Chapter 36: "Old Loves, Old Wounds, Second Chances"
Friday morning's final full day of practice rolls in, as Ousaki Shinobu arrives at the Grand Hotel Wien bright and early, just as he and Tsuzuki Mari had planned the night before.
But before the pleasantly smiling man enters the hotel on his way to the practice room downstairs that the hotel had kindly provided them with, someone accosts him on the way.
"Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Shinobu! We've got big trouble brewing inside." Amou Nami puts a damper on Ousaki's sunshine, but this was one case for the books.
"What is it, Nami-san? Are you all right?" Ousaki asks as she sidles him into the cool morning alley beside the hotel's front entrance.
"Kaji-kun didn't come back to the hotel last night." Amou starts seriously with a raised eyebrow full of insinuation.
"Perhaps he met with an old friend. After all, we have to remember, Kaji-kun is well-traveled and he and his father have been to Vienna before—" Ousaki starts to hypothesize, knowing the teenager's tendency to flights of fancy, at times, since he was very young. But Kaji-kun always turned out fine from his innocent boyhood scrapes.
"Does Mori Manami count as an old friend? Shimizu-kun may never, ever be sure of Kaji-kun's whereabouts at what time, but Fuyuumi-chan is certain that Mori-chan didn't return from their dinner out last night."
"I do hope they didn't come to any harm. The streets of Vienna at night can be extremely dark and traffic is—"
"I thought of that, too, Shinobunny. And got right on contacting people and tracking down their cell phone signals to see if they'd been in an accident or something."
"And—?" Ousaki asks, knowing resourceful Amou had excellent sources and instincts as a budding reporter.
"Mori-chan turned hers off early in the evening, so that didn't help. But Kaji-kun's cell was still live and traceable." Amou reports, glancing down at her notepad with the updates like a dogged
bloodhound on the scent of a trail.
"So...where are they?" Ousaki asks, eyes furrowing with rather uncharacteristic pessimistic thoughts that Amou was instilling with her suspicious gaze.
"In Italy." Amou says succinctly, raising her other brow as well.
"Oh, dear..." Ousaki feels his spirits sinking, then pulls himself together. "But I am sure Kaji-kun has been a perfect gentleman."
"Are you really?" Her doubtful investigative eyes meet his and the pure man blushes at her implied accusation beneath his thick glasses glinting in the early morning sunlight.
"Yes...yes, I believe in the good virtues of others with all my heart." Ousaki Shinobu states with profound conviction.
"Well..." Amou was not so lofty in her outlook on life, and on boys in particular. But his kind smile and genuine optimism moved her enough to believe this time. "I suppose Kaji-kun has always been a good boy, and it'd be hard for me to think that level-headed Mori-chan would let him get away with anything." She admits, cocking her head as Ousaki tucks her arm into his to lead the dubious minded girl back into the hotel.
"That's the spirit!" Ousaki pats her arm in his sunnily condescending way.
"But he IS still a man..." She mumbles under her breath, grumbling the last word almost distastefully, and he gives her a shake of his head with a chuckle as they enter the conference/music room that the group had been utilizing to rehearse.
"Please don't hold that against us all of the time, Ms. Ace Reporter." Placing his hand beseechingly for mercy of his gender atop her cynical one, Ousaki knew how to cajole her sour face into a smile.
"You don't count in that category, Ousaki Shinobu! You're just too good to be one of them." She squeezes his hand, grateful for his
reassurance, as well as his utter goodness any girl could rely upon.
"I thank you. We do try." He smiles, squeezing her hand back sweetly. She felt quite lucky to have his hand in hers at this moment.
"Then you'd better try that 'believing in the good virtues of others' schtick on him—the Director doesn't look none too happy this
morning, either! Ooh, when he finds out...whew" With a low whistle, she whispers in Ousaki's ear before she lets go of his hand to scout out more news of the runaway couple, from the gathered group of musicians present.
Before moving on, Ousaki inhales a deep breath when Director Kira enters the room and exchanges a word or two with Tsuzuki Mari before taking a seat to witness the final rehearsal of the ensemble
before the concert tomorrow.
"Good morning, Tsuzuki-san! Director Kira, how are you today?" Ousaki plunges in, feet first, with his ever-present bright smile proffered on his face in all innocence.
