.

.

.

Chiaki took the scores to my house three days after the halloween event at Karin haouse during the evening.

"Why didn't you come to the roof for the past few days? You returned home right after school today too! Senpai's really worried about you!"

As usual, the uniformed Chiaki climbed up the tree in the courtyard, and squeezed in through the window of my room. She said that as she shook a stack of handwritten scores in her hand.

I twirled the wires of my headphones and answered.

"I had to help Karin at her store lately."

Chiaki sat next to my pillow and pulled the blanket away from my face. She then said, "Geez… you should've told us before, you make us worried over nothing. Anyways did Weiss say something to you again?"

I did not reply to her, and instead covered my face with my pillow. Since the day I went over to apologize to Weiss, I had never once touched my bass. My brain was in a total mess.

"Hey, are you going to say things like you want to quit?"

"… Maybe."

I had already prepared myself for Chiaki to punch or do a triangle choke hold on me, but instead she looked up at the ceiling, and said nothing for a long while.

"… I thought we could finally start a band or something."

I heard her mumbling something. For a moment, I thought I was thinking too much into it. Just as I lifted my head to look at Chiaki's face, she pressed a score sheet into my face.

"Senpai spent so much effort changing that Beethoven's piece into the scores of a bass, all just for you!"

I stared at the dancing tadpoles on the five-line staff lazily.

"No, can't do. I can't possibly play this piece of music."

"That's because you didn't practice, right?"

Chiaki got it absolutely right, so I hid myself under the blanket, and laid on the bed. Suddenly, Chiaki pressed her whole body weight on the area near my waist, and began practicing drumming basics on my back. Crotchet, quaver, triplets, semiquaver… she actually used her drum sticks to hit against my back along to the rhythms accurately.

"Chiaki, that hurts!"

"I know."

What's with the "I know"!? What sort of answer is that! She continued drumming the rhythms on my back while maintaining them at a fixed tempo. Before long, my mind became lax.

"Everyone will feel hurt if they're hit directly in their heart."

I had no idea what she was talking about. Still, I began imagining the pain of my heart being drummed at. It's probably painful enough for the corpses to jump out of their graves in pain.

I don't know if Chiaki was getting more and more into it, but she began drumming some quavers slowly. Somehow, it felt like my head was a cymbal, while my right hand was a floor tom. Wait, stop Chiaki-sama, that really hurts! Before long, the piece suddenly went into the chorus. She began lightly rapping semiquavers on my left shoulder in replacement as a snare drum.

"Chiaki, wait, that hurts! I said it hurts!"

I kept moving about beneath the blanket, but my opponent's a retired black belt in Judo, and she knew very well where to apply the force so as to make me immobile. In the end, I had to wait till she finished drumming the whole piece before I was freed from beneath her butt.

"Do you know what song that was?"

A naughty smile appeared on Chiaki's face, as she asked me that question after I had finally managed to get out of the blanket with much difficulty.

"Unicorn's Hige to Boin ?"

"Oh, you're quite sharp."

Though such cases are rare, but just like the how Stand by Me is for the bass, there are some songs that one can recognize instantly just by listening to the drums. Actually, this miracle might have happened purely because Chiaki and I had grown up listening to similar music since our days in elementary, before Unicorn disbanded.

"But sadly, the answer is Asia no Junshin ."

"So you're just toying with me!?" To think I had just thought of it as a miracle doesn't that make me an idiot?

"Not at all. We still have to do our best even if life is boring! I'll root for you, just a little."

With that, she took her shoes that she had placed on my desk, and jumped out of the window… why can't you just leave through the main door?

I'm alone yet again. I sat on my bed, and picked up the scores left by Chiaki. The theme's really simple, and the tempo is quite slow as well — I think I can probably play it right off the bat. Up till the point where the second, third and forth voices are gradually overlapping, there is still no change in the difficulty of the part which I am supposed to play. However, the variation before that is much more complicated. As for the fugue, I actually have to play a melody that is as difficult as Weiss's, right till the very end. That's just impossible no matter how you look at it! I tossed the scores aside, laid down, and stared at the ceiling for a while. My back was still a little sore from the drumming that Chiaki gave me.

Things like how the pieces are too difficult, or how I have no motivation at all — they are all excuses. I knew that perfectly well. Therefore, Chiaki might know it just as well. I was just ashamed of myself. I don't understand the situation about Weiss at all, and yet I was challenging her to a fight enthusiastically. To get back the classroom so that I can kill time after school — just for something as stupid as that? What an idiot I was. But that's even more reason why I can't give up at a point like this, or else I'll be an even bigger idiot than I already am.

I quickly took the scores, and went to the living room to take out my bass from its casing. Just as I was tuning the instrument, the string suddenly snapped into two. Feels like it's telling me that I can't possibly do it. I laid on the sofa and planned to just sleep it off, but my back where Chiaki had drummed on began to hurt again. And so, I stuffed the scores into the casing, then lifted it up onto my back and walked out of the main door.

The skies were already growing dark when I reached Hatake's Musical Instrument Store. From a gap which was about as wide as the width of a pencil, I could see all sorts of guitars that were displayed in the shop, which were glowing under the display lights. Somehow, the scene felt so nostalgic, I almost teared from my eyes. I only went to the shop once, so why did I feel that way?

Kagurazaka Senpai was tending the store alone, and there were no customers in there. She's on the other side of the counter. Using a piece of yellow cloth, she was carefully and tenderly cleaning the neck of a guitar with its strings removed.

"Young man, here I am thinking that it's about time for you to come! I'm really happy, yeah?"

Upon noticing me, she put the guitar down and stood up.

"You're here to buy strings for your bass, right?"

I jumped in shock and nodded my head in a daze. How does Senpai know?

"There's something that I'll have to apologize to you."

As she said that, she took out the bass' strings from a rack to the side of the counter, which has a lot of compartments.

"Which is?"

"I actually did something to the third string, so that it would snap more easily."

"Haa?"

I gave a strange cry.

"Why did you do that?"

"You burn-out really easily, right? I was thinking that you may coop yourself up in your house if you start to get tired of it halfway. If your string so happens to snap right then… see, isn't that a perfect excuse for you to come see me? So let me pay for that!"

Senpai smiled as she took out three thousand-yen bills from her wallet, and put them into the cashier. Compared to the strings for guitars, the strings for a bass are shockingly pricey, but the shop owners will always help you change them. I was surprised, and for a moment I could not speak. I always thought that tuning will cause the strings to wear easily, so in actual fact the strings don't break that easily?

"What do you plan to do if I decide to give up on bass because of the broken string?"

"Then there's nothing else I can do. I thought about it before — I'll give up if things are not fated to be. However, you still came running to me, right?"

Senpai said that with a smiling face, so there's nothing much for me to say.

"You got the score?"

I nodded my head, and took out the score which was handwritten by Senpai from my bass casing.

"So, you're not here to complain about how the score is too difficult for you, right?"

"No… nothing." I moved my eyes away and cooked up a lie.

"Where have you played till?"

"At about the forth variation, but I was stuck there ever since. I couldn't play the fugue at all, and I don't think it's possible for me to do so."

