*Author's Note: Yes very, very late and had thought of not continuing this story but the thought of leaving another fanfiction unfinished just bugs me so here we are. Thanks to all of you who voted for me in the fanfiction contest (from a long time ago)! Although I didn't place, all the support I received meant a lot more so once again thank you. Enjoy!

Chapter 13 - Graceful Ghost Rag

There was confidence as Shusui walked onto the stage. It was not the loud and ardent strides of Nash or the prideful walk of musicians like Kousei and Kaori. It was the march of a king in battle. His walking stick tapped the ground in front of him as he made his way toward the piano, radiating nothing but sureness in his victory and knowing beyond a shadow of a doubt that he was the best.

Aika walked behind her partner, she wore a strapless purple dress with her hair tied up in a ponytail. Most people told her that she would look more graceful and elegant if she let her hair down but she hated the way her hair sometimes got in the way of her playing. There have been times when she considered cutting it short but something always stopped her.

'Focus Aika. Focus,' thought Aika, 'Now is not the time for idle thoughts.' Despite Shusui's sureness, Aika herself still had the butterflies in her stomach before every performance. The fear of messing up wasn't because she would lose the competition or because the audience would laugh at her. The fear came from the thought of Shusui not wanting to play with her anymore.

The tapping of the walking stick stopped as it touched one of the legs of the piano bench. Aika stopped and looked over at Shusui as he folded his walking stick and placed it on the piano. She always had to make sure Shusui was going to sit down on the bench and not plain air. Yet he always managed to know exactly where the bench was. Shusui let his hand slide over all the keys as if he was examining all the keys to make sure that they are there and in their proper places. His hands easily found the right positions and he gave a small nod signaling to Aika that he was ready to begin. Aika drew in a deep breath and prepared for the performance they were about to give.

The song began with jazzy chords accompanied by a flow of violin that could only be described as graceful. As if woken up by the sounds, the curtains felt like they were beginning to sway slightly and right as the mood was set an old handkerchief seemed to have appeared. Graceful Ghost Rag by William Bolcom.

"What discipline, I can't imagine how many hours of practice it would take to play an entire piece perfectly blind," said Kousei as he watched.

The tune was surprisingly effortless and light-hearted, the tune for a dead nameless gentleman at peace. The old handkerchief floated around danced through the current of the gentleman's lifetime. His birthplace, a quaint little town in the middle of autumn with a loving family. The handkerchief sways and the gentleman is attending university in the city of London. As he walked through the hallways, a young lady bumps into him and spills her coffee onto his clothe. The young lady quickly apologizes and takes out a handkerchief with a lavender picture stitched on it. The gentleman laughs it off and they start a conversation. The handkerchief sways, and the gentleman and the young lady are sitting on a bench in a park. The gentleman asks for the young lady to extend out her hand and to give him her handkerchief. The gentleman holds the young lady's hand with his left and covered their hands with the handkerchief. When he lifted the handkerchief, the young lady's ring finger was graced with a new small ring. The young lady looked up, tears welling up as the gentleman smiled. The handkerchief sways, and the gentleman is standing beside his bride with the handkerchief with the lavender stitching in the breast pocket of his suit.

The same carefree and peaceful melody continued, each time it repeated something changed, a different chord, an octave higher, or a slightly different pacing. Aika took a pause and allowed her partner to perform a short piano solo. A jazzy tune that kept to the melody, but the piano sang a new hint of sadness, a slight difference but noticeable by the audience. The couple continued on with their lives and Aika joined back in with her violin. The life of the couple remained happy and peaceful, however, the familiar melody of the piano and violin slowly became sadder and sadder. The whole audience were captivated, trying to figure out why the picture the performers painted didn't match with their playing anymore. The handkerchief sways, and the young lady was lying on a hospital bed and was looking out the window. The gentleman spoke with the doctor and the doctor shook his head and patted the gentleman on the shoulder. The gentleman walked back in and his wife turned to look at him. He took a seat beside her bed and held her hand with both of his and tried his best to smile a smile that said it was okay. The young lady took out her handkerchief with the lavender stitching, cupped the gentleman's face with her hand and wiped away his tears. The handkerchief sways, and the gentleman is working late into the night. As he's walking back from work he passes a flower store and he sees the lavender flower for sale. He visits his wife and places the flower at her bedside; they exchange smiles and he tells her about his day.

