*Author's Note: WHOOHOO 100 REVIEWS! Thank you to everyone who left a review last chapter and sorry for the wait! Many of you reassured me about this new arc and I'm very excited to start it off! I'll try my best to still include the fluffy scenes everyone likes and I hope you all enjoy these next few chapters.

Chapter 10 – Let's Win!

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!

The maddening sound of the alarm clock ran around Kousei's room which stirred him out of his dreams. Tired from staying up late last night to practice, he rolled in his bed sheets and let his body enjoy the warmth for a little longer. When he could no longer stand the sound of the alarm he reached up his bed to turn it off but before he got to it the sound ceased.

"Sleepy?" said a girl's voice.

"Yeah, just give me one more minute," said Kousei still too out of it to realize. 'Wait a second…' His eyes snapped open and he quickly put on his glasses and sat up from his lying position. "WHO ARE YOU AND WHY ARE YOU IN MY HOUSE?!"

Kousei was nervous, there was a stranger in his house and on top of that the girl was out of this world beautiful. She looked like she was around his age with a slender figure. She had long straight blonde hair that flowed down her back with a cross shaped ornament protruding from behind her ears. As she looked straight into his eyes, her magenta eyes seemed to give off a dangerous yet playful vibe. "That's kind of rude Arima-kun; you're saying you don't remember me after such a wonderful night?"

"W-w-w-what happened last night?" The girl smiled as he stuttered and inched closer to him.

"Let me remind you..." Her face moved in and she closed her eyes. Right before she was able to kiss him the door flew open.

"Kousei get up today is the da-" Kaori froze in her track as she saw the scene before her. "KOUSEI!"

"No, no, no this is not my fault!" He pushed away the girl that was almost right on top of him. "It was her!"

The girl turned around and locked eyes Kaori. "Do you need something?"

"Do I need something? You're the one trying to force a kiss with my boyfriend! So I want to know who you are and what the hell you're doing here?!"

'The word boyfriend sounds nice,' thought Kousei as he blushed a little.

"She's your girlfriend?" asked the blonde girl as she turned back to Kousei. "Well this is disappointing. My beloved Kousei has a third rate violinist as an accompaniment and as a girlfriend."

"What did you-"

"You talk a lot for someone who's never heard her play," said Kousei in a serious tone, cutting into the argument which surprised both of the girls.

"Hmm what happened to the quiet and shy guy that was here a second ago," said the blonde girl as she broke into a smile. "But I'm not going to lie; this one is much more attractive."

"You can come in here and play a prank on me but don't insult my partner, my girlfriend's skill."

'The word girlfriend sounds nice,' thought Kaori as she blushed as well.

"You're that confident in her skill?"

"I'm willing to bet my pride as a musician that Miyazono Kaori is an incredible violinist."

"Alright since Arima-kun is so confident in your skills…" The blonde girl turned back to face Kaori. "How about a little wager? If I place above you guys in the Royal Conservatory Music Competition then Kousei will go back to Italy with me after the competition and be my accompaniment."

"You have to be kidding right?" said Kousei; he didn't know what he should be feeling right now. Happy that someone from Italy came all the way over to Japan to get him to be her accompaniment or laugh that a joke so ridiculous could be made?

"I assure you this is no joke or prank, I'm a hundred percent serious and I expect you to follow through with the terms when I win."

"Fine, but what happens if you lose?"

"HEY, DON'T JUST PUT ME UP FOR A WAGER WITHOUT MY CONSENT!"

"I'll do whatever you want."

"You better be prepared to follow through with the terms as well."

The blonde girl let out a small laugh and took off the white glove she was wearing and threw it on the ground. "My name is Aurora Blandelli; this is galateo del duello, the etiquette of a duel. Picking up the glove will be proof that you accept this wager."

Kaori picked up the glove and new aura seemed to have surrounded them, an aura of competition. Aurora smiled and picked up her violin case that was resting beside the bed. "Don't come crying about being outnumbered two against one when you lose," said Kaori as she walked by her.

"I'm not worried about that, I can fill all the roles myself." She raised her hand to wave goodbye without looking back and walked out. "Buona fortuna Arima Kousei and Miyazono Kaori…you'll need it."

"Now that's a love triangle I want to be apart of," said Watari as he walked into the room with Tsubaki. "Kousei, my man, how do you do it? OW! OW! I'm sorry it was a joke, a joke!" Tsubaki let go of his cheeks and turned to Kousei and Kaori.

"Are you guys sure you should be making these wagers? I'm pretty sure someone who's that confident in winning is not a bad player, what will you do if you actually lose?"

