Chapter 11: Orient et Occident
There's a leap in my chest as recognition sets in. I'm witnessing a recruitment spot tailor-made to me. I have to give Kyouko and Mrs. Sakamoto some props; this is pretty clever of them.
The melody that comes out of the instrument is strange, clearly lyrical, but quick and not seeming to meet any kind of mental expectation. It sounds almost like random noise at times, actually. Yet as Mrs. Sakamoto plays on, I can't help but look on in bewilderment at the kind of dexterity she's able to display with her left hand alone.
Not only that, but the other students gathered around the piano are humming along to it. Not a single one of them is humming the exact same thing either, yet it all fits together, I feel. I've barely had any time to comprehend the scene before it ends suddenly with a light flourish, Mrs. Sakamoto turning to me with a devilish grin on her face.
There's no damn way.
"Nobody told you there was an entire concerto for the left hand, did they?" Mrs. Sakamoto smirks, standing back up to her previous position and looking down at me.
"N-no…" I murmur, drawing bemused giggles from the other girls. It would be wonderful to catch a break right now, but I suppose my embarrassed reactions are entertaining enough to watch.
"That one was written for an Austrian pianist who lost his arm in World War I," Mrs. Sakamoto continues before adding on even more. "In fact, his teacher was blind himself, come to think of it."
This gets a surprised look out of the rest of the group, Kyouko the most of all. I'm hardly surprised she'd be familiar with a piece like this, but it seems even she has a limit to what she knows about it, that or…
"Y-you're not making that up?" I cut in, rubbing my right arm nervously to dispel the growing sense of wonder in the room left behind by the impromptu solo piano performance meant to convince me to join the music club.
"Of course not, Miss Akiyama!" Mrs. Sakamoto chuckles along, bringing that sensation back instantly before hurrying about to the other side of the piano to drop its lid. "I wouldn't outright lie to a prospective student. Especially not one that one of my newest pupils is so insistent on getting to join."
The blush that pops up on Kyouko's cheeks at this makes me smirk a bit. Betrayed by her own music club instructor, eh? It's nice to get back at her, even if it's only tangentially thanks to Mrs. Sakamoto, but something about this still isn't sitting quite right with me.
"You think I could play something that difficult?" I bite my lip, looking at the unexpectedly fantastic pianist nervously. She's awfully confident the ploy will work if she's pulling out such a difficult showpiece that could just as well scare somebody inexperienced away. Credit has to be given where it's due though. The performance was impressive to the point of being inspiring, not terrifying.
"It would take a lot of practice. But I was a beginner once. Everybody was," Mrs. Sakamoto smiles, putting hands on my shoulders and looking closely at me. She's absurdly talented at recruitment in addition to piano, it seems. "What do you say?"
My only response for a while is a nervous swallow. Too many thoughts are going through my head for any single one to pop up and spurt out of my mouth. I look around the room, at the pictures of scary old men, at the various instruments laying around, then at Kyouko.
She's approximating my gaze again, in that same scarily accurate way she always does.
"I can try…" I finally cave.
I almost yelp in surprise when my left arm is lifted suddenly in triumph by the girl with green eyes. The grab prompts a throb of pain through my cranium, but I brush it off when I'm let go.
"Safe! We have another recruit then!" She giggles, prompting the rest of the group to giggle, and Kyouko to blush a bit, leaving her post at the end of the piano temporarily to head my way.
"I should get going, ladies," Mrs. Sakamoto checks her watch suddenly, before heading for the door, calling to us once more from there. "We'll be meeting again the same time tomorrow!"
"Thank you Mrs. Sakamoto! See you tomorrow!" The rest of the small group chimes in, bright smiles on all of their faces. I can't help but be infected by their collective mood myself, nodding along with an embarrassed grin of my own.
With that she departs without much extra fanfare, and I'm left with Kyouko and the other two girls, both of them third-years. My nerves are starting to settle a bit by now, and I'm even feeling a bit thankful now that I've had a chance to breathe again. I'll be in a club after all, eh?
