Voila another chapter! I adored writing this mini one. I wanted to make it hilarious, but somehow a bit if depression just set in… Too much school. That must be it.

On a more random note, my very own cello buddy – who looks scarily like Shimizu – almost killed himself the other day crossing the street while the light was still red. He credited such wisdom to the chain effect of "the morons" before him who were jaywalking, but Oh! the parallels and the coincidences! To think I had written the relevant scene of this chapter before this incident! My writing is ominous! Foreboding! Portentous! My scribbles can alter ze world!

I shall effuse and expose my friend no longer. Thank you to phoenixalia, Anime-Kunoichi, Jiyu22, thenolifequeen, Sayonara Yasashii Akumu, fanfatic08, and Streiter Destiny Miseki for reviewing, and all others who read but didn't review! Enjoy this mini one! :D

Bass Clef VI – Danse Macabre: The Mysterious Phantom

"You slipped up…"

Shimizu Keiichi pointed out in his usual airy voice, as he cast a scattered glance at the girl walking beside him.

Nishihara Yui laughed nervously and shrugged, "I know, but nobody's made a big deal out of it. They just thought I was shy, so they just laughed at me…" She chuckled dryly at the thought of Kazuki, who had repeatedly patted her head and declared that Nishihara-chan ought not to be timid about her abilities. "They still don't know my secret in full, so it's all good."

"But now that they know you sing, they know a part of your secret…"

"Haha, I guess. Sorry to let your efforts go to waste."

"…My… efforts? What efforts?"

"…You know, your falling asleep whenever somebody asks you about the Phantom Voice…"

"Those weren't efforts… I was just sleepy…"

Yui sighed. Either that was true, or he simply refused to admit that he had actually tried to help a girl by keeping her secret. Either way, she wasn't about to find out anytime soon. "Whatever you say."

They walked along in a silence that lasted for about five minutes, before Yui raised a dubious eyebrow and inquired after a matter that truly worried her, "Shimizu, can you really pick up your other cello from my place without dropping off this one first…? Are you going to be able to carry around two cellos, along with your schoolbag, without any accidents?"

Keiichi blinked, "…But I'll have to walk more if I go home first… your place is kind of on the way…"

"But Shimizu, if anything happens, you understand that it'll be two cellos you're losing, and I won't be responsible for paying for them."

"I'll probably be fine…" Keiichi mumbled and stepped off of the sidewalk. Yui was about to step off with him when she noticed that it was anything but their turn to cross the road; she hastened to pull the airhead back, and nearly screamed when a car honked loudly and sped by, missing Keiichi's foot by merely three inches.

"Thank you…" Keiichi, albeit having been on the brink of (probable) death, seemed unmoved. Yui sighed and slammed decidedly, her voice trembling from fear of losing her acquaintance to a brutal demise, "You're not going to carry two cellos home alone. I'm going to carry the other one and follow you to your place."

"Oh… okay then… sorry for the trouble…"

"…No problem." She just had no idea what else to say to this person.

"Speaking of which… now that my cello is fixed and I've paid 100,000 yen… when are you going to pay me?"

"Umm… I can pay 30,000 yen today. The rest will probably come in about four weeks."

"Okay… and one more thing… what's with that millipede on your shoulder?"

The traffic light turned green, and Yui gave Keiichi a nudge to signal him to walk on.

"Oh, um, her name's Root. She's my pet millipede."

"…You keep a pet millipede and named it Root?"

Yui swore that it was the first time she'd ever seen his eyes so widely open.

"Why yes, what's the harm? I like plants, so I figured that I'll name her Root. A millipede is quite harmless and, in fact, ideal as pets! I keep her in a tank and I don't have to walk her or anything. Although I'm not sure how she managed to follow me to school today and hide in Yunoki-senpai's flute, but…"

"Your millipede was hiding in Yunoki-senpai's flute?" The volume of Keiichi's voice increased, causing Yui to blink repeatedly in a mixture of surprise and alarm. "Erm, I guess… Yunoki-senpai had troubles getting her out. See, Root is very lazy; once she finds an ideal place to rest in, she stays there. When Yunoki-senpai found me singing, she had come out, probably because she had heard my voice. So yeah, she's been reluctant to leave my shoulder ever since - "

She paused drastically and proceeded to rub her eyes.

She did not just see that!

She did not just see Shimizu Keiichi smile!

She'd never seen such a pure smile from anyone in her life. The way his eyebrows arched, the way his irises twinkled, the way his lips curled up – it was a perfect smile, a smile that prompted her heart to skip a beat, a smile that sent somewhat of a warm tingle down her spine, a smile that, from that moment, became etched into the depth of her fondest memories.

