Sayonara Piano Sonata Vol 2 Chapter 2

The next morning, Mafuyu reached the cla.s.sroom slightly later than me. The expression on her face seemed slightly complicated. After stealing a glance at me, she sat down at her seat and fixed her gaze on her table.

"Nao. Nao."

Cla.s.s-rep Terada and a bunch of girls who were following her came up to me. She then asked,

"Help me say 'Good morning' to the Princess. Then tell her it's basic courtesy for her to greet others in the morning."

"You tell her that yourself." Also, we sit next to each other, so Mafuyu probably heard you, yeah?

"It just seems like the Princess isn't in a good mood today. Or rather, she can't say what's on her mind."

"Hey, did Nao quarrel with her again? Or did something happen?"

The reason why everyone addressed Mafuyu as "Princess," and why it was my job to relay messages to her on behalf of the cla.s.s—I'll avoid explaining it, since it's slightly complicated. But in short, Mafuyu was still as unsociable as ever—so why's the group of girls led by Terada still worrying about her? Are my cla.s.smates a bunch of saints? Well, it's not like I'm in a position to ask that.

In the end, I didn't manage to strike a conversation with Mafuyu, who was giving off a gloomy aura. The first person who got close to Mafuyu that day was actually Chiaki, who managed to dash into the cla.s.sroom before the preparatory bell rang.

"Good morning! Morning to you too, Mafu-Mafu!"

Chiaki's seat was in front of me, so she gave us both a tap on our shoulders as she walked past our desks.

"Hey, listen to me. I told my mother about the training camp yesterday. She said that, since we don't need to pay for accommodations, I'll actually have to cover the rest of the expenses using my own pocket money. Isn't she just terrible? Therefore Nao, please choose food that's both cheap and delicious!"

"Ah. I haven't told Tetsurou anything yet. Somehow, it feels like that fella will just yak about it for half a day."

Tetsurou was my father, in principle, but because he lacked any life skills, I was more like his guardian instead. Though it'd only be for three days and two nights, conditions at my house would become really bad without me around.

"I told my mother that Nao would be coming along as well, and she agreed immediately. What about Mafu-Mafu?"

Mafuyu's shoulders flinched when the conversation landed on her. She remained silent for a while, and kept staring at a corner of her desk. She then finally said her first sentence of the day.

"...... Papa says I'm forbidden from staying overnight outside."

Chiaki and I exchanged looks for a moment. Then, I shifted my gaze to Mafuyu's side profile.

I see. Ebichiri gets excessively protective when it comes to things regarding his daughter. He probably couldn't bring himself to allow his high-school daughter to spend the night outside? Mafuyu was probably crestfallen because of that. To be honest, I was slightly surprised, as Mafuyu didn't seem too keen about the training camp.

"Really? Wow, your father's really strict! What should we do then? We'll just continue with the three of us then?" Chiaki looked at me as she asked that.

"You can't!"

The sudden outburst from Mafuyu caused not only Chiaki and me, but also the entire cla.s.s, to jump in shock and turn our heads around. Mafuyu stood up. I didn't know if it was because she noticed my gaze, but her face flushed red in an instant. She then bit her lip hard and sat back down.

I didn't know what I did to make her angry again, so I tried coming up with something to say. But just then, the guys approached me.

"What's all this talk about a training camp? Nao, you better explain this."

"That's right. You're obligated to explain things properly."

"I'll never allow something that enviable—like how you club members are going on a training camp together—to happen."

Ah~ this group of busybodies is coming over yet again. It seemed like my cla.s.smates had been directing their attention to our conversation the whole time. Do you guys have a little too much time on your hands or something?

"Where are you guys going for your training camp?"

"The beach! And we're gonna stay at a villa that looks like a gingerbread house." Chiaki answered before I could stop her. At the same time, I could feel the atmosphere around me heat up in an instant.

"Beach? Did you say beach? The Folk Music Research Club's going to the beach together? You gotta be kidding."

"W-Wait a second! Nao, I'll join your club right now."

"I'll lend you my digital camera, so remember to take pictures of them in their swimsuits!"

"Nao, I beg you, please hire me as the errand boy for the club."

Just as I was about to chase away the group of excited boys inching closer and closer to my seat, the bell for cla.s.s finally rang. And with that, our teacher stepped into the cla.s.sroom.

"That's quite a problem we have here."

It was rare for all four of us to gather immediately in the practice room right after cla.s.s. Kagurazaka-senpai crossed her arms and said,

"Ebisawa Chisato should be flying off to Boston for a recording during the period of our training camp, so I thought things would just work out from there."

"How did you know?" The originally silent and grumpy Mafuyu suddenly lifted her head and asked.