"Well then, I'd say Mrs. Sakamoto has really outdone herself this time." Kyouko smiles as she settles at the edge of the piano, the other girl with a cane, Enomoto, trailing behind her a step. There's a lighthearted giggle between the four of us as I nod along.
"And here I was thinking it was your masterplan, Kyouko." I sigh, though I simply get a shrug in response.
"Well, it might have been my idea to recruit you," She teases, rolling her head to the side back and forth for a few moments. "But she kind of took on a life of her own when I mentioned your hands."
There's a light, extremely playful smirk on her face that's restoring my previous nerves.
"What about my hands?" I blink, looking down at my left to try and figure out exactly what she's getting at. If I could, I'd raise my right as well, but sadly no miracles are happening today.
Suddenly, the hand I'm looking at is grabbed, and I nearly fall over in surprise. I'm pretty sure my sudden shriek isn't exactly appreciated by Kyouko, but I don't notice her reaction. I'm too focused on the girl who grabbed my hand, Souma.
"They're huge is what!" She chuckles, holding my singular hand and cupping it between both of hers. It's a little strange they're referring to hands in the plural here when only one of the pair is functional for me, but I don't see any reason to complain about it.
Still, I'm blushing pretty heavily again. This group is never going to relent when it comes to embarrassing me to a different dimension is it?
"T-they're not that big…" I murmur, but bite my lip as I realize that Souma might actually have a point. She was the one playing piano before during the rehearsal, yet my hand completely dwarfs hers. It's not to the point where they're comically oversized, but I'm suddenly very self-conscious about them.
"They're certainly bigger than Chisato's, though," Enomoto speaks next, suddenly very close to me herself as she points directly to the size comparison. "Never thought I'd see the day."
"Hey!" Now it seems like it's Souma's turn to be ribbed on, but the chance to laugh is lost on me. Two of my seniors are very close, both touching me in fact, and they're both making light of a feature of mine I'd never noticed before on my own. Now it's all I can notice.
"Senpai, you're going to scare her off if you keep that up." Kyouko murmurs, a bit of a low edge to her voice that gets both of them to detach from me. Unfortunately, it seems like my hallmate has made herself their new target for lighthearted harassment.
"Oh of course! Wouldn't want your girlfriend thinking badly about us!" Chisato's grin is deviously playful and I'm relieved I don't have a drink in my hand. I'd hate to get spit all over the piano.
"Hallmate." Kyouko retaliates, cool as ice even through grit teeth. Her calm reaction is reassuring, but it still serves to make me feel bad about mine.
"Oh don't try to deny it, Kyoucchan~," Enomoto is the next one to speak, her voice laced with overtly-cutesy tones. "You can't hide that you were all over Soracchi~ here this morning in the main hall!"
Wait, I've got a diabetes-inducing nickname now too?
"Oh yeah, we saw everything." Souma interjects, the two older girls giving a high-five around waist level (a low-five?) before turning back to appreciate our reactions.
It seems Enomoto is the craftier Senpai when it comes to Kyouko because my hallmate's previously plain cheeks have fired up to an intense red. I'm not sure exactly what part did her in, but I'd be surprised if even I'm blushing as hard as she is.
"You guys are fucking jerks," Kyouko groans, covering her face and then, to my surprise, smiling a bit through her unexpectedly bright blush. "I guess I'll just ask one of you to be my 'girlfriend' tomorrow instead."
Huh, that was a surprisingly deft reversal there. Alas, the two jokester seniors aren't that easily affected.
"Hmm, it's a tempting offer," Enomoto smirks, stepping towards Kyouko. My eyes wander to her cane and how it differs from Kyouko's. Though her cane is clearly for support, she seems not to rely on it much at all. "But I think I'll pass this time. You'd probably get bored at the pool anyway."
"Yeah, you're not wrong there." Kyouko sighs, laughing softly to herself. It has a nice lifting effect on the four of us, and the tense atmosphere of teasing takes its temporary leave once again.
I'm not really sure what to make of everything I've just witness, but it's clear that Kyouko has known these two for quite some time. I'll have to ask about it later, but for now there's the issue of post-class plans to handle.
