Chapter 7

Up on the tower of oversized instruments, the trio of brilliant detectives gazed down at the various musical scores stretching out in a veritable maze. A slight breeze stirred Sakaido's scarf, Anaido's hair, and Hijiriido's deerstalker cap. They stood like sentinels on a mountain shrine.

"I think we should try this one." Hijiriido pointed to one.

"Why not try the same one we did last time." Anaido ran a hand through his hair. "Ended so well last time."

Sakaido furrowed his brow. "At least we know what we're messing with now. So the question we have to answer now is do these all end in the same thing? Or do they produce a different result. It makes no sense for us to do repeat the first one."

"I get it. It's kind of like picking your poison." Anaido grinned.

Slowly Sakaido raised his hand and planted it on Anaido's shoulder. "Considering you are an expert at beating the odds … "

Anaido's eyes widened. "Wait a moment, was that humor? Was that you trying to be funny?"

"No. Just repeating something you told Momoki. But given our chances," Sakaido gestured to the many lines of music, "pick one."

The moment Anaido looked at her, Hijiriido folded her arms and lifted her chin. "Do you suppose these link to different instruments than our first ones?"

Sakaido's shoulders sagged. "That would be just my luck. Now that I mastered the bells—"

Hijiriido elbowed him. "Aww, you'll get it."

Just when it seemed that Anaido had dug his heels in, eyes unfocusing and twitching, he lifted his hand and pointed at a set of measures, his eyes clearing up. "That one."

They were standing by the violin. Hijiriido coaxed the notes out of the strings. Nothing lit up.

"Damn." Sakaido hung his head. "Answers that one. So, which instruments go with these lines?"

~ID~

This is taking forever. Momoki rolled his fingers on his upper arm. Not that anything could speed this up. To his surprise, none of them were dawdling. The truth was, even armed with their knowledge, the brilliant detectives were facing an immense mountain of instruments with little clue as to which matched to anything. In a screen capture from over an hour ago, he noted the frustration on Sakaido's face. It wasn't enough just to try and play the instruments, the measures would only light up when the right note combination was played on the right instrument. With the winding paths of music it wasn't always possible to see all the scores spread out below. Momoki could only imagine how much this wore on his old partner. Certainly Sakaido had a measure of patience—but Narihisago was far less patient. Inside that well the strange overlap of consciousness warred under the surface.

Not just in Sakaido, Anaido and Hijiriido as well. This setup had its blessings and its banes. Right now Momoki was just counting the blessing that Fukuda wasn't holding back on his unique ability. While it cut the exploration phase down a bit, that couldn't fully remove the need for trial and error.

Shiratake leaned back and sighed. "I've been trying to place certain makes, ages, combinations of instruments in the effort to narrow down potential places. But I'm coming up with nothing. At this point we're looking at everything from a musician's pawnshop to a fully stocked music hall orchestra pit."

Wakashika tossed a few of the windows around on his workstation. "Can't rule out a university either. But yeah, not seeing any real-world features. And I have to be honest, looking at these compositions," he whistled, "they're not any published works according to the copyright database. But they read like some pretty heavy stuff."

Good, maybe we can nail a clue from this angle. "Heavy?" Momoki raised an eyebrow.

"Exacting." Wakashika held one earbud in his ear. "I mean, we're not certain which are to which instrument—and yes, I am tracking them as I note them—but what I can say is whoever this is they know their music theory. Right out of a textbook."

Habutae cocked an eyebrow. "So maybe we're looking at some university music major? Some genius?"

"Oh, a genius alright, but not so sure they're in uni."

"What makes you say that?"

"I captured some of the clearer measures and sent it through a synth program." Wakashika closed his eyes. "There's something to the snippets that speaks of life experience. A sense of maturity that can't be imitated.

Togo glanced up from monitoring the vitals from the pilots. "Ok, I really have to know what you mean by that."

Such a notion seemed suspect to Momoki as well.

"Hold on." Wakashika pulled the bud out of his ear, pushed a few buttons and suddenly a stream of synth music came over the speakers.

Everyone Wellside craned their necks as they listened.

"Sounds kind of basic to me." Momoki broke the silence, "What's so special about that?"

"That's not the composition." Wakashika grinned. "That is something from a music major's portfolio." In a swipe of a finger another piece played.