"Good morning, Ousaki-kun." Kira nods politely. His attention was upon the clattering students setting up their instruments and beginning to tune them for a quick practice before going over to the Vienna State Opera House for dress rehearsal. "We do seem rather slow to arrive this morning. I'm counting on the students for a good dress rehearsal today." Kira says, glancing around for the absent important face.
He exchanges a nod with Tsukimori Len, who had been busy all morning already at practice with Hino Kahoko. They were still at it, as Tsukimori's hands on her violin showed her one more time how she should hold it to her chin properly for ideal onstage projection.
At least he takes this concert seriously. Kira thinks, as he makes silent roll call of those here, on time, and how it would affect some students' grades if they decided not to be present, bright and early.
He sees Tsuzuki Mari watching Tsuchiura-kun banging away at a keyboard with that girl on the bench beside him. Shimizu-kun was being poked and prodded awake by Fuyuumi-kun and annoyed by that aggravating Amou Nami. The boy cellist's rosin was still clutched in his hand though he was halfway asleep, halfway rubbing the strings, and still managing to hit the right key.
Of course, Etou Kiriya was already playing. His sharp notes were soothed by the small keyboard playing of his adoring accompanist at his side, and Kira was grateful for at least his nephew's wherewithal.
Hihara-kun and Yunoki-kun were trailed by the latter's sister and fiancee, and they seemed to be in deep discussion with Ousaki-kun over something rather interesting. So that left only—
"Kaji-kun and Mori-san?! I told you guys! I called that one!" Hihara's high, incredulously loud voice cuts through all the chatter and musical tunings, coming blatantly to Kira's now keenly suspicious ear.
"What exactly did you 'call' about Kaji-kun, Hihara-kun? Where is he, anyway?" Kira demands. The dark look on his continually dark face grew even darker as thirteen pairs of eyes glance first at him, and then at each other with the guilty question. Most of them were aware of the rumor by now...
"Present and accounted for, Sir! Sorry for being late! But the plane was—" Dashing in breathlessly, sporting coats with viola in hand next to a huffing and puffing Mori Manami, Kaji begins to explain the take-off trouble of the private jet he had chartered to fly he and Mori back instead of the longer ETA limo drive.
"I thought it would be faster, but—"
Preferring not to know the private affairs of his students, former or otherwise, Kira cuts him off. "I don't even want to know. Just play your part in the ensemble well. That's all I ask." Surprisingly, Kira lets him off easy in his relief that their viola player was here at last.
Everyone looks from Kaji to Mori in a collective curious hush.
"We made it." Kaji whispers in her simultaneously sighing, yawning and laughing ear at his side as she helps him from his coat.
"Of course, Kaji Aoi! You make dreams come true!" In melodic tones, Manami's hand alights upon Kaji's arm with more than simple encouragement, as she smooths his jacket, then hers, of their unkempt overnight excursion's wrinkles. The scent of the ocean breeze was still upon their folds, as she clutches both coats to her chest sentimentally.
Despite their mutual sleeplessness, Kaji Aoi needed for nothing more today to make the strings of his viola's heart and soul rise to unheard of beauty, now at his 'mermaid's' command.
"Knock 'em dead out there, Big Boy." And his siren of the sea knew exactly how to call her dreamy boy floating away on her ocean waves back to the awakening shore again, as Mori pats his blushing cheek with a playful, yet steadying hand.
Every stunned gawker, whether pretending to be preoccupied with preparations to transfer their gear to the Opera House or fully shocked rubbernecking, have their mouth's drop at the familiar physical intimacy passing between the openly flirtatious golden pair as, with lowered eyelids, Kaji practically drools on the girl. He was aiding Mori in her struggle to be extricated from her warm coat from all their rushed exertion so she could quickly change and freshen up before the Seiso group makes the trek across the Ringstrausse and into the Venna State Opera House for the concert's final dress rehearsal.
Dressed in tuxedos, along with Hino Kahoko in a lovely pale yellow dress, the players live up to their potential, and Kira forgets all thoughts concerning Kaji Aoi's late night escapades, for he did play his viola as well, or better, than usual expectations in the ensemble's final dress rehearsal, as it were.