The melody is still the same but now it's bittersweet. The violin gets quieter, the melody slower and Aika stops using her violin bow and begins to pizzicato. The handkerchief sways, it's winter and the gentleman is still visiting his wife, however, this time his wife didn't wake up and the last petal of the lavender flowers fall. The violin stops but the handkerchief continues to sway. The now old gentleman sat in his rocking chair and looked out the window at his garden of lavender flower now in full bloom. He smiles and takes out the handkerchief whose lavender stitching have now almost been worn out. The piano is now also slowing down and finally as the piece ends the violin joins in for one last moment as the gentleman reminisces his life and closes his eyes.

There's a thunderous round of applause as many of the crowd members wipe away the tears that they even realize were there. There were no cheering for this performance, yet it was more impactful than all the others. Shusui and Aika do their bows and walk off the stage. As they walked through the corridor, they saw Nash and Aika stopped.

"Do you want to say something to him?" asked Aika.

"No, the fact that he's not coming up to us now means he understands," said Shusui calmly. Nash's fists were clenched and his body shook as he kept staring at the TV screen. "He has lost this one."

"It's absolutely amazing how they can create such an amazing story with only the slightest changes in the melody!" said Emi as she wiped away the tears in her eyes, not having felt like this since the performance of Kousei so many years ago.

"Tch, no wonder Nash is so focused on beating those two," said a frustrated Takeshi.

"There's a surprisingly amount of piano solo compared to other accompaniment songs especially when the violinist was so skilled," said Kousei as he turned to Kaori, "don't you think s- Kaori?!" Kaori was bawling, perhaps because she felt a strange attachment to the story. Kousei smiled and wrapped his hand around her shoulder and gave her a hug.

"See what did I tell you?" said Aurora with a smile, without a hint of being bothered that she has just been beaten. "Their performance never gets old."

The rest of the performances went by and finally day one of the competition ended. "We will now take a short break before releasing the result of which contestants have made the second round," said the announcer.

"So how do you guys feel about your standings?" asked Hiroko when the group gathered up again.

"Hmm, I'm not quite sure, they were phenomenal to say the least," said Emi.

"Really? I felt like we got smashed." Everyone turned towards the voice and was surprised to see who it came from.

"Takeshi?!"

"What? I'm just saying the truth, Kousei and Kaori, me, you, we all put up good performances no doubt but skill and mechanics wise Nash was almost perfect and showmanship wise the girl who played music without even moving has us beat too," said Takeshi without batting an eye, "Let's not even talk about that blind guy."

The group sighed in agreement and became downcast. "However…it doesn't mean we can't beat them in the second round, right?" Once again everyone was surprised by who the comment was from.

"Kousei…"

"This competition has a week in-between the first and second round. Granted it's not a lot of time but we still have a shot if we've made it, so let's focus on that for now."

"Those are some pretty big words," said Aurora as she snuck up behind Kousei and hugged him from behind. "You guys are going to need some pretty big power-ups if you are going to beat us in a week."

"Or…you could just give up and we would go back to Italy together."

"Get away from him!" yelled Kaori as she yanked Aurora off of Kousei and proceeded to growl like a Doberman at her.

"Alright, alright, I'll stop," said Aurora as she began to walk away. "But don't forget our little bet."

"I haven't!"

The results came out shortly after…

The following contestants have made it to the second round:

1. Aika and Shusui, Graceful Ghost Rag (100 points)

2. Nash, The Crave (95 points)

3. Aurora, Shadows (94 points)

4. Kaori and Kousei, Csárdás (93 points)

…

8/9. Takeshi, Sleeping Beauty (90 points)

8/9. Emi, Distant Everyday Memory (90 points)

Author's Note: I don't know how many of you guys are still here and I'm not sure if my writing even has the same tone but I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter. It was absolutely amazing to write and I did it all in one sitting XD. If you guys enjoyed this please leave a comment and if you guys didn't then leave a comment why not, I'm always open to constructive criticism. Thank you for reading and have a wonderful day!

No response to comment this time since I have a final tomorrow morning and it would probably take me all night answering to the year worth's comments XD. However I want to thank all of you who did leave a review and I hope you guys continue to support this series…even if it hasn't been updated for year :P