Senpai quickly finished tuning the newly strung bass, and then she began to play it while sitting on the counter.

I listened to the fugue with a complicated feeling. The music played by Weiss's guitar is like it's directly shaved out from a giant pillar of ice. In contrast, Kagurazaka Senpai's performance is like the frozen rays of winter — her music appeared unknowingly all of the sudden, and pierces right through the clouds. It is really unbelievable to see such clear sounds flowing smoothly without any hiccups.

After she was done with the performance, Senpai returned the bass to me. For a while, I couldn't bring myself to face her.

"It's not that hard! I didn't use any special techniques either. Just reduce the tempo by half, and carefully play through each and every note."

"Senpai…" I quietly muttered that with my head still lowered.

"Hmm?"

"Why can't you recruit Weiss by yourself? You play better than me anyway."

"Didn't I say that before already? It has to be you."

I shook my head weakly.

"Even if it's me, I can't converse much with Weiss either. Weiss is unwilling to tell me anything, and all I did is make her angry…"

Senpai took out two round stools from the counter, and placed them in the aisle that displays the guitars. She then made me sit down by pressing me on my shoulders.

"It's not just that."

"Eh?" I lifted my head.

Senpai shifted her sight away from my face slightly, and it floated upwards slowly.

"That's not all there is to it. You see, before I knew the existence of Weiss Schnee, I already knew about you."

I gradually found it difficult to breathe. What's Senpai talking about now?

"Young man, you do know about a music magazine named 'Friends of Musicians', right? In the July issue two years back, I read a critique that was published in it, and the title is 'Handel and the verses in the bible'. The article is roughly about how Handel's pieces, including those that aren't music, can all be interpreted as verses. Even though the logic's a little far-fetched, it still felt rather amazing. It's a rather touching article."

I was still dazed while I hugged onto my bass tightly with my arms. Of course I know that article. It's because, that critique…

"I took a look at the name of the writer, and it was Kushina Uzumaki, a critic whom I'm very familiar with. However, something didn't feel quite right. The article was written in English simple enough for junior high school students to read, and the examples cited in it should not have existed in the junior high school education which Kushina Uzumaki should have received, since she was already in her forties."

"Ah…"

There's.… There's actually someone who notices that?

"That strange feeling caused me to shift my suspicion to the whole article. I took out older magazines and revised them, by rereading every single critique written by Kushina Uzumaki. Somehow, a few articles stood out from the rest, and all these articles shared the same weird feeling as well. I searched for a few CD reviews as well, and I managed to find one for Finlandia, which was played by Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra and conducted by Karajan in 1959."

I gulped. My dry throat was sore.

"However, I couldn't find anymore concrete evidence after that. I didn't know anyone from the publisher either — all I knew was that Kushina Uzumaki had a son. What I know is, for some unknown reason, she had written about her son in her articles quite a few times, and had even wrote out his name. Therefore, when I found that name in the booklet that detailed the names of all the newcomers — I guess you can understand how shocked I was then, right?"

With a light smile on her face, Senpai prodded my nose with her finger.

"The criminal is you."

"… What do you mean by criminal?"

"All my deductions are correct, right?"

Senpai suddenly pulled her face close to mine, and I could only nod my head. There was actually someone in this world who found out the articles I had done in Mom's name, just by reading the articles alone.

"Therefore, I have already been paying attention to you for a long time, young man. I need a secretary in my revolutionary army, and I can't think of anyone that is more suitable for that position than you. Thus, it's not me asking you to join along the way while I am trying to recruit Weiss Schnee."

Senpai placed her hands on my shoulders.

"I want you."

Don't say that sort of thing to me at such a close distance when we're all alone here. My mind was in a mess, and I couldn't say anything. In order to avoid Senpai's gaze, I turned my head away and packed my bass.

"However, for someone like me…"

I confirmed the touch of my casing.

"It's not like I'll benefit the band by joining. I can't play as well as Weiss does, and I probably will never catch up to her. All this while, I've… always been listening to music by myself."

Senpai narrowed her eyes and stared at me for quite a while. She then suddenly diverted her gaze, and yelled towards my back.

"Comrade Aihara, it's about time you show yourself. Want to come in?"

I turned my head around in shock. Chiaki was standing in the shadows of the few guitars next to the door. She quietly showed herself. There was a gentle expression on her face.

"You must have stalked this young man all the way here, right? As expected from a fighter in my revolutionary army. You are quite adept at stealth missions as well."

"W-Wha!? I didn't stalk him!"

Chiaki said that angrily, and stomped all the way over.

"Senpai, you can't say things that will frighten Naruto!"

"That jealous look of yours is really cute too!" Senpai patted Chiaki's head lovingly.

I looked at her with a dumbfounded expression as well. Did she really stalk me all the way here? Is that really true, or is it not?

Chiaki glared at me while saying, "I just so happened to come here to take a look around, and it just so happened that Naruto was inside, so it was inconvenient for me to enter."

Senpai consoled her by saying, "I understand, I understand."

"Comrade Aihara, did you bring your drum sticks along?"

"… Drum sticks?" Chiaki tilted her head, then nodded.

"Mmm. I'll go wake up that pervert shopkeeper inside and borrow the key to the recording room."

Senpai shifted her gaze to me, and turned her hand into the shape of a gun. She then pretended to fire a shot into my chest.

"Young man, let me light your passion ablaze."

The third floor of Hatake's Musical Instrument Store was modified into a recording room for rent. There are two tightly shut doors along the long and narrow passageway. After opening the door before me, I was greeted by a room that is four-and-a-half tatami big, out of which about a half of the area is occupied by the drums. On both sides are two giant guitar amplifiers. There's also mikes and recording equipment, as well as an asphyxiating smell of smoke.

"I've specially allowed you guys in, all thanks to the welfare given to me as an employee here."

And with that, Kagurazaka-senpai pushed me into the recording room. Chiaki followed in as well.

"Whoa! t's been a long time since I've played on real drums."

Chiaki sat in the middle of the drum set, and was tuning the snare drum rather happily. Kagurazaka-senpai then connected my bass and her guitar into the amplifiers in that sequence. Senpai's guitar is a Gibson Les Paul, which is said to cost a million yen, though I've no idea if that is true or not. If so, that is probably an old 'Historic Collection' series. From the colors of the guitar, it should be a replica of the 60's series?

I slung the strap of the bass onto my shoulder, then plucked the string once timidly. An unbearable noise filled the small and cramped recording room. For some strange reason, I was lead into this recording room by her, just like that…

"There's no need for you to play something that's overly difficult, young man. You just have to follow the drums and play D in quavers, that's all."

Chiaki lifted the drum sticks high into the air, and said, "Senpai, are you ready?"

The two of them exchanged their sights for a second. Just at the exact instant where the sounds of the cymbals disappeared, I was surrounded by a music that was moving forward at a heavy pace. Chiaki began to hit out a series of powerful quavers with the hi-hat, and on the drums she was overlapping the quavers with triplets. The slowly rising and screeching guitar riffs were like the faltering footsteps of a traveler heading towards the seas with a cane in his hand.