Kira was tense in his quiet way as he sits on the edge of his seat beside Tsuzuki, Ousaki, Yunoki and Hihara. Tsukimori, Fuyuumi, and unmentionable countless females, serve as audience behind them.
"Etou-kun's performance is impeccable today." Tsukimori Len leans over and whispers to Kira, answering the question the Director had posed last time they were in audience concerning the star violinist.
Ousaki and Tsuzuki nod in agreement beside them both as Etou Kiriya performs both technically flawlessly and emotionally beautifully, as if newly inspired.
"That boy has come into his own." Kira states, with more than a tinge of pride, as Etou's violin strings reach for Mendelssohn's glorious notes and exceed all expectations in his rendering with the ensemble in utmost unity.
Kira notices how his nephew's generally focused, intense gaze so often falls upon a young woman in the audience behind him with a softness he himself never knew existed in the brash youth previously.
Soon into the practice, a familiar gregarious voice comes from behind Kira's head when Kanazawa Hiroto's two hands place themselves on Kira and Tsukimori's shoulders as he leans down with the comment of the classical stringed piece being played onstage.
"Etou looks, acts and sounds a lot like a certain kouhai I used to know at Seiso, once upon a time, back in the day."
"For a second, I thought that was you up there on that stage, Kira..." Kanayan's tease was remembering a dark haired violinist's music, quite fondly.
"Maybe before youth lost its innocence, Kanazawa-senpai." Almost unheard, Kira responds rather reflectively of a happier day gone by.
So low, it was only for Kanayan to hear, but Tsuzuki Mari's keen ears had picked up on the saddened man's wistful words, and she gazes upon him in a new light.
Their old teacher attends the preliminary practice, giving more pleasant support than musical advice, for Kanayan already knew the experienced group of youngsters had skill in spades without him saying a blessed word.
"Don't give the world up just yet, old man. Just look at me! I'm a prime example of second chances." Kanayan says to Kira in the cloakroom, as his wife comes to collect her leading man for that night's opera soon to start, after the afternoon's dress rehearsal wraps up on the legendary stage, and it's transformed into Rigoletto's first act garden again.
Kira, pleased by the ensemble's sound, orders the group to an uneventful dinner and early rest, so they'd all be fresh and prepared for the big day tomorrow.
"And no sneaking away from the hotel." He says, with a particular eye at Kaji Aoi, who hides his red face behind a score sheet. "I want every one of you asleep in your beds no later than ten o'clock. Am I understood?" The Director had laid down the law, not wanting to be humiliated before all of Vienna tomorrow, after he had treated the whole troupe to dinner at the hotel's sixth floor French restaurant named the 'Le Ciel.' Its plush decor and gourmet meals were sure to give the group of eighteen some sweet meringue anglaise dreams that night.
Tsukimori Len walks Hino Kahoko to her room as they wave, one by one, to the others a 'good night.'
"Kahoko?" The pair stop in the doorway to room 607 that the redhead shared with Amou Nami.
"Yes, Len?" She was getting quite used to the pleasant way his name rolled off her tongue as she looks up to his expectantly beautiful face.
Len marvels at how lovely the blue rose adorning her red hair contrasted and accentuated her tresses.
"Will you—?" He yanks his mind back from their lofty musings and begins to ask that certain something that he's been trying to say for the past week. After loosening his button-up shirt and strangling tie, Tsukimori's nervous hand plunges into the unknown safety of his pocket yet again.
"Yes...?" Hino tries to prompt him, attempting to stay attentive to his words, although the intimate nearness of having his unfettered scent so close was driving her mad. She can't help from leaning her
adoring head into his rapidly heart thumping chest, his other hand involuntarily wrapping around her flowing crimson strands of hair as he attempts to regroup his mettle.
Just then, another pair steps out from the elevator, looking rather breathless and very red faced from the intense exertion during their vigorous ride up moments before.
"Tsukimori-kun! Hino-san!" Kaji Aoi, from the giddy, giggling way he was stumbling about, must've been drunk on kisses, for Mori made certain that nothing stronger than a ginger ale passed his lips this night.
From the other end of the hallway, a sleepy Shimizu was practically being dragged in, on Fuyuumi's struggling arm, and once more, feeling outflanked, the spell had been broken.
"Sleep well, Kahoko..." With a sigh, Tsukimori gives up yet again. He takes her chin and plants a soft kiss on her lips, but he knew the moment was blown.
