welcome to the third annual Mirage in the park!"

The crowd cheered and Ryuske began to play. Hikaru was the lead in this song, so she released Kiri's hand and joined Ryuske on the stage, leaving Rin to carry up the keyboard and his bass.

Miri waved Kiri over to sit beside her in a small picketed section off to one side. Risa and Shizuoka were seated with her and scooted over to make room. She bounced excitedly when Hikaru began to sing. Kiri grinned at her and leaned close to ask, "Fan number 1, you came alone?" Miri laughed and answered, "I came really early, but Izumi said he'd come after work."

Kiri caught sight of fan number 67 in the growing crowd before the pavilion Mirage was using as a stage and wondered how many of the audience were part of the online fanclub.

Nezumi had a new trick for this concert, part of why he'd agreed to come out. He'd rigged a tracking setup between the portable stage lights and their headsets. One stage light followed each of them about as they moved whenever they were onstage.

After a few songs, Ryuske asked quietly over the internal line if the lights could be modified to return to neutral positions between songs. 

Nezumi replied, "Yes, but not immediately," he explained that he'd have to modify the programming to detect idle time on the instrument outputs or they'd have to manually switch tracking on and off somehow.

They usually rotated lead singers and instruments used so that they needed less breaks, but an hour into the performance, they took ten. The people they'd hired to cover security were concerned by the growing crowd. When they'd purchased the park performance permits they'd had to estimate their expected audience size and the crowd was already nearly double that. However the audience were polite and for the most part were following the aisle guidelines marked in chalk on the grass. 

When they regrouped on stage after a brief consultation, Ryuske asked the growing crowd to remember to keep the imaginary aisles free. People laughed and shuffled around cooperatively. Then he asked, "Would you all rather see Mirage's competition entry next or hear something new?"

There were so many calls for both that the members of Mirage laughed and Ryuske said, "OK, you want it all, we get it, so, we'll do both. We'll start with a song so new, not even the other three members of Mirage have heard it!"

Hikaru asked over the internal line, "What? How can we play a song we haven't heard?"

Rin laughed and answered over the boosted mic, "Now we improvise?"

Ryuske nodded and said over the internal, "Hatsuharu, when I signal the end of the chorus, just give me a steady 4/4 for the rest of the song. Hikaru and Rin, I'll sing the chorus then a verse, so you can join in when you're ready. I'll wave like this when the chorus ends and when it kicks in again." At their nods he turned and began the song.

He sang the first round of the chorus unaccompanied and though he stood poised at the keyboard, didn't play the instrument, "I'll give you half of my heart, I'll give you half of my soul, so don't go!"

He signaled the end of the chorus and Hatsuharu picked up the beat as Ryuske began to play on the keyboard and sang the first verse. "Whenever you are standing here beside me, that is when the music flows. I was frozen in time until I found you, just standing breathless in one place."

When he began the chorus again Hikaru joined in on vocals and Rin on his bass. Together they sang, "I'll give you half of my heart, I'll give you half of my soul, so don't go!"

Ryuske grinned at them and repeated the chorus before going on to the next verse, but instead he modified the lines and cried, "Oh god I love you so!"

When he finished that verse and repeated the first version of the chorus, Hikaru and Rin echoed the don't go quietly as he began the next verse. "Sometimes I want to wrap my arms around you, and just hold you in one place, but if I'm keeping you held captive, how can I look you in the face?"

They were all ready for the final chorus when it came, and all of Mirage sang once more, "I'll give you half of my heart, I'll give you half of my soul, so don't go!"

When they fell silent, the silence echoed across the crowd for a moment before excited cheering burst out. Without giving it a chance to die off, Mirage duplicated their competition entry performance and then they followed that up with the other two songs they'd practiced before learning they'd pulled the opening slot.

Then they ran through one of their usual sets, a comfortable line up where they swapped leads every other song.

They finished their third annual concert in the park with their title song Mirage.

They led in turns and joined in on harmonies, "The bright light lies, but it always tells the truth. It leaves me drowning in the desert, chasing islands across the sea."

They cried, "The bright light lies, it's always shining in my eyes! It shows you standing here before me, laughing into my eyes."

And softer again, "And if I never try to touch you, if I don't reach out my hand, you'll keep walking here beside me, across the burning sand!"

They cried, "The bright light lies! It leaves me drowning in the sand, chasing islands across the ocean, and never reaching land!"

Then they sang the last part gently, "The bright light lies, but it only shows the truth. The best mirage, is you."

Mirage called out in chorus, "Thank you all for coming!" Then Rin gently chided their audience to carry out their trash and disperse in a polite orderly fashion. He also reminded them of Mirage's website and online fanclub.

Mirage's third annual concert in the park, the first of which had started their public performances together, ended with nearly two thousand attendees, and was remarkably incident free.

When Hikaru stepped down from the pavilion into Kiri's embrace, she was surprised to see Izumi standing with her mother. She wasn't surprised at the string of grumbles that emitted from him.

Ryuske and Rin both hugged Miri, then Ryuske told Izumi sharply, "Yes, we did get proper permits, yes we did hire people for security," he waved toward the small handful of people walking around in "staff" T-shirts and finished, "and yes, there were three times as many attendees as we expected, but everyone behaved excellently."

Alex called over the internal line, "We've got a line up here who want autographs and after concert greetings."

Mirage quickly assembled at the head of the organized queue. Fan number 67 was one of them and she shook with nervousness but boldly asked Rin on a date. Rin laughed and accepted easily.

The unexpected signing session took about forty-five minutes and when they finished, they found that Hatsuharu's family, with Risa and Shizuoka, had them all packed up already. Nezumi had made his escape from the dread outdoors filled with people, and their small security staff, with Kiri, Miri, and most surprisingly Izumi, had doubled as clean up crew, so Mirage was ready to go.

Kiri picked Hikaru up and spun with her for a moment. "You were amazing," he said with a grin. She kissed him and grinned back, then looked around.

Hatsuharu was the one who asked, "Should we go out for food to celebrate our success?"

So they did. Hatsuharu's family and Hikaru's friends and family joined them, and Kiri never let go of Hikaru. Ryuske watched them, but said nothing. In the middle of eating, Rin got a call from a friend who'd also been in the competition. Mirage had placed second.

Stunned disbelief held them immobile for a few minutes. And then they celebrated. 

Ryuske said ruefully, "I miscalculated, we missed a chance to take another bow."

Rin laughed and ruffled his hair. "The great leader has failed us, we missed five seconds of stage time!"

Ryuske grinned.