I want to see him smile again!

She remarked silently to herself, while outwardly demanding just what exactly was so funny about her lovely millipede as to make Shimizu Keiichi smile.

Keiichi shrugged, "It's just that… I've never met anyone who keeps pet millipedes before… so I thought it was kind of funny…"

Yui massaged the side of her forehead and sighed, before a defeated grin escaped her, "I guess there aren't many millipede parents around, huh? Well, you'll understand quite soon that I'm an odd one."

"Oh, but I already knew that…"

"Lord, you have just shown me that you do have some sense of humour! All hail Shimizu Keiichi, the always surprising one!"

"…"

"Ah, we're here. Wait out here, and don't move a step while I go and get your cello. I don't want to see you and your intestines lying around due to a car accident when I come out, understand?"

"…Yes, grandmother…"

"EXCUSEZ MOI? You have just totally killed my youthful impression! Say that again?"

"…No… just go get my cello already…"

Thus, on such a day under such a condition, Shimizu Keiichi and Nishihara Yui jested for the first time at each other. Such was probably a hint that they had become a little more than acquaintances, and had moved a little closer to the concept of "friends".

But that can be more thoroughly discussed of later. There were more important matters at hand. As the duo began to stroll their way towards Keiichi's current home, Keiichi suddenly remembered an interesting tale which had been told to him by none other than the always resourceful Kazuki.

"Hey, Nishihara, now that the fake phantom is successfully dispatched ("Dispatched? Diction, Shimizu, diction!")… do you know anything about the real phantom that's lurking in Seisou…?"

And hence…

"I want to go home…" Yui mumbled in utter disdain as she stared with much horror at the spooky silhouette of the school, on a dark, eerie night where a chilling windswept dominated the land.

She marched toward the half-open gate, her legs shaking from fear. "I do not believe in this stupid phantom that Shimizu told me about last week. Why do I even believe in anything that Shimizu says anyway? He was probably half asleep when he said it… Anyway, I go into the practice room, grab my forgotten belongings, and go home. Nothing is going to happen to me. No phantom is going to jump out and eat me. I'll be just fine." She inhaled at the end of each sentence, and mumbled to herself continuously as she stepped rigidly down the path towards the school building.

She cursed the wind for blowing so strongly on such a night. Did whatever all-powerful creature up there really think her thin, frail body could withstand such harassment of the harsh nature? She swore that if she were not wearing her large jacket just then, she would've been blown off to some exotic land that resembled Hawaii.

Stupid Shimizu Keiichi! If he were not sleeping in his practice room again looking exactly like a corpse, she would not have dropped all her belongings and screamed. If he had waken up when she screamed, she would not have had to drag him to the nurse's office looking exactly like the "Scream" painting. If he did not worry her immensely when he finally awoke, or if he had actually recognized her face when she tried to communicate, she would not have escorted him home, forgetting all about her own precious schoolbag.

Why exactly were the stairs creaking? Yui kept asking herself as she wobbled feebly up to the second floor, feeling every hair rise upward. They were concrete stairs. They were supposed to be strong.

Exactly. Shimizu Keiichi was an XY chromosomal human. He was supposed to be able to take care of himself, and not freely allow an XX chromosomal human – especially one as cowardly as Nishihara Yui – to become his escort. Although Yui could've sworn that she saw an oily smirk on the corner of his mouth as he turned to go inside his own home, after thanking her for "her time" in his slow and vibrant voice.

Yui groaned and smacked her own forehead. She must be crazy. There was no way that Shimizu Keiichi could be up to something. Besides, why her mind jumped from creaking stairs to Shimizu Keiichi was seriously beyond her.

The door of the practice room was in sight, looking abnormally pale amidst the dim scatters of ivory moonlight. Yui strode unnaturally toward it, flinching every time the sound of her footstep resonated in the seemingly-dead hallway. As she reached for the door she raised her other hand to wipe away the cold sweat on her forehead – only to freeze in utter terror when she heard a dissonant tritone, coarse, savage-like, and menacing – coming from within.

She felt waves of blood pound at her eardrums, as Keiichi's words echoed repeatedly in her head,

"There is a phantom that lurks in Seisou Academy at night. It can command all the instruments of the school to play at once as an ensemble. It is rumoured to play melodies that can lure an intruding student's soul into the depth of obscurity."

She knew the melody well by heart. It was one that woke the dead, one that summoned skeletons from their graves to assemble for one chilling, gruesome dance.