"Yeah, good question. What will we do Kaori?"

"We're not going to lose!"

"Well it doesn't really concern you since YOU'RE NOT THE ONE THAT'S GOING TO ITALY IF WE DO!"

"This is going to be an interesting competition isn't it?"

The building that was hosting the competition wasn't the usual Towa Hall; it was located at the Suntory Hall in Tokyo, a building almost three times as big as the Towa Hall capable of sitting over 2000 people in its Main Hall. The building was separated into three floors, the Main Hall was located on the third floor and the Blue Rose (small hall) was on the first floor. The main foyer was on the second floor with bar lounges on both sides along with a cloakroom, it began to fill up as people from various parts of Japan and even some foreigners filtered in.

"When is that guy going to show up?" said Takeshi to himself as he stood there tapping his foot impatiently.

"Rather than focusing on him you should be focusing on yourself." It was a female voice he knew well.

"I see that you showed up as well Emi, excited to see your crush?" said Takeshi teasingly as he turned around.

"I don't know where you get that assumption from but for the hundredth time, I don't like him like that."

"O-kay whatever you say." He put his hand behind his head, still clearly not convinced.

"Ah Ochiai-sensei it's nice to see you again," said Akira Takayanagi, Takeshi's teacher, sarcastically. "But don't you think this competition is a bit high level for your field of expertise?"

"Oh my, is this what a sore loser sounds like? Or maybe fear? After we crushed you in the last competition maybe you're threatened by us," responded Yuriko Ochiai, Emi's teacher, with a tone full of hidden malice.

"Not this again…" said Emi pinching the bridge of her nose.

"Maybe long ago there was a rivalry between them."

"Onii-chan did you see Arima-sensei yet?" asked Nagi as she walked towards the group with Toshiya Miike, her violin partner.

"No not yet, why are there so many people here when this is only the preliminaries?"

"A lot of famous up and coming musicians are participating this year and it's not everyday you get to see all of them performing at once," said Emi. "Which is another reason why I told you to focus on yourself; this is going to be much harder than the usual Gala concert. There are only 5 spots to the next round-"

"They're here!" interrupted Nagi as Kousei's group walked through the door.

"Arima! What took you so long?!" yelled Takeshi as he walked up to them.

"There was an…unexpected delay," said Kousei hesitantly, unsure of how to describe the situation he was in this morning.

"Well then how about we get going, it's almost time to start," said Kousei's teacher, Hiroko Seto

'Dear guests of the Suntory Hall, there is a slight delay due to the fact that the piano tuning was not perfectly accurate. Please wait patiently as we get this issue fixed as soon as possible. Thank you for being here at Suntory Hall.'

"The piano wasn't tuned properly? How is that even possible? Every concert hall tunes their piano right before any performance so it should be spot on right now unless the job was done by a bad tuner," said Kousei, shocked by the announcement.

"I would assume that a place such as Suntory Hall can afford the best tuner there is," said Takeshi. "Who was the person that said it wasn't tuned proper-?" Before he was able to finish his sentence, an elder man dressed in the Suntory Hall employee uniform interrupted him.

"Excuse me, are you Mr. Arima Kousei?"

"Yeah that's me," said Kousei.

"The tuning is going to take a bit of time, Mr. Saji, the founding president, told me to go out and look for some of the performers today and ask them to entertain the guests a bit while we get the tuning done. Would you mind doing that?"

"Uh," Kousei hesitated and looked over at his group.

"Wow look at you, being picked out to entertain the guests!" said Emi.

"Hmm it'll be interesting to see how you've improved compared to the last time I saw you," said Takeshi.

"You should be honored, the fact that they picked you meant that your skill is being recognized," said Hiroko.

Finally he looked over to Kaori. "Go! Show them what you're made out of!"

"Alright!" said Kousei with a smile after the boost of confidence he got from everyone.

He quickly got changed into his performance attire and followed the employee to a piano that was set up in the main foyer.

"Oh! Is that Arima Kousei?"

"Is he going to play right now?"

Whispers spread around the room and soon there was a big circle formed around the piano. Kousei sat down and unbuttoned the last button of his suit. He took a deep breath and look over at Kaori one more time.

A quiet tune of two notes was played by his right; it then picked up speed as he added in his left hand as well. The shy and timid melody at the beginning has now grown into a confident and fast one. His memories of been 'Friend A' came alive through the piano and soon enough all the eyes in the main foyer were captivated by his play. Sounds as colorful as 24-color palette flowed through the foyer. As Kousei closed his eyes to relish in the moment and relive some of his old memories, suddenly the piano made a loud low sound which he did not play which made his eyes snap back open.

