The first time Oshitari Yuushi fell in love was also the first time he saw Tsukimori Len. He didn't fall in love with Len, but rather with the music that the other boy could produce from his violin.
His mother had dragged him to the concert, quite against his will. He'd had to sit through the interminable piano pieces, fidgeting constantly and demanding to know when it would end. The older woman, Oshitari Yukiko, had forcibly hushed him and kept him in his seat for the rest of the famous Misa Hamai's brilliant solo piano performance by the means of bribery and threats.
By the time the pianist had played a second encore, six-year-old Yuushi was quite unable to stay still any longer, threats and bribes notwithstanding. Yukiko was quite well known for her perseverance; when she saw her previous methods failing, she simply resorted to brute strength to control her errant son. Just as the struggle was getting more heated, though, Misa stood up to make an announcement.
"Although this is somewhat impromptu, I would like to play a duet with my son, Tsukimori Len, as a finale for this performance," she said, her low voice ringing clearly in the auditorium, which was shaped so that even those at the back of the room could hear her as if they sat right in front. "He will play Elgar's Salut d'Amor; I will accompany him on the piano."
The small, gold-eyed and light blue-haired boy bowed carefully to the crowd, then got into position on the stage while his mother reseated herself at the piano. And the moment he started to play, Yuushi was spellbound.
He wanted to be able to make this pure sound flow from under his fingers. He wanted to make a room echo with music that he had produced. He wanted to enchant people with beautiful melody that poured from a violin that he held.
The very next day, he began lessons on the violin. Being from a very affluent family, it wasn't difficult to employ a top-class teacher for him. He took to the violin as if he had been born to play it.
In just over two year's time, at the age of eight, Oshitari Yuushi was declared a violin tensai, almost on the same level as Tsukimori Len himself. The music world reeled at the discovery of these two boys, both born in the same fateful year as several other music wonders, all of whom were prodigies in their own right – albeit most of the others discovered their talents a little later on in life.
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Atobe Keigo wasn't one to be beaten. Actually, to say that he hated losing to anyone was a more apt way to phrase it. So, when even his own parents began singing the praises of his cousin, the violin tensai Oshitari Yuushi, he threw a fit and set about planning to do something about this renown.
One option was to embarrass his cousin so badly in public that he'd have to retreat from the public eye for the rest of his life. Had Atobe been older, say if he had reached double digits, he might have considered this idea. However, Atobe was only eight, the same age as Yuushi, and at that time he had not developed such a capacity for sadism.
The other option was to climb up to the same height of fame as his cousin – not that either of them lacked prestige in the normal sense, both of them having multibillionaire businessmen for fathers – and from there, show his parents and the world that Yuushi was not his better. Naturally, this meant that he would have to take up an instrument… but with Yuushi already playing the violin, it would be extremely embarrassing should his skill fail to match up to his cousin's. Thus, young Atobe concluded that he would have to decide upon another instrument.
He tried the flute, the cello, the trumpet, the horn, the clarinet – he generally tried almost the entire spectrum of common (in other words, orchestral) Western musical instruments, excluding the percussion section because playing a percussion instrument wasn't likely to win you recognition, since you couldn't play percussion solo. However, they were too high or too low, too simple or too troublesome – suffice it to say that none of them suited him.
When he was just about to give up on finding an instrument for himself and instead pop over the Yuushi's and bang up his violin, he suddenly realized that he'd forgotten one instrument. He'd seen it almost every day of his life until it was just a piece of furniture; nobody every played it, at least in his house.
He had forgotten about the huge grand piano that had the place of honor in his mansion's solar. But once he realized that it was an instrument – and not just any instrument, but one with a magnificent standing and extensive repertoire – he marched over to his mother and said, "I want to learn the piano."
Sadly for him, he wasn't as naturally gifted as a prodigy, unlike his cousin who played the violin as if he'd been born holding one. Yet, with the grim determination to catch up to Yuushi no matter what, he soon was at the top, figuratively standing beside the blunette on crest of their ever-growing wave of eminence.
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Music had surrounded Yukimura Seiichi for her whole life; from the moment she drew her first breath, and probably until the moment she drew her last. Her father was a famous conductor; her mother had been a successful concert violinist before she'd married; even her grandparents, both paternal and maternal, had some sort of musical pedigree. She had been brought up from young to live, breathe, and be music.