I tried tapping along to the rhythm of Chiaki, and then I quietly strummed the bass. Initially, I could not believe that the low notes that were pressing up against my abdomen were actually coming from my bass. The three different melodies then began to mash together stiffly, and entwined — From which, came the sounds of a singing voice… it's the voice of Kagurazaka Senpai.

It's like the whispers of the night in the desert — though her voice was slightly hoarse, but it had transmitted all the way to the horizon on the other end. It's Led Zeppelin's Kashmir. It's a song that I have heard countless times. I listened to this song in bed deep in the middle of the night repeatedly for many times, countless of times. And now, my fingers were playing out the pulse of the song.

At the places where the song was falling silent, the guitar replied with a similar phrase of music. Chiaki maintained her footsteps and marched on endlessly and continuously. I had already erased from my mind whatever Senpai had told me. When the guitar began playing the winding stretches of the Arabian style of music, I began searching for the low notes that should be hidden within the song, and wove them out with my fingertips.

I really felt that the song could continue on forever. Therefore, when the song finally stopped, I felt just as though I was left alone in a desolate desert. The room was filled with a rumbling sound, but I could no longer differentiate if that was just the noise, the echoes, or the memories of Kashmir that had seeped into my ears.

Chiaki's face was flushed red, and she was staring at me with her forehead filled with sweat. A seemingly triumphant smile appeared on her face. I turned my sight away, and this time, the graceful sight of Kagurazaka Senpai entered my eyes.

I don't know why but I could not look right into her face.

"… Young man, what do you think the bass is?"

I slowly lifted my head. There was no smile on Senpai's face, but her gaze was gentle.

"If we are to see the band as a person, then the lead singer will be the head, while the guitar are the hands…"

Senpai moved her sight away from her hands and shifted it into the direction of Chiaki.

"If the drums are the legs, then which part do you think the bass represents?"

I could not answer Senpai's riddle. Senpai finally broke into a gentle smile, and walked towards me quickly. She placed her palm on my chest, which made me jump in a huge shock. My body froze.

"It's here, young man."

As she stared face to face straight into my eyes, Senpai continued.

"The heart. You understand now? Without you, we would not be able to move."

I was stunned speechless. What replied to her in my place, was the pulse of my heart. If I am to see the band as a person. I was not moving forward by following in their footsteps. As someone who was placing himself in a sound shared with others for the very first time, that was something which I was most certain of. If I was to listen to the CD alone in my own room, I would have probably never understood that. Then, I was probably thinking of the same thing as Senpai.

If only Weiss was here… the sound of that guitar. If only it was here… I gripped the neck of my bass tightly. I finally understood — that is the reason why I'm playing the bass. It's not an excuse, but an actual reason — it is so that I can transmit this blazing heat to Weiss.

::::::

Oh let the sun beat down upon my face, stars to fill my dream

I am a traveler of both time and space, to be where I have been

To sit with elders of the gentle race, this world has seldom seen

They talk of days for which they sit and wait and all will be revealed

Talk and song from tongues of lilting grace, whose sounds caress my ear

But not a word I heard could I relate, the story was quite clear

Oh, oh.

Oh, I been flying... mama, there ain't no denyin'

I've been flying, ain't no denyin', no denyin'

All I see turns to brown, as the sun burns the ground

And my eyes fill with sand, as I scan this wasted land

Trying to find, trying to find where I've been.

Oh, pilot of the storm who leaves no trace, like thoughts inside a dream

Heed the path that led me to that place, yellow desert stream

My Shangri-La beneath the summer moon, I will return again

Sure as the dust that floats high in June, when movin' through Kashmir.

Oh, father of the four winds, fill my sails, across the sea of years

With no provision but an open face, along the straits of fear

Ohh.

When I'm on, when I'm on my way, yeah

When I see, when I see the way, you stay-yeah

Ooh, yeah-yeah, ooh, yeah-yeah, when I'm down...

Ooh, yeah-yeah, ooh, yeah-yeah, well I'm down, so down

Ooh, my baby, oooh, my baby, let me take you there

Let me take you there. Let me take you there

::::::

(◕ω◕✿)

With us engrossed in our practice, the following two weeks went by in a flash, and before long the end of October had finally arrived. The skin on my left fingertips were hard like dried soil. Since the strings of the bass are much thicker than those of a guitar, the position of the calluses on my fingers are slightly different than those of Kagurazaka Senpai's.

"You look more like a bassist now."

Senpai couldn't help but let out a loud laugh when our fingertips came into contact like the scene of the alien in ET. However, the callus had caused some slight changes to my sense of touch — they affected me when I was doing something delicate with machines, so it's a little inconvenient. Still, before issuing a challenge to Weiss, there's another thing that requires me to utilize my interest of fooling about with machines.

On the fourth Thursday of October, I ran straight to the courtyard after school. Chiaki was trying all means to retain Weiss, though optimistically speaking she could probably keep her off for only about twenty minutes? I'll have to win this battle with speed. I first started by picking the padlock open, and that took me less than a minute. Then, I turned the handle slightly as usual, and opened the lock to enter the room. Replicating the multiple imaginary scenarios I had earlier, I took out the tools and the wires from my bag, and began to work on the amplifier.

I swiftly opened the back cover of the amplifier, and the internals of the machine which I had worked on various times came into full view before my eyes. Rewiring the circuits isn't that much of a problem; hiding the newly extended wire took up the bulk of the time.

After everything was done, I locked the padlock, and just when I was about to return to the main building, I accidentally bumped into Weiss along the corner. The two of us just stood there without moving. Neither of us had our eyes focused on the other party. Ever since that day, we hardly spoke to each other. Because of that, those fellas in the class were all complaining about how their only source of information to the Princess was blocked off. However, none of them knew about the details behind it.

Just as I was planning to walk past her, Weiss spoke.

"Have you… given up already?"

"Hmm?"

"Bass. You used to play it on top of the roof."

"I'm still playing it, yeah? Just that I have been practicing on the roof of the northern building, because I don't wanna disturb someone who has unexceptionally sharp ears."

"Liar. I went there to look for you as well, and you weren't around."

That was indeed a lie. Recently, I had been going to Hatake's Musical Instrument Store to get a bassist whom Senpai knows to take a look and oversee my practice. As I had no intention of letting her know about me practicing fervently, I wove out that lie.

"… You just said you looked for me? What do you mean by that?"

"Ah, that's… you don't have to mind that, it's nothing. I'm just slightly worried."

Weiss's voice became even more anxious, and she shook her head repeatedly.

"I'm just thinking… if you're still thinking about that incident back then?"

I jumped in shock, and turned around. It seemed like Weiss was finding it difficult to speak, and she kept staring at her fingers.

"Please forget about that. I'm totally fine, so you don't have to be concerned about it."

Please forget it. I've heard that countless times from Weiss already. I felt a slight anger stirring within me. I guess I'll just tell her my feelings truthfully.

"Look, what are you treating the human brain as? Our brains aren't like some hard disk. Do you think that a simple 'Memory delete' from you will make me go 'Oh, like this?' and I'll forget everything?"

Weiss's eyes widened, and she took a step back.

"I forgot nothing, and in fact I remember them all clearly. You said, 'Do you think you can catch up to me by playing the bass?' Let's have a showdown tomorrow after school."