Camille Saint-Saëns, Danse Macabre.

She trembled in apprehension when she heard the melody grow louder and louder, flutes with their trills, violins with their tremolos, cellos with their firm bass notes. She felt an urge to run back down the creaking stairs, but her limbs seemed to defy the commands of her brain, and she could not move. She could only shake helplessly as she heard footsteps approach the door from within. A gust of wind swept over, and the door slid gracefully and soundlessly aside. A pale figure loomed suddenly in front of Yui's rigid body, his face engulfed by the darkness as his emerald irises stared straight into her frightened eyes.

Yui felt her heart stop dead.

… Brother?

"The phantom shapes itself as a person whom you most desire to see."

At exactly that instant, the music hit a sforzando, and the violins and flutes and oboes and clarinets jumbled into one big pile of sound that gave Yui a screaming headache. She opened her mouth, but nothing came out. She only felt dizzier and dizzier, finally giving in as the world crumbled around her, and, before fading into the darkness, nothing remained but the pair of emerald eyes.

"Nishihara, wake up…"

Yui jerked suddenly awake and violently sat up, panting heavily at the memory of the eyes. She felt something like a school uniform slip off her chest. A hand grabbed at her shoulder, causing her to twitch and scream.

The hand retreated at her reaction, accompanied by a familiar voice that spoke slightly faster than usual, "Calm down, Nishihara, it's only me."

Yui heaved a sigh of relieve as she recognized the voice as Keiichi's, and turned to him with evident question on the face.

Keiichi did not wait for her question to come out. To Yui's amazement, he sounded somewhat embarrassed in his explanation,

"Something had bothered me when we were walking; I couldn't pinpoint what it was until long after I got home. You didn't have your backpack. And I know I've told you about the phantom, so I figured I'd - " his voice trailed off.

"Oh," was Yui's only response, but she could not hold back her smile. She wanted to add "So you are humane after all", but despite his astonishing humaneness she was still not quite in the mood to jest.

Keiichi quickly diverted the topic, "But Nishihara, why did you faint when you saw me?"

"What?" Yui mumbled confusedly, "That was you?"

"… Um, yes?"

"How did you get the music - "

"I accidentally hit the play button on the CD player and I didn't know the speakers were connected, so I spent a while looking for the right plug to unplug - "

"… Couldn't you have turned down the volume first?"

"I was going to do that, but then I heard somebody coming, so I figured I'd open the door first, but then you appeared and you just went out cold, so I was debating to myself whether to lay you down first or to turn down the volume and - "

Yui watched in amazement as Keiichi continued with the longest monologue that he has spoken yet, wearing a half-agitated look on his face. She felt a great urge to laugh, but when she recalled the emerald orbs which so resembled her brother's, her laugh choked into a bitter chuckle.

Keiichi cut his monologue short and inquired silently, "What's wrong?"

"Nothing," Yui answered quietly, "I… kind of wish I had seen the actual phantom."

Keiichi did not reply. Being the only one to know Nishihara Yui's secret in full, he understood only too well.

And yet again the cellist and the songstress submitted themselves to harmonized silence, except that this time, he did not have his instrument, and she felt least inclined to sing.

At length she whispered a feeble wish to go home, and he grabbed his uniform and pulled her up.

Suddenly, the loud notes of Danse Macabre exploded from the speakers once more, nearly giving Yui a heart attack as she yelped and clung pathetically onto Keiichi's arm, "W-W-W-W-What's that?"

Keiichi's voice reverted to his ordinary slow and lazy one, "… I hit the play button again…"

"A-A-A-Are you s-s-sure? D-D-D-Didn't you turn down the v-v-volume?"

Keiichi reached slowly over to the stop button on the CD player and pressed it down. The music stopped. "… I guess not."

He turned to Yui, who was squinting at the CD player and still clinging pathetically onto his arm. He could not hold back his amused smile.

"… I'll walk you home."

Had Yui been in the mood, she would probably have exclaimed, Alas, the turn of the universe has returned to normal and XY chromosomal beings are now escorting XX chromosomal beings home! But she was far too frightened to think much of it, and accepted this offer with immediate eagerness.

As for how the duo, while they were stepping out of the school gate, discovered that they had completely forgotten about Yui's backpack… well, that was another story.

The accidental hitting of the play button is based on real-life experience -.-… my school music room has very, very, very loud speakers. End of story.

To thenolifequeen: No, I haven't thought about actually creating the triangle yet, but there might be implications later on ;D.

Leaving a review would make my insides wiggle like beloved monkeys :D!