Chapter 9

I only see just another lemon tree.

Koletre University – music room G – extracurricular class

Moonlit sonata performed by Halsey made everyone in class open their jaw as a quiet science prodigy like the rest performed. Why a filler class only meant to score points in their credits was suddenly turning master class level was beyond the boys and girls that applied across the campus.

Yeah, they are performing to assign them to the right tier, but someone never asks to make a concert. The worst case was that she was not letting go of the piano, as the teachers wanted to have a good grasp of the limit roof reached by the newcomer.

Soon, she was moved to another music room and was now performing Ballade No.1 in G Minor of Rousseau. Then, she performed Liebesleid of Fritz in another room, and in another room, she performed Clair de Lune. In the end.

They made her choose a suitable light music room for a band that needed a keyboardist, citing something from teacher Dave Grohl.

"Girl, you have the basics mastered, but you are performing well only because of the bottled feelings you are dealing with. The thing is that those feelings are not to be there forever."

"You need to discover a soul, and for that, a band is a way to go; yeah, you will not be in that 24/7, but you will discover how to deal with the ins and outs, and that girl will give you the shine in your music."

Halsey did not want to speak. She was well, steaming out, letting go of her frustration since Viktoriya got herself a boyfriend. Even if Viktoriya does not admit they are going out, Visha gets into a mood of not processing inputs and outputs.

Viktoriya is in an automatic mode of sorts back home, staring at nothing into the abyss. That's where entering club room F came into place. Dave said, "Welcome to that band with Ryo & Hitori; ¨hello girls, I bring a keyboardist."

Academic City, Tomodachi restaurant

Viktoriya has been in classes but has not been doing original art for some time, so Grantz decided to act, realizing his last name was the culprit.

Grantz Degurechaff and Viktoriya were searching for a good place for a meeting. Still, even if things seemed like a date, they gave a different air than dating pairs currently at their table.

People got the impression those two were love birds everyone thought they were. The gossip did not matter currently. She wanted an answer, and those given to her made it shocking; it was shocking news that made Viktoriya rest her head on the table and groan as the news Grantz had given to the girl made her collateral damage, damage that she searched for even though he had already warned her.

"Why was I not born a few years before? If only I were not sloppy, if only magic existed here, why?"

"There is nothing we could ever hope to do. It was in the control of Jaggasdril. This leaf is beyond our choices."

The recollection follows.

The thing was Grantz's last name. It was simple: they had met before and asked how and when they remembered their lives ending. Grantz responded by saving the mayor from a bullet at an older age, to which Visha responded, not understanding what to respond to.

"Well, we were in the Norden campaign, the Francois, the Russy, the fucking Ildoa, but the end did not match up; not even the aftermath is the same."

"Well, reincarnation and life after the beyond go well out of our area of expertise; in that regard, the major is our senior. Think of it like the DCU and batman we watched as kids."

"I did have a screen in my house, but we do not use service stream, only physical media, and as someone who got nothing more than analog, I am somewhat disconnected from pop culture.

"How come! Well, as expected of a rich lady, suppose you were given access to the system intranet COM but not to the WAYPOINT, seeing as we got here in the same place but in different faculties is to expect it, I am proof of it, a musician and composer but not much of a gamer like my fellow men."

"Well, I am glad I could be given a chance to catch up with Catherine, but seeing I got the short view of the world was unexpected."

"You need to take me to those arcadias one of these days; I do sports but never played matches of anything digital, and I am seeing I lived in a bubble like a damn Romanoff, and more salt to injury is being too high spec."

"Well, in that you have my sympathy, it is not easy to be labeled a genius getting sponsored and getting to study on this planet in its academic city; also, are you sure Catherine is not related to Tanya? She is too smart to be true."

"Well, I got to know her since the beginning as a baby. We grew up together, and when studying about space and the world, she was there absorbing everything like a sponge."

"In that regard, the major was more like us already with an encyclopedic mind of her own; in contrast, this one is absorbing everything beyond photographic memory; also, why are you saying the major is a fellow reincarnated?"

Viktoriya was now up with hands below her head, but she would soon be in the same groaning position.

"Well, because I think I've met the major as my grandmother when I was only four years old."