He quickly strides past Kaji with a cold shoulder and nothing so much as a 'by your leave.'
"You, too, Len..." Hino whispers, her fingers fluttering a waved farewell to her retreating love, blissfully oblivious still to his torment.
"Mori-san?" Hino waits in the hall, until the golden haired girl had safely deposited her tall admirer in his room, as both she and Kaji had helped Fuyuumi leave Shimizu in it, for the boy was already sound asleep on his feet.
"Oh, Hino-san...!" Mori dances over to where Hino was motioning for her to come and gives our heroine a great big hug.
"Isn't love grand?!" She dizzily whispers in the girl's hair, and then, just as quickly, turns on her heel and waltzes back into her own room.
Hino smiles, knowing exactly how the girl pianist felt. Quickly going inside, she rushes over to her hotel window, just in time to see her Len cross the street, pause, then turn around and look up to give her room one more wistful wave 'good night' with his one free hand, his violin case secured in the other.
"Yes...yes, it is..." Hino whispers dreamily, leaning against the sill and making clouds in the cold windowpanes until she could draw a heart, and write the name 'Len' within it.
Her eyes only for her sweetheart, Kahoko didn't notice a shadowy figure skulking far beneath the moonlight, on this frosty night.
He had seen Tsukimori Len depart from the Grand Hotel Wien. He had watched the obedient lights on the sixth floor go off, one by one, before ten o'clock, as slowing traffic goes by and by, not noticing the single, furtive dark man, who was lurking in corners of the dark world, through a dark pair of sunglasses he had felt a dark desire to hide behind.
He leans against the Vienna Opera House's building, knowing full well he was invited inside to watch the Rigoletto opera his former senpai of a tenor was starring in.
But something was eating at him, and a crowd was not the place for him to be. In this entire world, there were few places, if any, where Kira Akihiko felt like he could fit in.
There was no one he really cared to spend time with, beyond his sister's child. And even his relationship with Kiriya was tepid at best, most days. There was very little that Kira felt any degree of passion for, and even if he thought he could try—
Well, even that, would be a futile waste of time...
All week she seemed to care more to be with someone else, but in his mind, Kira can't help but keep seeing the only woman he'd ever felt his equal, after he'd lost his beloved sister.
Mari was the only woman he'd ever felt anything for, other than contempt at the way many a gold-digging damsel flounced their wares his way in the past.
Because she wasn't like them at all.
For in Tsuzuki Mari's lovely, well-manicured features, Kira saw a desperate longing of her own there.
A longing—for someone else.
Hmph.
The proud man that Kira Akihiko was, would never admit that he was jealous of Ousaki Shinobu. Assessing, in his grand conceit, that he was far better a violinist, a far more important pillar of society—certainly a richer wealthier mogul than that little sunshine boy in shiny glasses—
"Director Kira...? Don't you wish to attend the opera? The orchestra is quite astounding and Kanazawa-san is singing very well indeed. You'll miss Kanazawa-san's solo coming up soon in Act Two, if you don't come in after this short intermission." The woman herself, Tsuzuki Mari, says tentatively, as she emerges from the Opera House in search of the missing man.
Kanayan had sent her a message to 'Find that Darn fool, probably sulking outside! Go drag him in to listen to me sing, damn it!' after the opera sensation had glimpsed Kira's empty front row seat that he'd arranged for, beside Tsuzuki-san.
"No." He says in a clipped, almost angered voice, which he soon amends upon seeing her startled expression at his coldness. "You'd better go back in, or you'll miss the rest of the opera. Don't worry about me. I just need some air." Kira makes excuses, unaccustomed to the feelings he was now experiencing.
"It's far too cold to stand out here like this." She says, removing the purplish gray scarf from her own neck, and begins wrapping it around his.
"...No, it's not...I'm fine. Thank you anyway, Tsuzuki-kun." Kira answers stubbornly, pulling away, but Mari could be just as stubborn.
"You're going to catch pneumonia. You're not even properly attired for Vienna's cold weather." She succeeds in wrapping the scarf around his stiff neck, for the unseasonal warmth of yesterday had been blown away by a windy cold front upon the city.