"Well, I can get my hands on that sort of information if it concerns my beloved comrades. For now, let's just lock our sights on the period of time that Ebisawa Chisato isn't in j.a.pan, and plan our schedules according to that."

As expected of Senpai, her preparations are incredibly thorough—though I don't quite feel that has anything to do with love, as she said. No, wait a second! Senpai, are you planning to go ahead with the training camp despite not obtaining Ebichiri's approval?

"There's no point in asking him. If he knew his daughter was staying overnight outside, that guy would definitely abandon his recording in a flash to get Mafuyu back."

I recalled the incident last month—that father had even cancelled a concert at the last minute. If he heard about his daughter staying overnight outside, he would definitely abandon all his scheduled recordings.

"I'm fine...... you three can go by yourselves."

"Didn't you just yell 'You can't!' not too long ago?"

"T-T-That's because......"

Mafuyu glared at me with her face flushed red. She then shook her head vigorously. What exactly does she want?

"There's no point in us dumping Comrade Ebisawa and going to the training camp by ourselves. We can only practice when the four of us are there together."

Mafuyu lowered her head after hearing Senpai's words.

I suddenly thought of something: perhaps it has nothing to do with her father allowing her to partic.i.p.ate in the training camp or not, but, instead, she herself might not be interested in joining us? Somehow, it felt like that was how it really was, judging from Mafuyu's expressions ever since we brought up the training camp yesterday.

Chiaki clapped her hands together and said, "I know! Why don't we just hold the training camp at Mafu-Mafu's house?"

Mafuyu shot an ice-cold glare in Chiaki's direction, a glare cold enough to freeze the cries of the cicadas. Kagurazaka-senpai said nothing, and instead, patted Chiaki's head as she said "There, there." She actually didn't tsukkomi her—so Senpai can actually be quite considerate sometimes.

"I guess we have no choice. I've miscalculated this time. I'll try to come up with something, even though we're quite tight on time."

"What do you mean...... by 'something'?"

Having noticed the sinister smile appearing on Senpai's face, I had a bad feeling about all this.

"Hmm? I can't say it now. Hey, didn't I say it before? All I'm doing is sowing the seeds. I myself don't know where the seeds will land, how they will sprout, or what colors the blooming flowers will be."

Those might sound like the lyrics of some song, but she really wasn't joking.

A few days later, I saw the flowers that bloomed from the seeds that Senpai had sowed, and I couldn't help but be shocked by the results.

It happened on a Friday. The first semester was about to end, so the onslaught of after-cla.s.s remedial courses burned up all my time; I didn't even have time left to attend the club. After school, the setting sun looked like it was being cooked in the sky. I walked back home wearily, while being grilled by the rays of the burning sun. When I reached my house, I saw a large foreign-made car parked in our garage.

No wait—I remember seeing it somewhere before?

I didn't have a good feeling about this, so I opened the door gently. My dad was a music critic who never cleaned anything; he was also ranked the world's number six hopeless man. Because of him, the entrance and the walkway were filled with unsorted CDs and records. However, as I carefully walked into the house, I noticed I wasn't being greeted by a blast of cla.s.sical music coming from the living room. Instead, it was replaced by the sounds of a conversation. There's someone else in there other than Tetsurou? It had been months since we had a guest here in the house.

"I'm bac—k......"

I pulled open the door and was rendered speechless by the scene.

"So you're back, Nao? Help me brew a cup of coffee, and add in extra brandy. Give this guy here a cup of plum-kelp tea. Oh right, Ebichiri, why must you always choose for all of your encores? I feel like sleeping when I hear that. Choose

Tetsurou was still the same as usual—he was dressed in sweatpants and a jersey, and was sitting cross-legged lazily on the sofa. Opposite of him was Ebisawa Chisato, who had an irritated expression on his face. He was wearing a black-colored sweater and well-ironed suit pants. Even though his attire was slightly more casual, his hairstyle was still the same as a lion's mane, as frequently seen on his CD covers—yup, it was Ebichiri all right.

"Sorry for disturbing." He greeted me, but I took a step back unconsciously.

"H-Haa...... Welcome."

"Nao, go make the coffee, quickly." Tetsurou ordered me without even looking at me; that made me want to slam my fist into the back of his head. "Even if he's a guest performer, you can't just allow him to choose the pieces as he pleases. Or are you implying that, since it's an encore, you can just play according to your personal preference?"

"If you do not like it, you can always leave before the encore. The publisher pays for your concert tickets anyway. Isn't that right?"

"Whoa, Nao, did you hear that? Did you hear that? This person here is actually saying something like that to his audience."

What does that have to do with me? I escaped into the kitchen without a second thought.