Kousei stopped and looked to his left, shocked along with everybody else in the room by the action of the African-American boy that was standing there. "I didn't come all the way here to listen to you play this boring crap," said the black teen. "If you're not going to play something else, step aside."

"What the hell are you doing?" yelled Takeshi as he stepped forward.

"I'm talking to the number one here, not the number two," said the black teen, not even bothering to look at Takeshi as he dismissed him.

"What did you s-?"

Before he could finish his sentence, he was interrupted by Emi. "What you just did was absolutely unacceptable! Not only did you rudely interrupt his performance but you also did not respect Arima as a musician! On top of that you insulted my friend!"

"Hey, hey don't get mad at me. I'm just speaking the truth and I can easily prove it." He looked over at Kousei and gave him a challenging stare.

Kousei simply looked back at him in silence and smiled. "If you wanted to play, you could have just said so." He got up and made a gesture for him to sit.

"Kousei?!" Everyone was astonished by his action.

"Why didn't you fight back?" asked Kaori as he rejoined the group.

"Well I wasn't just going to say 'no'. He did something so bold and I kind of respect him for that," said Kousei sheepishly which made Kaori sigh.

"This is for you," said the black teen as he looked towards Kaori and winked, "cutie."

"What the hell is his problem?!" said Kousei which made both Watari and Tsubaki laugh at the contrast between the reaction of someone interrupting his playing and the reaction of someone flirting with his girlfriend.

"At least we get to see what he's made of," said Emi. Everyone's gaze was now on the brash challenger, ready to gauge his skill and see what he's made of.

He began with two notes playing them over and over again and suddenly everyone realized what the song was, Fur Elise.

'For someone who talks so much trash, to think he would play such an easy song,' thought Takeshi. Whispers spread through the crowd, almost everybody thinking the same thing as Takeshi.

The performer simply smiled and took a shaker out of his pocket and held it with his mouth. "Good musicians copy…but great musicians steals!" He began to nod his head causing the shaker to set a beat and suddenly Fur Elise's rhythm and melody changed.

"This is…"

"Ragtime!"

His fingers flew around the piano, going fast then slowing down while the base of it all was still Fur Elise. It was not a calm classical that amazes people to the point of not being able to speak but an upbeat jazz that slips under everybody's feet and make them want to move. Soon the people that doubted him all began to laugh and dance to the music. The color of the sound changed constantly and when the chaotic climax finally came there was no doubt that this was no longer Beethoven's song, it now belonged entirely to him.

As he finished, he stood up and raised his hands in the air. The crowd applauded and cheered for him. He turned to face Kousei with a smug look. 'What now?'

"We are happy to announce that the tuning of the piano has now been fixed. All contestants please report to your designated dressing room. Thank you for your patience." The announcement caused the crowd to disperse and move towards the Main Hall.

"Looks like we'll have to postpone our match Arima Kousei." He turned around and began walking towards the Main Hall but then turned back to face Kaori. "Oh by the way my name is Gold Nash; I live in room 1408 at the InterContinental Tokyo Hotel!"

As everyone tried to stifle their laughter at how disgruntled Kousei looked when Nash said that, a middle age black man walked up to them. "Hiroko is that you?"

"Rob! Wow, it has been so long since the last time I saw you!"

"How ironic for us to meet back here at the Suntory Hall?" said Rob as he chuckled and gave Hiroko a quick hug. "I saw Nash giving you guys quite the rude first impression. Sorry about that, he is just extremely competitive and was quite excited about meeting Arima Kousei."

"I had a feeling that was your kid."

"Well we do have the same last name."

"Oh, I was talking about how arrogant he was," said Hiroko as they both laughed.

"Well I would call it confidence since there's backbone behind his trash talk, the boy has more talent then both me and you."

"Well this one over here," said Hiroko as she grabbed Kousei's shoulder, "has more talent than Nash."

Rob laughed loudly. "Now that is the definition of arrogance! But you know what? I won't argue with you about it now, I'll judge for myself. I'll see you around, Hiroko."

"Who was that?" asked Nagi as Rob walked away.

"He's Gold Robert, one of the best jazz pianists out there; he and I use to be rivals." She looked over to Kousei. "You better be careful, if he says that Nash is even more talented than he is, then you're in for a tough competition."

As the group moved towards the dressing room, Watari came next to Kousei. "Looks like you have some new rivals."

"Yeah, Emi and Takeshi were already tough enough. Now I have to watch out for Aurora and Nash," said Kousei as he sighed.

"You better go fight that Nash guy," said teasingly Watari as he tried not to laugh, "or else he's going to steal Kaori from you."