"I assure you, Tsuzuki-kun—" Kira turns a sharp eye on her, his voice growing gruff. "I know my own senses. I don't need anyone to tell me how I feel."
"Do you...sir? I didn't think you had any feeling left at all." She couldn't take any more of his indifference, and there were tears in her eyes, for she was waiting for him to give her some sign of fondness, or even slight interest.
But the pompous, self-reliant spirit in Kira Akihiko rarely showed that side of himself to anyone.
Can I even feel anymore? Kira was starting to think he could not, for jealousy had turned him even more bitter, chaining him to the lonely world he thought was his destiny.
Now left alone, since a disheartened Mari had gone back inside, Kira indeed feels depressed and abandoned by hope. Gazing up, his eyes catch the first few flakes of snow fall...and then...
"KIRA AKIHIKO!" A voice comes spiraling down towards him through the darkened sky.
"Oh, no...just what I needed..." Kira sighs under his breath, in frustration, knowing what annoyance was descending upon him.
"You are an ungrateful wretched creature, you know! You are mistreating your gift, your blessing, you know! You made Tsuzuki Mari cry! I saw you, you know!" Lili comes plunging down with the snow, as furious as a raging tornado with a toothache.
"Leave me be, Argento." Kira dejectedly answers this vicious accusation, though inside his heart, he accepted it was true.
"I have been 'leaving you be' for the entire week, Kira Akihiko! And look at what you've done to our friend, Tsuzuki Mari, you know! I 'd be ashamed to admit that you were the grandson of that great man who saved me, you know! The one I've been telling all the other Fata about as I've visited all across Europe, you know! They would be ashamed to know you, too, you know! Kira Akihiko! Whatever you have done to hurt her feelings, you must apologize immediately, you know!" Lili berates him, encircling Kira's head with his fairy wings at dizzying speed.
"And if I don't?" Kira himself was already half-inclined to beg the woman's forgiveness. He really had a small place inside that was weak against feminine tears. But to be ordered to do so by this tiny, little troublesome bug?
No. It was a matter of principle, and his manly pride, as he dares to dare Lili.
"If you don't...you know?! If you don't...you know...!?" Lili repeats, his voice bewildered at being challenged, then turns darkly foreboding, with a touch of insanity in the evil chuckle that follows.
"If you don't, I won't bless your concert tomorrow, Kira Akihiko! I'll make sure it fails, you know!" Trying to hit Kira where he knew it hurt, Lili's eyes were crazed as he flutters around Kira's by now pounding head.
But even in this frenzied state, Kira had known the music Fata all his life. He knew he would never curse his own precious friends, nor their music. Hino-kun had a special relationship with the fairy, for instance, and Lili would not betray her or the others' genuine love of music under any circumstance.
"I think not, Argento." Having the upper hand, Kira brushes off the empty threat, along with Lili's double fisted little trembling body as well.
With that, the Director turns and marches right into the Opera House, going to his front row seat and sits beside the red-eyed woman, who was still dabbing her eyes as the Intermission time draws to a close.
After crossing his arms and long legs uncomfortably, Kira purposely meets her suppressed eyes, and rewards them with a kind smile, as she adultly tries to smile back civilly, though her hands were in secret fists upon her elegant lap.
His cold hand places itself atop her pensive fist, softly pulling one to the armrest, obscuring its small size almost completely beneath.
In disbelief, Mari looks from their hands as his fingers interlace with hers, to gaze up into his apologetic face.
"There are no excuses for my rudeness, especially since you spoke only in concern for my health. I am deeply ashamed of myself and beg your forgiveness...Mari..." He says with an authentic warm smile, feeling her refined soul melt the ice curtain over his own heart as the actual curtain begins to rise for Rigoletto's Act 2, the pair's hands still intertwined...
As the curtain rises upon his palace, 'Duke' Kanazawa's eyes see Kira and Tsuzuki's embraced appendages. He smiles with a personal nod at them, as he begins to sing 'Ella Mi furapita' and 'Parmi Veder le Lagme'—all about lost love and womanly tears, fitting for the scene playing in the front row before him as well.
As the acclaimed opera runs through its triumphs and tragedies into Act three's romance, Mari feels Kira's ever-present hand upon hers the entire time. She was far too happy to be truly moved by the climactic death scene, though Caterina Kanazawa did the role justice. The tall blonde woman with a powerful yet sweet voice was a lovely thing to behold. After it was over, they go backstage to congratulate the opera stars.