I tried to grasp hold of the situation while waiting for the water to boil. Why is Ebichiri here at my house?

Even though he was an old acquaintance of Tetsurou's, it was still hard for me to believe that those two had actually graduated from the College of Music in the same year. Ebichiri exuded the aura and dignity of a maestro, and fully exemplified the word "seasoned," which was often used to describe him. In comparison, if I were to lie and say that Tetsurou had been repeating his years in college all the way up till now, everyone may just believe me and give him pitiful stares.

When I brought them their cups of coffee, their conversation was becoming even more heated.

"All you know how to do is break up the music you've listened to, and savor it in bits and pieces, so what's with those haughty words? What I emphasize is the coherence of the rhythm of the music! The pause in-between the movements is not there for me to clear my throat!"

"Shut up, sn.o.bbish conductor! You just copied Furtwängler for your take on Brahms' , didn't you? You can't just emphasize the ending and think it'll be great just like that. Nao, that's how you feel as well after listening to that, right?"

Hey, stop dragging me into this already!

"Right, I want to hear your opinion too. You're the one who wrote the commentary for my 'Complete Collection of Brahms' Symphonies,' right?"

I nearly spilled the cup of coffee in front of Ebichiri. W-Why does he know about this?

"What's with that surprised reaction of yours? Probably all my close friends know about it already. Because I feel really proud about it."

"Ehhhhhhhhhh?"

I immediately hugged the tray and squatted down.

I sometimes helped Tetsurou write music critiques and CD commentaries because I wanted to earn some pocket money. Of course, in order to hide the truth, I specifically mimicked Tetsurou's writing style. d.a.m.n you! Don't let others know! Your credibility will fall if you do that, right!?

"You are a critic as well, so you should have differing views from Hikawa, right? Hikawa always wrote critiques that strayed from the main topic—he thought it was unnecessary for me to emphasize the agogic accents and dynamics at the same time."

"Since when do I go off-topic!? Your ring finger will move along when your try to move your little finger, right? See, it's something like that. You've mixed your agogic accents and your dynamics together. Nao, you tell him too."

"Urm...... What exactly are agogic accents?"

I was just a first-year high school student, so I still had to research my way through a huge pile of information when I wrote my drafts. It'll be a huge headache for me if you guys start spewing out a string of musical terms at me.

"Probably the rhythmic version of the dynamics," Tetsurou answered.

"...... And what are dynamics?"

"The sound intensity version of agogic accents," was Ebichiri's explanation. Who the heck would understand that!? That's like saying "the right hand is the reverse of the left hand"—you guys might as well not bother with those circular explanations!

"Well...... I feel that Eugene Ormandy conducted better for Brahms' ......"

"Mmm. I tried to replicate the way he made the strings play an octave higher—it was quite interesting. Only the Germans would complain that it was not German enough' anyway."

"I'll say that too! Speaking of which, that sounds really interesting. So you've actually done something like that before? At which concert did you do it? Boston's? Did you record it? What a pity. I could've criticized it with all my might if it had been released on CD."

Great, I successfully managed to divert the topic. Just as I was about to escape the living room, a voice called out behind me.

"Ah, hold on a second. The reason I came here today was to talk to you about something."

I froze for a full two seconds before turning around slowly.

"...... Eh?" My voice cracked.

"Hikawa, I'm sorry, but can you please leave us alone for a moment? I wish to speak to him in private."

"Hey, wait......" Tetsurou was much more surprised than I was. "Hold on, what do you want to discuss with Nao? It can't be that you want his hand in marriage? That won't do. To me, Nao's someone who replaces the role of my wife, you know?"

"Tetsurou, just shut up and scram for now......" "I get it already, so just move aside for a while, Hikawa."

With two people giving him the cold shoulder at the same time, Tetsurou could only pick up his coffee mug and stand up gloomily. He made his way to the kitchen while whistling . I remembered there was a line in the song that went something like 'I don't wanna die in despair!' or something like that...... This guy, he always managed to make people feel uncomfortable. [TLNote: Line's probaby 'E muoio disperato!', which is 'Alas I die despairing!']

To be honest though, despite how irritating Tetsurou could be, I did hope that he wouldn't go away. I sat before Ebichiri; it felt so awkward I dared not even raise my head. What does he want to talk to me about...... Something that concerns Mafuyu? I couldn't think of anything else.

"You—" Ebichiri put down the mug and began to speak, "have written quite a few articles about me. It has been a while since I've returned to j.a.pan, so I knew nothing about them at all."
 

*Dooo*, the voice of Senpai disappeared. I dropped my handphone on the sofa just as my brain froze. Live? Did she just say a live performance?