"… What do you mean by having a showdown?"

"A showdown between my bass and your guitar, that's what. If I can catch up with you right till the end in terms of playing, then it will be my victory. If I win, I'll be allowed to use that room. If I lose, I'll never get close ever again."

"Are you serious… about that?"

Of course! But I said nothing more, and walked past Weiss just like that.

"Young man, you've became quite good with your words."

When I arrived at the roof, Kagurazaka Senpai said that to me. It seems like she was watching us from the fence.

"I really can't believe you were that born loser one monts ago."

"Don't call me a born loser!"

I shifted my sight away from Senpai. I have no idea why, but ever since that day, I felt rather embarrassed whenever I look straight at her.

"When I think deeper into it, there's nothing for me to lose from this showdown anyway. Originally, I can't use that practice room anyway, so it's fine even if I lose. It's just like the rock-scissors-paper match I had with Senpai back then."

Half of the reason for that sort of twisted thinking was due to my self mockery. However, Senpai sat next to me while hugging onto the bass, and flashed a satisfied smile on her face.

"So you still remember what I did during that match."

I looked at the side of Senpai's face, and nodded my tilted head.

Back then, Senpai declared a match against me while holding onto a pick in her index and middle finger.

Upon seeing that, I thought she was trying to trick me into thinking that she wouldn't be throwing scissors, so I just went for it. With my brain in a huge mess, I threw out rock, and in the end I lost to Senpai. However, Senpai laughed out loudly and said, "Actually, I was not trying to read your thoughts and use them against you. Even if I did that, it will not increase the odds of me winning such a simple game. What do you think is the sure-fire method of winning rock-scissors-paper?"

"Eh?" That means Senpai had used a sure-win method?

"It's simple. Just throw out last."

"Huh?"

"There's actually no special reason behind me holding onto the pick with my fingers, other than to make you all confused, so that you will throw out your choice to my tempo. That's all. Remember this well: the sure-win method is to make yourself go last."

I was shocked speechless, and just stared at Senpai's triumphant face. I then let out a long sigh in between my knees. It's impossible. There's no chance of me winning against someone like her right from the very beginning.

"It's always been said that battles are won long before they have even started, that's exactly what it means by that. Which means, the important part is how you lure your opponent into your own territory. Oh right, do you know the reason why I chose this song to be the song for your showdown against Weiss? I'll tell you."

With that, she took out the scores from a file in a casing behind us and spread it out before us. She then said, "There's four reasons as to why I picked this piece."

"Then just tell me right from the beginning!"

That thought flashed past my mind for a brief moment. For the past few days, I've been thinking about that while practicing, why this piece? However, after listening to Senpai's lengthy explanation, I could only answer her with a sigh.

"… So are you slowly believing that you have a chance of winning this?"

"Mmm… A little." I answered truthfully. The chance of me winning has increased multiple folds — it's 0.2% now! That's probably how I'm feeling right now. Senpai bumped her shoulder into mine as she laughed.

"That's good enough! Only you will know how your battle will unfold. All I know are the results of my own battles, because I won't be taking part in the battle between you two."

"If you took over my place, you'd win… is that what Senpai is trying to say?" I asked.

Senpai answered me with a slightly angry voice, "Can I actually win?"

I looked at Senpai's face in shock.

"Didn't I say it already? It has to be you."

I couldn't reply to that, and thus I lowered my head again. Senpai suddenly took out a piece of paper, and snuffed it into the tip of my nose.

"Well then, this is the final preparation. Sign this first, so that you are mentally prepared for it. This copy's for Weiss Schnee."

I lifted my head to take a look. It was the application form for joining a club, which is printed on coarse paper — there's two of them. For both of them, the words 'Folk Music Research Club' were written neatly using a pen in the box where one is supposed to fill in the name of the club.

I shifted my eyes away, and tried to divert the topic.

"… I guess I'll just…keep these two forms for now."

"Why? I've already taught you so much about bass. Could it be… that you actually hate me? Is that it?"

Please don't look at me with such a sorrowful expression. You are obviously faking that.

"Hmm, how should I put it?" I removed the bass from my knees.

"I don't feel I'm qualified. The standards of both Senpai and Chiaki are too high for me."

"I said it before already, didn't I? I'm not asking you to follow us. We should be the ones following you."

Because the bass is the heart. I do know that, but still…

"Still, I can't decide if I'm to join the club or not. At least for not now. Therefore…" I lifted the bass, and stared at its strings.

"Therefore, if I manage to win against Weiss, and make her join the club…"

"If you can beat her, you'll join us too?"

I nodded in reply. If it's not like that, then I'll definitely regret it. It somehow feels like I have no say in everything that has been paved out for me.

"Then… what will you do if you lose?"

That sentence from Senpai caused me to be breathless from shock. I never thought about that. However, I still have to make my decision right now.

"… Even if I lose, I'll still play the bass… however, I won't be joining the club. Senpai has been looking after me this whole time, so I can't bring myself to say things like… please allow me to join the club even if I lose."

After a short moment of silence, I could hear Senpai giving out a gentle sigh next to me.

"I've only understood this recently, but you are a man with really strong self-esteem."

She showed a gentle smile. I could barely open my eyes any longer, but to shift my gaze away after a brief look into her face.

"We'll treat this as a promise between us for the day which is still faraway. Yeah, let's do just that."

Senpai took out a screwdriver from my bag (without my consent), and removed the back cover of the bass. She folded the two application forms into two small pieces, then stuffed it in the empty space located between all the wiring. She then screwed the cover back into place.

"Why are you putting them in a place like that?"

"Try listening to it. There should be the faint sounds of the papers rubbing against each other."

I placed the bass back on my knees. Senpai then strummed the string. The sounds of the paper rubbing against each other…

"Nope, I hear nothing?"

"But I can hear that!"

Your ears are comparable to those of a cat's.

"And maybe Weiss can hear them too. She is really sensitive to the sound of paper rubbing against each other, right? Perhaps these minute sounds can affect her subconscious, and cause her to become uneasy and frustrated."

There's such logic behind it?

"To go a little more far-fetched, it's a sort of spell. Just like how the samurais will sew the amulets of protection onto their clothes."

Senpai patted my bass.

"Our promise will be with you the whole time. So don't you forget it."

After a moment of hesitation, I nodded.

"I wish you good luck."

(◕ω◕✿)

I just so happened to meet Hiratsuka Sensei on my way back home. After walking into the ordinary carriage which will stop at each and every station, she asked, "Seems like you have been chatting with Weiss quite a lot recently?"

I shrunk my head as I grabbed onto the overhead handles. I've been caught by a troublesome person.

"No, you can't quite consider that chatting."

"Just be straightforward and tell her that you'd love to share that room with her? Why are all the boys that eccentric?"

You think I could say that? Me? To Weiss?

"And also, what have you been doing recently? Seems like you've been together with the second-year Kagurazaka quite frequently, right?"

"Oh, well…"

With her vice grip grabbing onto the back of my collar, I had no other option but to tell her the truth.

"A guitar showdown?"