"Never say never." Kanayan had expressed in between make-up and costume change to his obstinate, throat-clearing friend.
Kira then escorts Mari out into the cold night air as they discuss the opera on the walk back to the hotel.
"Kanazawa-san and his wife both sing magnificently. I do love opera, don't you, Director?" She asks, all the tears from before completely vanished.
"When they're done properly, yes. Yes, I do enjoy it." Kira says sedately, sharing with her a rare honest smile.
"Oh, I agree. That makes all the difference! And this one was done very well, indeed. Verdi's music is just so integral to the entire...opera..." Mari's enthusiastic voice trails off into a more quiet tone, as if she had the life just sucked out of her by something her eyes had glimpsed in the night scene.
"Mari?" Kira's own eyes follow her gaze to the noisy couple laughing loudly, shrieking in delight and having general fun across the avenue.
There strolled Ousaki Shinobu with Amou Nami on his arm, loudly chuckling at his must be thrilling conversation.
The giddy two pause every now and then, to take a picture of Ousaki with some statue or another—or just him in the new fallen snow, in some silly pose she put him in, on the park's walkways where sedate Ousaki Shinobu was joining in his Nami's happy laughter heartily.
After she puts away her camera in her backpack, he takes both of her chilled hands in his, blowing hot air into them, as she giggles gleefully, tickled by his breath. He continues to care for her frozenfingers, rubbing them for warmth, kissing them for love as, from the 'goodies' pocket, Ousaki produces a flowery bracelet he had picked up for her earlier, and slips it on one of Amou's pleased wrists, that then throw themselves around his pleasantly surprised neck as reward.
"Ousaki-kun...and Amou-san make a very cute couple." Mari suddenly says out of nowhere. Kira jerks his head to look over at her, confused.
"But I thought..." Kira starts to plunge into the area he had zero expertise in—romance. He always felt inadequate to express what he felt inside about another person, and never imagined he would ever wish to after tragedy struck his world.
"Although, I think it's too cold to be romping in such weather, don't you?" She rubs her own frozen fingers together for heat, glancing up at the frosty sky.
"Yes, but..." Kira stumbles for words, following her gaze upwards as a sprinkle of fairy dust falls in his upturned face.
"'But' nothing, Kira Akihiko! You would love to take Tsuzuki Mari to the Rosen Garten for hot coffee and cakes! You just won't admit it because you're too stubborn to show you like her, you know! After all, I know you better than you know yourself since you were a snot-nosed little brat who was scared of the dark, you know! Kira Akihiko! I've got more secrets to share, too, you know! Like the fact that he's a 'Sweets Monster', Tsuzuki Mari! So move it, Kira Akihiko, unless you want me to remember more nuggets of truth, you know! It's too cold to stand out here all night, you know!" Lili laughs at the jaw-dropped stoic Director wickedly, as he rubs his own little freezing paws together, poofing away in a cloud of frozen puffs.
"Is it true?" She meets Kira's eyes, which immediately change from anger at Lili at unsettled embarrassment at her.
"Are you a 'sweets monster' who'd like to take me for an after opera dessert, Kira-san?" Mari asks with a teasing smile, breaking the ice, so to speak, though her head was still spinning from all of Lili's revelations spit out at machine-gun bullet speed.
"A lot of what that damn Fata says is true." Kira answers, shaking his head at the vindictive creature. "That's the problem..." He adds, mumbling under his breath.
"Is it? A problem, I mean?" Catching it, Mari asks him, recalling how Lili had blessed the two of them, though her heart was as uncertain as his in this new endeavor as her eyes search his for even a small glint of hope.
And he gives it.
"No, Mari...it's not a problem." Kira's voice lightens from its usual monotone rumble, as does the heaviness of his icy heart. It melts instead, even as snow continues to fall outside. All thoughts of Ousaki and Amou (who were tossing sparse snowballs at each other by now) vanished into thin air as Kira offers the lady his arm, as he leads her into the hotel's front lobby where the Rosen Garten cafe awaited the tentative couple, with a bounty of sweet surprises to go with their adult coffee mood, warm and safe as the fairy blessed snow accumulates its magic on the Viennese landscape...