Of course, she'd had to choose an instrument to specialize in, though every member of her family was able to play several instruments from different families or even different countries with various degrees of success according to their familiarity with that particular instrument. For example, her mother had specialized in the violin, but could play the cello and the piano as well.
Yukimura had, after trying a good cross-section of available musical instruments, decided to focus on the harp. She had had no reason at all behind her choice except for the innate sense of oneness that the imposing instrument gave her; the feeling that it had been a part of her that she'd never realized was missing until she resumed it.
Her parents had been quite open-minded about it, even though a harp was a very bulky piece of furniture and was in no way as easily transportable as the other string instruments (not counting the piano). After all, it was in their blood. If their older daughter felt that the harp called to her, they would say nothing about it; they could trust her instincts.
Perhaps it was just as well that her younger twin sister Yuichi (who had been born almost five minutes after Seiichi) did not feel the same calling – it was common for twins to feel an affiliation towards the same instrument. Yuichi chose the piano, and together, the pair of nine-year-olds dazzled their family and friends with their beautifully interpreted duets.
Thus, it was not at all surprising when the two girls were also recognized as extremely promising young talents by most of the music world.
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Tezuka Kunimitsu had always known that he would be a musician. Why else had he devoted his time to the cello since he was barely big enough to handle the eighth-sized instrument? Of course, his late grandfather did have a great influence on him – little Tezuka had heard the old man play several times while he himself was still in the cradle, and though at that time it had been an almost unconscious decision, he knew that this was what he wanted to do.
Cellos were not as famous as violins, but still had a large repertoire of pieces and also quite favored as solo instruments. And Tezuka would never play in an orchestra, as just another anonymous face in the body of other cellists, all playing the same thing. No, Tezuka would be the one sitting next to the conductor, playing a superb cello concerto; he would be the one that the audience listened to, the one who received the fame and acclaim.
He would never stand for second best. If he did something, he made sure he was the one and only, the finest in his chosen field. The ability was in his veins; the only thing left was to let it out, yet master and control it at the same time through the endless scales and daily practicing.
Hard work always pays off eventually. That was the statement which Tezuka Kuniharu, his grandfather, had always put store by. Tezuka Kunimitsu would live up to his legacy. He would complete the dream that his grandfather had been unable to. He would stand on top of the world, with his cello beside him.
Thus, ten-year-old Tezuka Kunimitsu joined the ever-growing line of young talents in the music industry.
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When this story begins, the young prodigies are about to start the school year in Japan, their home country. Some, like Tezuka, had spent a brief period overseas; others, like the Yukimura twins, had never left except for the rare holiday; still others, like the rich Atobe, traveled extensively to far-flung resorts and holiday mansions. But now they were all home, ready to begin high school in the prestigious School of the Arts.
By this time, Hihara Kazuki, Hino Kahoko and Yunoki Azuma had been added to their old ranks –made up by Tsukimori Len, Oshitari Yuushi, Tsuchiura Ryoutarou, Shimizu Keiichi, Tezuka Kunimitsu, and the Yukimura twins. All of them knew each other, some personally, others either having heard their performance or come across them by the musical grapevine.
And coincidentally, they were all going to the same school – Tokyo's famous School of the Arts.
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A/N: This is, as already stated, an AU PoT and La Corda crossover. My first attempt at including another fandom with PoT… :-X
The prologue is more or less an introduction as to most of which (main) PoT characters will be appearing. If it makes you more comfortable, think of them as OCs. XD
PS. The setting will be much more like La Corda than PoT. Why else am I posting in this fandom? XD
PPS. Sorry if there wasn't enough mention of any La Corda characters here. I promise they will be there later. Really. :D
If Tokyo doesn't have a School of the Arts, well, sorry… but it shall here – because I don't know Osaka at all, even if it does have one. :-X I need a school for more than music because really, how many schools are exclusively for music outside of the fictional world of La Corda? Plus, I get to introduce more characters as well… -ebil laughter-
NOTE. Only the prologue (and perhaps the epilogue, if it is ever written) shall be in third person's POV. The rest shall be in multi-POV style.
Please tell me what you think. Reviews are truly loved. Constructive criticism would be accepted and thought over. Flames shall be ignored. .