Hiratsuka sensei suddenly gave out a strange sound, which resulted in the rest of the passengers directing their attention to us.

"Should I say that you're stupid, or that you're similar to Kagurazaka…"

Hiratsuka sensei gave a sigh as she voiced out her thoughts. Is Kagurazaka Senpai that famous among the teachers as well? She doesn't seem to attend any lessons, so perhaps she is one of those so called problematic students or something?

"Then Weiss said she's okay with the proposal? How can that be possible?"

"No, she was just stunned."

"Yeah, that's more like it! Then what are you going to do? Do you really want to do this?"

"Hah, there's a lot of reasons behind it. I'll put my best into this."

I replied vaguely. I couldn't possibly tell Hiratsuka Sensei about the various things that we've done to make Weiss participate in the showdown. Hiratsuka Sensei knitted her beautiful pair of eyebrows for a moment, and pressed her finger against her temple.

"Look… I am very grateful to you for interacting with Weiss, but don't provoke her too much. She's a really delicate girl."

"Oh."

Even if she told me that, but for some unknown reason, I couldn't help but get angry at how she wanted me to be gentle towards Weiss. That lass has said many terrible things to me you know?

"Mmm…"

Hiratsuka sensei crossed her arms before her chest, and her expression suggested that she didn't know what she should say.

"I think, the majority of the problems are due to a certain psychological issue she's having. Therefore…"

"What do you mean? What's this 'psychological issue' that Sensei is referring to?"

Hiratsuka Sensei stared at me without saying a single word. She then mumbled to herself with a hoarse voice, "If the person is Naruto, then it should be fine telling him…" But then she immediately shook her head and canceled that thought of hers.

"I can't be the one to tell you this. It will be for the best if Weiss is willing to tell you about it."

Psychological issues. I recalled the time when Weiss was holding tightly to a bag of medicine in her hands. So Weiss's really sick? I can't quite see that from the outside, but if…

"Umm, Sensei…" I thought of something else, and so I decided to ask her about it.

"Weiss… I heard she is about to transfer away soon. Is that true?"

"Transfer? Why?"

"… Ah, nothing."

She's disappearing in November. Then… what does that actually mean? I said nothing, and once again sank into my own thoughts. In any case, Weiss said nothing to me at all.

"A showdown through guitars huh… that's youth for you! But that may be a good thing as well."

Hiratsuka sensei smiled as she gazed into the distance.

"And Weiss has no intention of making friends. Even though it may be slightly unreasonable for me to be doing this, but it is quite a good idea to force her to join a club. If so, I'll be the adviser for your club!"

"So you think… I can win?"

"No, not at all."

Hiratsuka sensei answered immediately. I gripped hard onto the handle and slumped my head in disappointment.

"However, I heard that she only started playing the guitar half a year ago."

"Really?"

She can achieve such skills within half a year? Tch, what's up with these so-perfect girls around me.

"Still, everyone will go through things like this, right? There are times where you just have to do the things you need to do. All the best, my boy. If you make Weiss cry, I'll never let you off the hook easily."

With that, Hiratsuka sensei gave me a hard slap on my back.

I returned to my room and sat on my bed. After putting the bass on my legs, my fingers began to strum on the strings subconsciously. I then realized I was playing the bass of that piano concerto unknowingly. It's the piece which Weiss played at the junkyard on the day when we first met.

I went into my parent's room, and began stacking up the CDs of various piano concertos of the late romantic era, then took them all to the my room. I spent the whole night listening to all the CDs continuously, to the point where I had even skipped my dinner. However, I did not manage to locate the track in my memory. That's not surprising though, since there are a few thousand piano concertos.

I switched off the sound system, and gave up trying to find it. I suddenly remembered my declaration to Weiss when I was tuning my bass: "If I lose, I'll never get close ever again."

That line suddenly appeared in my mind, but wow. What the hell was I saying? What I meant was that I'll never get close to that room, and that I'll never get close to Weiss, right? And since our seats are right next to each other, it will be impossible for me not to be close to her, right? In the end, I was endlessly trying to explain things to some random unknown person in my mind.

What will happen if I lose? I kept thinking that. My excuse for talking to Weiss will disappear along with that as well, right? And I did say that I won't join the Folk Music Research Club if I lose. I recalled the song we played in the recording room that day — Kashmir. That is a wonderfully sweet experience that makes one breathless, and I felt like my body was burning in flames. Tomorrow… I will do my best and rock on. I will defeat Weiss Schnee.

(◕ω◕✿)

The skies of the last Friday of October were filled with dark clouds. As I could not fall asleep, I headed to school early in the morning. Once I entered the classroom, I was immediately surrounded by my classmates.

"Naruto, I heard you're gonna have a showdown with the Princess today?"

"What? What do you mean by showdown, Takurou-kun? What will happen if Naruto loses?"

"Perhaps Naruto will be her slave for life?"

"Then isn't that the same as things are now?"

My face turned green after hearing everyone saying things like that.

"Hey why does everyone know about this!?"

"Didn't you talk to the princess in the courtyard yesterday, Naruto?"

"You guys saw?"

"The atmosphere was quite nice, but you just have to say things like having a showdown. The audience was really disappointed!"

It's not like we were putting on a show there.

"So, when are you guys competing? Competing in what? What does the winner get?"

Ah, so they didn't hear about the part where we will be having the showdown later after school? That's fantastic. Despite me trying to divert the topic, it still ended with me telling them everything other than the place and time of the showdown.

"A new club? With Weiss? And Aihara? And Kagurazaka Senpai too?"

Why are they so damn excited?

"The Kagurazaka Senpai you are referring to is the one in second-year?"

"Yeah, the one who looks like the head of a band of female ninjas."

What sort of analogy is that? I can't understand that at all! Then again, is Senpai that well known in school?

"Starting a band in that small room together with those three girls? Naruto you lucky bastard, I hope you lose!"

"I'd rather you win Naruto, then I'll take over your place in the band."

"Yeah, you definitely must win, and then I'll join in too."

"You know nuts about instruments, right?"

"I can be in charge of moving the instruments."

"Then… I'll be in charge of wiping their sweat."

"Somehow, I'm feeling more and more motivated."

And they actually started singing our school song — I felt like I should just run out of the room. Just as they were discussing on the topic regarding the time of the showdown, Chiaki walked into the classroom, and that silenced everyone. I'm saved…

"Are you guys saying bad stuff about me?"

The few guys flashed an awkward smile, before returning to their seats. Seems like everyone had finally learned one of the basics ettiquites in society — not to gossip about the person in front of her.

During lunch break, my desk was filled with sauce cutlet bread which the guys purchased from the store: seems like they were all praying for my victory. But how can I possibly finish that much bread!

"Naruto, you mustn't lose."

"Though I'm not too sure of what's happening, but you definitely must win Naruto!"

One by one, they grabbed onto my shoulders and cheered me on. I just stared at the pyramid of sauce cutlet bread blankly. It's not like there's zero chance of me fulfilling their expectations, but with everyone being that excited about it, I was honestly quite troubled by them.

