College, Chapter 6

College, Chapter 6 is a chapter of the fifth volume of the K-ON! Manga by Kakifly.

Summary
With summer break just about to begin, Yoshii, the university Light Music Club's president, is planning a training camp. Yui and Ritsu are interested in going, but their upper limit for cost is ¥30,000. The trip just so happens to cost ¥30,000 per person.

And off they go, on the bus, out to the mountains. Akira is concerned that since everyone's just looking forward to having fun, they won't get any practice done. They arrive at a drab looking inn, and Ritsu instinctively yells out that it's a total rip off. Except, Yoshii chose this place solely because it has a studio, and can accomodate as many people as there are on the trip.

Akira is keen to start practicing right away, but before she drags off Ayame and Sachi to the studio, Yoshii stops them. She has a small challenge for all of the bands at the training camp - they all have to team up with people not from their own band. Apparently, they do this every year, to promote friendships between bands that normally don't work together. Akira's not really happy about it, since she wanted to play with her own band, but Ayame says it's a good learning opportunity. Well, Akira has even less to be happy about, since she ends up in a band with Yui, of all people.

In her new band, Yui takes the time to check out Akira's guitar. A sleek, black Gibson Les Paul, made in the late 70s with a maple neck, though made with other types of wood on the top, body, and back, all giving it a sound unique to that period. By that point, Yui had already stopped listening, and was checking out the bassist's guitar.

Kana, Mio, and Ayame are in the same band as well. Even before figuring out what song they're going to play, Kana insists they first pick their costumes. Ayame accidentally slips that she thought Kana's school uniform 'cosplay' was really cute, except it wasn't cosplay - those were their actual school uniforms. With that, Kana assumes that the band also wants to wear school uniforms, and she manages to find some in the studio.

Over in Ritsu and Chiyo's band, Ritsu's been making a couple of mistakes on drums. She tries to gloss over it by making an excuse that she was distracted by Chiyo's bass, but it goes right over Chiyo's. Finally, in Mugi and Sachi's band, Sachi is helping Mugi set up her keyboard. Mugi makes an offhand remark that Sachi has a real big sister vibe about her, but that only riles up Sachi's self consciousness over her height.

At the end of the day, everyone goes to unwind at the bath. There, Chiyo confesses to Ritsu that if she came off as a little cold, it's only because she was shy. Chiyo actually really admires how strong Ritsu's kick is while drumming, and her sole advice is for Ritsu to keep her downbeats in sync with everyone in order to keep tempo.

The next day, it's time for all the bands to perform. All of the bands managed to perform really well, which is making Akira and Yui nervous, since they didn't get to practice all that much. Akira instinctively blames Yui. But it just so happened that Akira was having just as much fun as Yui was, staying up late to chat, and sleeping during the day. When it's their turn to perform, they hadn't even decided which parts they would be playing. Akira takes the lead for herself, but then Yui plays over her, leading into a furious guitar duel.

That night, they all come together to reflect on the day. Everyone felt like they had learned something about not only themselves, but how they work as part of a band. But the end of the day, everyone agreed that playing in their own band just works out the best.