"Do you really think he'll steal her from me?!" asked Kousei as he turned to look at Watari with bloodshot crazy eyes.

"Don't be ridiculous," said Tsubaki as he grabbed Watari's head. "This idiot is just teasing you."

"An idiot that you like," said Kaori as she joined in the conversation.

"Kaori!" yelled Tsubaki as she blushed and went to grab Kaori. "Well you better watch out for that blonde chick."

"Hey I'm not going to lose!" The group laughed, walking together with just enough for everyone.

Kousei then bumped into someone and quickly apologized. "Excuse me, but could you lead me to Dressing Room #2," asked the person he had just bumped into.

Kousei looked up and got a closer look at the person, it was a teenage boy with medium length black hair. The thing that stood out was the fact that his eyes were closed and he was holding a black walking stick.

'Is he…blind?'

"Y-yeah of course, we were going there ourselves." The blind boy held onto his arm and as they were about to start walking again, someone called for them to stop.

"Shusui, I was looking everywhere for you! Why did you come out here?" It was a teenage girl with white hair and she seemed quite upset.

"After I confirmed the sound I heard someone playing jazz out here and I wanted to hear it better."

"Wait you're the guy that said the tuning wasn't accurate," asked Takeshi.

"Yes, that's correct."

"How do you tune pianos if you are…?"

"Oh no, I'm not a tuner, I'm a pianist."

"A pianist?!" said everyone at the same time.

"That's some pretty good hearing," said Akira impressed by what he just heard.

"A gift of blindness."

"More and more amazing competitors just keep showing up," said Kaori taking a big sigh. "Makes me feel like we haven't practiced enough, don't you think Kousei?"

"Kousei…Arima Kousei?" asked Shusui.

"Yeah that's me."

"Was it you that was playing before Nash?"

"Yeah, wait how did you know it was Nash that was playing?"

"I see…," He paused and thought about something without answering Kousei's question. "Your playing…has failed to move up to the next level."

"What?" asked Kousei, confused by what Shusui just said.

"Pianists like us evolve through loss. At the Towa Hall competition you were close, that's why you caught the attention of so many world class musicians like Nash. But now that you've failed to do that, you won't stand a chance against us." After he finished he turned around and held onto the white haired girl's arm. "Let's go Aika."

His words shocked Hiroko since it was the exact same thing she thought but angered Kousei. "Are you saying it would have better if I had experienced that loss?"

Shusui paused and remained silent as he kept his back turned to Kousei. "Y-"

"We need to go!" Aika interrupted before he could finish his response and gave a small bowed before they left. "Sorry for bothering you."

Kousei stood there pondering what Shusui just told him. 'My playing would have evolved if I lost Kaori?'

"Kousei?" asked Kaori with a concerned tone.

'Nonsense!'

"Let's go win!" With his eyes filled with determination and his body full of spirit, they walked into the Main Hall.

*Author's Note: Thank you for reading and I hope you guys liked the new characters I introduced. Tell me what you think of them and please leave any thoughts or comment about my writing! It always makes my day whenever I read a review so I appreciate everyone who drops one. Nash's performance was inspired by the Jazz Version of Fur Elise by Pianotainment, GO CHECK IT OUT IT'S AMAZING!

25 Baam: Thank you for the support and the encouragement on adding the new characters!

Ankai-chan: Thank you so much for the praises XD! There were a lot of times when I wasn't sure if it was the right reaction with Tsubaki and Watari but I'm happy people liked it. I'm happy that I was able to cheer you up with my writing!

rex4487: Thank you so much for reviewing once again and I'm happy that you found it worth the wait. I was so worried that I had lost all my reader .! Thank you for the suggestion, I will see if I can write something along those lines. I hope that my writing can continue to earn your support!

Mermaid Monster: Thank you for the encouragement on adding the new characters, I was worried that people wouldn't like the idea of OCs but I'm happy there was a positive feedback on my mention. Thank you for commenting about the setting, it really means a lot to me since I actually do a lot of research to make sure my facts are on point. AND I JUST REALIZED I CAN MAKE THEM GO ON A DOUBLE DATE! WHY DID THAT SLIP MY MIND?

TylerBytez: Thank you for the review and the ego boost XD! It means a lot to me when people say stuff like this :'), I hope I can continue to earn your support!

DeltaOp1: Thank you so much for that review XD! I hope to earn your future support with my writing!

story lover23: You waited for it...I feel bad for letting you wait so long XD! Thank you for sticking around and continuing your support for me!

TheLaughingStalk: Thank you for the encouragement on the new character and thank you for taking time out of your day to leave a review!