After school, I brought my bass to the roof. Though Senpai wanted me to go there first, I didn't see her around when I got there. Then again, I remember she has work today? I then spotted something placed on the floor near the fence where Senpai usually sits. I walked over to take a look, and it's actually John Lennon's album of covers, Rock 'n' Roll. The second song of the CD is simply titled as Stand by Me. I took out my discman, and placed the CD inside. As I listened to the hoarse voice of John Lennon, I looked downwards through the fence and waited. I took out a piece of unfinished sauce cutlet bread and stuffed it into my mouth.

Halfway into the song, I suddenly remembered how Weiss will always head straight home on Fridays. Shit, I actually forgot that. But just then, the back of a girl together with her snow-white colored hair came into sight. I was at ease. What's going on? She doesn't have to do what she usually needs to do? Even as I watched Weiss walk into the practice room, I still allowed the song to flow from my earpieces and into my body. I grabbed hard on to the fence and stood there motionlessly till John Lennon's voice faded away.

I switched off my discman, and carried my bass. When I reached the practice room, I heard Weiss playing Beethoven's bagatelle on the other side of the door. I stopped in my tracks and thought of how I should enter the room. I came up with various lame ways, such as kicking the door open with my foot and then yelling 'Sorry to disturb!', but in the end I decided to just knock on the door.

The bagatelle suddenly stopped, as if it was shocked motionless. The uncomfortable silence was like a gush of bone-chilling cold air that seeped through from the gaps, and it persisted for quite a while.

"Hey…" I was the first to talk, but I had no idea what to do.

"I'm here to compete with you. I told you about it yesterday, right?"

The door opened. Weiss's guitar was slung on her shoulders. She took a look at me, then lowered her gaze.

"… You really came."

From the tone of Weiss, I could sense that something was not quite right. Somehow, she's different from usual.

"As the representative of rock, I am here to take revenge on the stubborn classical supremacist."

"You idiot! Are you serious about this? You didn't even know how to do the hammer-on a few days ago."

"Don't belittle me!" Then again, why did she even know things like that?

"You peeked at me practicing?"

"N-No w-what are you talking about!"

With her face flushed red, Weiss slammed the door shut with her two hands.

"Why do you have to do such a thing? Do you really want to use this room that badly?"

Why did I keep doing such things? Ah, I don't even know it myself. Senpai did say that it is for love and revolution. Chiaki said this before: "You are very concerned about Weiss, right?" I don't know. But I cannot allow things to go on like this.

Weiss said from the other side of the door, "Just do whatever you wish over there! I don't care anymore."

Just this once, I chose to remain silent.

Oh well. I already knew things would turn out like this. I took out my bass and plugged in the cable, then I squatted down near the door. There's a hole beneath the hinge of the door which I can directly plug my cable into. That is the result of my fifteen minute work yesterday — a cable that extended from the amplifiers and installed next to the door.

Just as I was about to hijack the stereo device, my hand stopped. For some unknown reason, I suddenly remembered a certain piece of musical history which Mom once told me half in jest. It starts with a small stream in Germany. The river flows into a beet plantation, then later spreads throughout the whole of Europe. It clashes with the local music, and was either engulfed by the music, or it ended up swallowing the music instead. It then flows into the seas, and spread through the whole world. That's how a lot of things in this world are born, and rock is one of them. Therefore, if we are to seek out the history of invasion and integration that spans over three hundred years, all the things will be linked to each other.

I plugged the cable into the hole. At that instance, a sharp screech blared out from the amplifiers on the other side of the door. I could almost see the frightened looks of Weiss.

"What have you done?"

She found out. In reply, I turned the volume of my bass to its loudest. The room was filled with feedback.

"Hey, what are you do-"

In order to drown her voice, I played the opening note of the piece. Allegretto vivace.

I must not play it too quickly as if I was stepping on the floor with force, but at the same time seeking for a place to step on with my toes; to use the low notes to stomp out the boundaries of the octave, and then to retreat back a little with slig htly hesitant steps.

I could even hear Weiss holding her breathes in shock. Of course, she should know what piece this is just from these eight bars. She had released an album with this piece inside two years ago in February. I had listened to that CD many times, to the point where the CD is close to being damaged.

It's Beethoven's 35 piece, Variations and Fugue for Piano in E major — the variations were later used in his Symphony No. 3. There's another title to this piano piece, which is Eroica Variations. Back then…

Kagurazaka Senpai did tell me that there's four reason for choosing that piece.

"It's just as you can see…" Senpai began pointing at the scores as she explains on.

"This is a piece that starts off with a single melody in low-pitch. In the opening thirty-two bars, only the bass will play, and one can immediately realize that this is Eroica. With this, we'll be able to fire the first salvo, and pull the opponent into our music."

With that, Senpai tapped at the tempo marking it with her finger.

"It's allegretto vivace, so don't ever go too fast. One of the weapons of Weiss is to be able to strum her guitar accurately at great speeds. Should the showdown turn into the situation where the speed will decide the victory… young man, you will lose all chances of winning. You can decide on the speed of the whole piece via the opening thirty-two bars that's the first reason I chose this piece."

"But…" There was a hint of uneasiness in my voice.

"At this part that leads to the overture, there is a place where the four voices will merge, and the melody after that will be the part where Weiss starts to play! If she starts to rush at then…"

"Young man, all you are thinking about is the areas in which you may lose…"

Senpai shook her head and let out a sigh.

"Don't worry. This is the second reason why I chose this piece. This variation…"

Senpai scanned through the scores quickly. A variation is actually a technique where a short main theme is repeatedly played by altering the playing styles, or even the melody. In general, the similar parts will be repeated for several cycles.

"Almost every variation will have ritardando and fermata at their later part. You get it now? There's a 'pause' after a certain fixed distance. No matter how fast Weiss speeds up the tempo to, the fermata will always disrupt the flow of her playing, and with that you can get back your own allegro. This piece of music is unique in that sense."

Phew I heaved a loud sigh. Indeed, everything makes sense. I am certain that this is the only piece possible. If it is this piece, then I may actually win.

"And the third reason…" Senpai gave a sinister smile, "This piece is in E major."

I recalled each and every sentence which Senpai had said, walked through the opening theme with heavy steps. At the end of the low-pitched melody which I played, was a long pause. Weiss's guitar finally made a recovery, and the noise of her electric guitar overwhelmed the pause.

I held onto my breath as we went into the second overture, a series of simple yet hesitant melodies of the guitar entered. Goosebumps appeared on my skin in an instant. The ingenious use of syncopation moved and infused just two of the overlapping tones. However, all the music that we know is born from that intoxicating feeling that one gets when two sounds overlaps each other.

In the third overture, I threw a simple line of melody towards Weiss. The high flying high-pitched notes of the guitar descended into the low-pitched notes of the bass — it seemed as if Weiss's steps had past right through the torrential waterfalls.

Weiss's guitar lead the forth overture, and took over the main theme. The whole melody shifted an octave higher, and skipped through the brisk middle octave beneath it. The tempo suddenly hastened, and even though I was thrown about by the huge force, I finally managed to barely grab onto the gaps in between the phrases of Weiss's melody, and pried them wide open with my low notes, which acted as an intermediary between them. It's a goner if I am to fall here, and there's no chance for me to start all over. I applied the brakes to restrain Weiss.