"Alright, that's enough play you guys," I'm shocked from my thoughts when Souma decides to execute a tackling hug on me. For once I'm thankful for my stature because it's probably all that's kept my shorter Senpai from toppling me over. "We should go celebrate Sora's drafting into the Music Club!" Oh Thank God that obnoxiously cute nickname isn't sticking around.
"Leave it to Chisato to think of excuses to go out," Enomoto chuckles, turning away from Kyouko to restore our group to the vague square it had been in. "I guess we have to decide where, though."
"We could always do the Shanghai!" Chisato hums delightedly, but immediately gets a less than savory look from her blonde comrade. Wait, that name is familiar.
"On the first night of school? I knew you were crazy, girl, but not that crazy," Enomoto laughs, sighing and turning to the two of us for a moment. "You know the Shanghai, Sora?"
"Well, my classmates were actually looking to go there after club activities and invited me," I murmur, seeing no reason to be opaque here. "But it sounds kind of popular right now…" This said to emphasize that I'm not a fan of that condition.
"See? And that's just Sora's friends we know about. As much as I like the place, it's dreadful when it's over-crowded." Enomoto hums and Souma nods reluctantly in agreement.
"I guess you have a point. I'd hate to swamp Yuuko even worse. Say, Sora!" She turns to me, closing the small gap again and grabbing my hand again. The amount of casual contact I've been pushed into since I got here is nothing short of remarkable, but I suppose I don't mind it. "Maybe we could convince your friends to come along with us and find someplace else?"
I blink as I stare back at her before looking to the other two to see if there's an answer hidden somewhere in their faces. Their expectant appearances seem telling enough, but…
"I think we could try," I murmur, looking away nervously as Souma continues to hold up my hand. "I got the impression that Junko was set on the Shanghai but… Well, she and Anja are both from the area."
"Ah, they might know some good alternatives then! Although, the town isn't that terribly big." Souma sighs for a moment, the atmosphere dampening when my hallmate does something curious. After a second of introspection, she produces a cellphone and presses it to her ear after a quick button press.
"Uncle Eric." She speaks into it a moment later as the rest of stare, a bit dumbfounded. There's a flash of recognition as she starts to talk. Unfortunately, it's followed by pity as a voice loud enough to be heard from meters away comes from the phone's speaker. That said, all I can make out for certain from the other end is Kyouko's name. Poor girl was expecting it and still looks a bit shaken.
"Yes, it's been fine, nothing's really happened… Yes, she's right here, actually…" Kyouko's face goes through so many different emotions in a few minutes that everybody can't help standing around silently to watch. This is in spite of how inherently annoying half-conversations are.
"You can? There are going to be," Kyouko pushes the receiver away from her mouth, calling in my direction. "How many of your friends was it, Sora?"
"Three…" I answer automatically, blinking at the suddenness. Kyouko relays the answer.
Ah, I should probably mention one of them is in a wheelchair though…
"Alright, we'll worry about anything unforeseen later… No, maybe later. Let me hang out with friends first why don't you?" Kyouko laughs a bit, setting the atmosphere back at ease. I hadn't even realized before her laughing that it was so surprisingly tense here.
She closes up her phone with a loud sigh, the rest of us looking on expectantly.
"Well?" Souma is the first one unable to hold her tongue, unsurprisingly.
"He's bringing the accessible van. We should go find your friends and see if they're actually okay with this, Sora." Kyouko turns towards where I had been, several feet away from my current position. I didn't notice that either. I'm starting to wonder if I'm really in control of myself right now…
"Right," I nod nervously, the phonation giving Kyouko a better reference for my position. "Um… I'm not sure exactly where to find them all. Junko's probably at the track."
"Let's start there! Is everybody ready to go?" Enomoto smiles, her cane tapping against the ground to add some emphasis to her point.
The three of us give some variation of an affirmative, the light rustle of our bags filling the room before we're all ready to start off. I take up my spot next to Kyouko, even when Enomoto offers to take care of it for me. I'm still getting used to this, so there's no use turning down another chance to get acclimated.
"Alright then, to the track!" Souma grins, punching an arm forward triumphantly, heralding the departure of the four of us from the Music Club room.
I'm not sure where exactly we'll end up, but it all seems like it'll be fine.