This time the impact felt like the rise and fall of the ocean waves. A certain subtle nature that washed over them.

"And now … " Wakashika cued up another track. This one, despite the tinny synth, grabbed onto them with a stubborn current. Not the same tone, but the movement of the piece was full-bodied.

"Astonishing." Habutae leaned forward. "There is so much power to this."

Grinning from ear to ear Wakashika held up a finger. "And not just this one. I ran them through a music analyzer, at least all the ones I could get a clear shot of from our wandering trio. What I can tell you is that this level of composing matches the greats."

"Composers of our time?" Shiratake adjusted his glasses.

"Nuh uh." Wakashika spread his hands. "Of all time."

For a moment the whole Wellside stood transfixed by the isolated line of music filling the air. The impact wasn't the same as the end of the previous dive. But in a way that was a blessing. Considering that ended in the suicides of the detectives.

Over the speakers another tune spilled out spoiling the whole effect with its childish discordance.

~ID~

"Anaido!" Hijiriido shouted down at the man dancing on the enlarged grand piano keyboard. "Will you stop playing Chopsticks!"

He paused in the near splits over the octave. "Aww, come on! I actually have the stride for this. It's kind of neat."

This time Sakaido ended up on one of the lower tiers working a trumpet. In the midst of practicing, he slipped up with the aggravating background noise. "Seriously, get it together! You need to be practicing since you have the main part this time."

Anaido chuckled. "You worry too much. I got you covered."

"Why don't I believe that." Hijiriido cocked a hip and rammed her fist onto it.

"Oh? Well, follow the illuminating lights." Hands in his pockets, Anaido jumped to a spot on the keyboard and immediately started dancing across the keys.

To Sakaido and Hijiriido's shock one of the bars of music remained lit up as it snaked through the maze. "What the—"

"How are you doing that?" Hijiriido held onto the slide of a trombone as she leaned out for a better look.

Anaido shrugged and continued to maintain the line's illumination. "Ehh, I may have dabbled in a bit of music when I was younger. Trying to keep myself distracted from my uhh … issue. Piano was available at the school when no one was looking. Came to me fairly easily. But I have to say, this is the first time I've done this with my feet. Kinda fun. I like this id well."

"At least someone does." Sakaido sighed.

"Aww, you'll get your part down." Anaido plunked down on the keys swinging his long legs over the edge. "I did take the harder one. I mean, I have eighty-eight keys. You only have to worry about working three."

Leaning on the perfectly reflective brass surface, Sakaido smirked. "Like that makes it any easier. There are a lot of different combinations that three keys can make."

Anaido held up a finger and took a breath.

"Don't!" Sakaido snapped. "Let's just get this movement figured out so we can get the Wellside staff some new info."

"Waiting on you, comrade!"

Sakaido's shoulders sagged. In truth, he was the last one. Somehow with no keys to worry about and just a slide placement Hijiriido had her part down. What was worse? Fighting the music … or learning what it would do once all three parts are played at the same time? But—that was his job.

~ID~

"We have a thought thread from Sakaido." Togo called out. "What's worse? Fighting the music … or learning what it does once all three parts are played at the same time?"

Wakashika ran his fingers over a few controls. "This one is piano. Here is trombone. And lock in trumpet." His finger hovered over the key. "If you want, we can find out. Just takes a few minutes to render."

Momoki held up a hand. "Not so sure that's a good idea."

Habutae scratched his head. "Well, we are about to hear it through the speakers when the detectives play it. So isn't that the same thing?"

"Not entirely. We didn't off ourselves or be compelled to before. So maybe it won't be in the music thread on this end."

"Yeah," Togo tapped a finger on her pad, "but if we take the chance and that does happen with the music coming from this end, who will pull them from the dive?"

"Solid point." Momoki nodded. "Wakashika, render the file but don't play it. Instead run it through an analyzer."

"You got it." He hit the control. "Ok, looks like ten minutes to showtime."

In the background the blat of a trumpet carried through from the dive.

"Heh, might beat our brilliant detectives at this rate."

Momoki rubbed his forehead. "Don't be too hard on him. Let's face it, music is not Narihisago's forte."

Everyone stared at Momoki fighting the urge to laugh.

"What?"