We've finally reached the main theme, but I was barely hanging on by a thread as well. It should be your ordinary chord accompaniment, but my fingers were trembling non stop. I desperately tried to get back the original tempo using the short pause. Weiss never slowed down despite going into the second variation with a merciless speed — Weiss could continuously play triple notes in the time it took me to play a single one.

I took a deep breath before going into the forth variation. That will be the first crisis. As my fingers were strumming the sixteen-beat legato smoothly, I did realize that Weiss was currently with the slight disadvantage — Weiss's simple theme sounded wobbly amid the constant rising and falling of my timbre. She probably thought I wouldn't know how to play that part out. I held my breath and focused my attention on the intense passage. I then recalled the words of Kagurazaka Senpai yet again.

"E major is…" As she gently caressed the guitar on my knee with her fingertips, she said, "You should know, right? It's one of the most difficult scales to play on the bass and the guitar."

I nodded my head. Simply put, scales that are easy for guitars are those that do not require the guitarist to press onto the chords much as they play. However, the E which frequently appears in the E major is a semitone lower that the lowest note playable by the guitar or the bass. As a result, the guitarist will need to press on the higher ends of the chords during the playing, and that is something rather difficult in terms of the finger movements.

"The E major is just as difficult for Weiss, especially during the part where she has to play the middle-pitched notes during the high-pitched melody. Even if speed is her greatest weapon in her arsenal, she will definitely be severely weakened by that."

"… No, wait…" I gave a knock on my bass. "It will be equally difficult for me to play too, right? Isn't that so?"

The strings of the bass and the strings of the guitar are of the same tone during tuning, so the parts of both parties will be equally difficult to play. Because of this, Senpai had specially shifted the pitch upwards by a semitone in her composition, and converted it to E major.

"Young man…" The expressions in Senpai's eyes were no longer that of irritation-instead, it had changed into a pitiful gaze.

"Do you still remember what I said? I said we will be doing exactly what Paganini did, right?"

"Eh…?" I do… remember something like that.

That's…something that happened on the day when Senpai was picking out the piece through a huge stack of CDs and scores. After hearing the sounds of Weiss's guitar, Senpai did mention Paganini's name out of the blue.

"But, how do you explain that?"

"Paganini's Violin Concerto No. 1. You should know that, right?"

I tilted my head, and tried recalling the songs that I should have heard of before. I then remembered the vast knowledge of my mother.

"Ah!"

The bass on my knee fall onto the floor with a thud. Paganini's Violin Concerto No. 1 — in E major. I see, so that's how it is.

"You finally got it?"

"I have to lower it by a semitone when tuning?"

Kagurazaka Senpai laughed and patted my head gently. The E major is difficult for violinists in the same way as it is for guitarists. However, the solo in the concerto played by the Violin of the Devil, Niccolo Paganini, is written in E major. As such, he tuned his violin by a semitone lower— I just… have to do exactly like him. By lowering the strings of the bass by a semitone, I will force Weiss to take on the highly difficult E major, while I am playing the simplest E major.

"… That's really despicable…" I accidentally let it slipped through my mouth.

"How's that despicable?"

Kagurazaka Senpai prodded my forehead with the pick.

"In order to achieve victory, giving out your all till the final moment before the battle is necessary, no? This is also an act of respect for your enemy."

"Hmm, that may be the case…"

"The fourth reason, is we will be doing fugue after the variations."

Senpai said the final reason.

"Weiss will definitely not let go of the fugue. Therefore, we just have to let her know that the piece of music is not something that can be played by a person alone. Those are the reasons for me choosing this piece of music — Eroica Variations , because it practically exists for you to use it to defeat Weiss. Therefore…"

Senpai placed her two hands on both of my shoulders, and looked straight into my eyes as she said, "Resolve yourself, and teach her a good lesson."

After playing through the continuous phrases, I pressed my back hard against the door, and took a huge gulp of air. The strings and the neck of the bass had became slippery due to my sweat.

The fifth variation finally returned back to the simple two voices melody, but that short moment of rest was over in an instant. I rushed straight into the sixth variation in C minor without having the chance to slow down the tempo. That was the only part where the lowering of the bass by a semitone was unable to wield its effects. It's as though Weiss cleaved open the opening phrase with an axe. The screeching melody dragged my body along, my fingers began to spin, and I played quite a few notes wrongly.

I could almost see Weiss's rapidly-firing questions appearing at the places where I had planned to stop at — in response, I replied using the same tones that has my stuttering sighs mixed into it. Even as we entered the beautiful dreamlike canon, Weiss was hardly showing any mercy. If I was just a beat slower, she would immediately smash my line of melody that was trying to sketch out her footsteps, and began the next melody by herself.

I could then feel a slight amount of weight pressing against my back. Even though I could see nothing, I somehow knew… that Weiss was leaning her back against the door, just like me. I could almost hear the heartbeats of Weiss, though that could very well be the sound of my own heartbeat, or the echoes of the bass.

Just as the backbeats were sustaining the melody of the tenth variation — the melody of which the dragonflies were fluttering all around us — I became more and more confused. Why am I doing such a thing at a place like this? I had even forgotten about the fact that I was thinking of all sorts of things as I glanced at the scores in my efforts to keep up with Weiss's guitar. The tips that Senpai told me had already disappeared completely from my brain.

All that's left were my fingers moving willfully. Which of the sounds are made by my bass, and which of them are from Weiss's guitar? I don't know. My modified Aria Pro II and Weiss's Stratocaster were like twins shaved out from the same piece of wood, and had blended together with each other impeccably. I can't quite explain the phenomenon by saying that they've tuned themselves with each other so as to blend together perfectly. It's like a mere millimeter of distance between them, a circuit bypass, and a careful balance of the high and low tones — a miracle that happens only after the integration of everything mentioned above. Weiss and I were totally like the left and right hands of a person.

And with that, the final variation came. C minor. It's similar to the vastness of the sea in the night that has just experienced a violent storm. The thunders were gradually receding, but they were still reverberating deep within the clouds. The whispers from the depths of the ocean.

Using my right hand, I strummed out a low G that extended endlessly outwards. And then, along with the parting of the clouds, I could finally see the arrival of dawn. I listened to the rumbling echoes in my stomach intoxicatedly, and loosened my left hand. Then, I gripped onto the neck of the bass tightly with my sweating palms once more. It's the fugue. I've finally arrived here.

After expelling all of my wishful thoughts that were burning in flames of darkness, what appeared before me was something filled with endless possibilities — the ensemble that was shimmering like crystals.

I immediately drew out the first note of the beginning phrase. The four simple voices which existed since the beginning of the war rang, while the main melody of the fugue began its flow along with the signal. After four bars, Weiss began chasing the already-running me. Between the two melodies that will not intersect and will never touch each other, exists what seemed like the melody of mirage. Who actually played that — obviously, it's Weiss and I. We constantly sent out the fragments of the melody, and they slowly merged into a crystal clear line of melody — it felt like there was a third person playing together with us live.

I didn't quite know what was happening either — all I did was play whatever was written in Senpai's scores. Weiss seemed to have analyzed the meaning of the tune in an instant, and kept replying to me. That's the only thing I could come up with. However, is that really something that is possible? Without any words, and only transmitting our feelings through music — can this miracle really happen? Or will the miracle disappear the moment I open my eyes.

… It gradually disappeared. I stopped the movements of my fingers. Weiss's melody, which was supposed to be chasing me, had suddenly disappeared. The hallucinated warmth of Weiss which I had been feeling on my back this whole time had disappeared as well.

I turned around. A eek sound came from the other side of the door. It's the faint sound produced from the feedback of the guitar. I had a bad feeling about this.

"… Weiss?"

I tried calling her once. She did not reply. Instead, I began hearing the ominous sounds of moaning and weeping through the gaps of the door.

"Weiss!"

Since I heard no response despite me yelling out loudly from outside, I began knocking on the door. I suddenly heard the sound of something knocking against the floor, and then another blast of feedback reverberated inside.

I tried to open the door by pressing hard against the handle. For a moment, I forgot about the method of opening the lock, and I nearly tore the door down. I finally remembered: I have to press diagonally downwards to the right before turning it. As the door opened, Weiss, who should be leaning against the door, came crashing onto my body instead. I quickly supported her. Weiss's back knocked into my bass, and the amplifiers blared out a tight noise.

Weiss's fair skin had turned even paler.

"What's wrong?"

My voice was higher by an octave due to my panic.

"… I'm fine."

"How does that look fine! Can you stand?"

"I can't. But…I 'm really okay."

Weiss brushed my hand away and tried sitting up. However, her shoulders lost balance immediately, and her right leg was paralyzed. After seeing how her body had twisted into a strange position, I propped up her upper body and leaned her against the wall.

"Why have things turned out like this…"

Weiss began sobbing. She turned her head away to avoid looking at me, and murmured.

"Why? I have already forced myself to forget everything, so why did you make me remember again?"

What is she talking about? I really have no clue. I removed my bass from my shoulders. The strings seemed to have brushed into something, and a low-pitched tone rang through the small classroom. Weiss's left hand twitched a little.

"Stop! Stop it! Don't make it play any sound!"

Weiss was possessed by a sudden surge of strength — she snatched the bass away from my hands, and slammed it forcibly onto the ground. One of the knobs on the bass fell off from the main body. There was a loud horrifying sound akin to a pair of claws scratching against the walls.

Weiss collapsed onto the bass and the guitar that were lying on the floor, just like a marionette that had its strings cut. The amplifiers were persistently giving off a disharmonious sound which was similar to wailing voices, but I had no idea how to stop those sounds. Now what? Why have things turned out this way? What should I do? In any case… I should head to the infirmary first. Amid the sharp shrieking sounds of the feedback, I finally managed to come up with that.

"I'll get the school nurse."

"I don't want that…" Weiss moaned.

What the hell is that idiot saying at a time like this? I immediately sprinted towards the main building. Just as I was about to dash into the infirmary, I almost crashed into Kumiko Sensei, who is the school nurse. Kumiko Sensei is very young, and it is said that she used to be a euphoniumist. And the first thing she did was to actually grab me by the collar and yell "Don't run in the corridors!", before realizing something and releasing her grip.

"You're from Class 1-C, right? The same class as Weiss Schnee?"

I was breathless from my run, and could not speak as a result. I barely nodded my head in reply.

"Did you see her in the classroom? She should have an appointment with the hospital today, but the hospital just called and said she hasn't arrived yet."

She should be going to the hospital today? Friday. The only day which Weiss will head home immediately after school. Hospital. I was shocked. As I tried to regulate my breathes, I gasped.

"Weiss… fainted."

"Where is she?"

Kumiko Sensei's voice was still calm, but there was a change in the expressions of her eyes.

"Courtyard…"

Kumiko Sensei quickly grabbed a few medication from the rack, then grabbed my arm and rushed out of the infirmary. When we returned to the courtyard, we saw Chiaki squatting next to the crumbling Weiss. Why is Chiaki here? Could it be that she was waiting for our showdown to be over?

"Namikaze, please step aside."

I'll administer some first-aid, and then I'll call someone. I stared blankly at Kumiko Sensei's actions, while Chiaki was looking at me helplessly.

"What in the world happened?"

I could only shake my head in response to Chiaki's questions.

"What in the world have you guys done for things to have turned out like this…"

Kumiko Sensei glared at me as she checked Weiss's pulse.

"We… were just playing the guitar."

"That's all? How can that be? There shouldn't be a problem for her to play a musical instrument."

Kumiko Sensei, she knew about Weiss's condition?

"In any case, I've asked her father to head over. He said he'd be here soon."

Weiss's left shoulder trembled slightly. She slowly leaned herself towards the side of Chiaki's legs, and lifted her face which was filled with a pained expression.

"No… I don't want that."

"What are you talking about? You should be reporting to the hospital today, no? Do you have any intention of treating your illness at all? You can't get careless! Your body's condition is different from that of an ordinary person, so we'll have to ask the doctor in charge of you to come down as well…"

Weiss shook her head as tears fell from her eyes,

"No. I don't want… to be seen by 'that person' in my current state."

Kumiko Sensei ignored her protests, and turned around to speak to me.

"Describe what happened in greater detail. Aihara, please get the cushions over there and prop it under Weiss."

I had only seen Jacques Schnee via the photographs. Despite that, even though I was of some considerable distance away, I saw the two men in suits at the parking lot walking in our direction — and I knew immediately that the one leading the way was Weiss's father.

"What in the world happened?"

The same stupid question which was asked by a certain someone came out from Jacques's mouth as well. His stern and well defined contours were clearly showing his anger. Hiratsuka Sensei came to the courtyard on the call of Kumiko Sensei. After seeing her arrived, he immediately started to rage.

"To think such a thing has happened even with you around her! What will you do should something happen to Weiss!"

"You can't expect me to be by her side all the time, right?" Hiratsuka sensei replied coldly.

The middle-aged doctor (he should be a doctor?) who came along were standing next to the emotional Jacques, and was telling Kumiko Sensei to 'carry the lady to the car' via his eyes.

"What's with you not going to the hospital? Who are you sticking around with?"

I turned my my eyes away, and had even wondered if I should just run away from that place.

"Guitar? You said guitar? Are you joking, who allowed you to play that sort of thing? Weiss, what are you trying to do by learning the guitar behind my back? Do you not know how important your fingers are? You may never get to play the piano…"

"Maestro Jacques! Please! Don't corner Weiss like that!" Hiratsuka Sensei said that with a painful voice.

"I did not send her to high school so that she could play things like that!"

I bit onto my lips as I listened to the piercing roars of Jacques. The doctor and father then stuffed Weiss into the backseat like she was a bagged corpse. There was nothing I could do, other than to watch everything in silence.

Just before the doors of the car closed, Weiss and I exchanged sights. The expressions of her eyes were the same as that of back then — they could not make a single sound, and could only seek desperately on something to depend on — those eyes were like the skies just before a downpour, filled with dark grey clouds.

No, I can't let her go like that. I could almost hear some sort of whisper right next to my ears, but I could not say a single word, nor could I move a single a single step.

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