At the news, Viktoriya was speechless. She dropped her boba tea and almost made a mess out of the table when recomposing, and she began to chock-grab Grant from the collar.

"Repeat that and show me proof and everything you think you know."

"Well, it took me a few days to make everything match on my tablet after our first encounter back in Endymion, but I recompiled everything and prepared all the info to match your outburst as I expected; see."

At which Grantz showed a photo of the Tobias Fleming Shaw & Wallace Fujikawa 2291 meeting the likes not found on the web but more akin to the ones from an album.

"Well, how we get from expanded universes and now to the space slip motor is beyond me. Are you not scheming?"

"Look around all of them and see the familiar face."

At this point, in haste, Viktoriya searched the photos and got onto the floor without force on hers, which was the very definition of defeat. There were photos of an event, but as more pages were turned there, the following pictures were more akin to showing a party, which then a familiar face appeared, the image of Tanya Degurechaff showed in an older version, and when the team of Wallace Fujikawa credited people and the name Tasha Degurechaff tagged in there, it was the same face Viktoriya worked too hard to find in the news, to her shock she was the person to introduce Wallace and Tobias, making the two teams a dream team to make the slipstream motor, but something was off, the dates do not coincide at all,

"Explain as soon as possible. Why is Tanya the great-grandmother but also not matched with the dates? It is not like there was cryo sleep back in the day."

"She was both. She has been re-doing things as she hoped from one age to another. Also, you need to hear about my meeting with my grandparents to see the big picture,"

When compiling his old thoughts he was six but remembers that when he was only four he traveled to visit his great-grandparents' house. Grantz met her at four, happily chatting with the family. Then, seeing Grantz, Grandma smiled a blissful grin and joy filled her.

-Hoh my, we have a little musician flying lieutenant here. His name is Grantz, and we will make the usual (this without being introduced).

To the amazed family, seeing grandma happy when seeing grandchildren was familiar but she was no one to spoil rotten anybody, Still, it was not this way of hers, getting up and cooking master chef style. Oliebollen, Bitterballen, Poffertjes, Kroket, Stroopwafel—they were from Belgium, not lowlanders.

It was a week when they ate Erwtensoep and Appeltaart too much, but why was Dutch cuisine suddenly beyond anyone? Sure, they had a few relatives on her mother's side in the Navy, but it was a recurring sight. It was not tradition; he was the new addition old enough to travel.

Still, she was no one to pamper needlessly without reason. To the asking, she said

"He fought for a free Europe in his last life. This much is nothing",

To the recollection of the tight family, this revelation was astonishing. Still, when she rested, she forgot and dedicated herself to chatting about other things, making one of her rare slips.

Two years later, Grandpa Erich died, and she followed soon after. And she left to his grandson all the keyboards, basses, guitars, and music-related stuff collected as a colony CMA captain,

At this point, he was good to use it, and it was a welcome upgrade from the young Grantz, who was leveled as a good musician at the time. Now, he has music production-level equipment and access to publishing.

His innovative use of soundtracks made him a good cover artist, a genius child. It even featured songs in indie projects, at which point a few became famous. Music enrolled him in Koletre-Browning University as he skipped a few compulsory education grades.

And now we have Viktoriya with her head on the table groaning and spitting curses to the old and new gods as reprisal for not letting her meet hers but composed as Grantz showed more ages where more Tanya's, Anya's, or Tasha's with surnames Degurechaff were there coming from the family vault.

She was sure she was seeing a vampire if she never knew about the family tree.

"We are not a big family, but our roots started even before the Shaw- Fujikawa engine was made as commercial captains, and now pursuing space, there were many of which was almost a tradition to have certain names in the family tree, and coincidentally there was a project manager, HR headmaster, stock runner, shareholder, and my grandma a colonist ship CMA captain."

"After hearing the major speak about human capital and society do you see her as someone that will not pursue those career paths also the photographs show various profiles coincidentally with the same face and with doing some math never overlapping."

To the proof, Viktoriya was speechless; seeing that the family tree was matrilineal making the eldest daughter getting the husband obligatory to get the wife´s last name was shocking even at this age, but seeing how much such a family was crucial in the development of civilization was simply too much like the major.

She shed tears of joy, seeing that Tanya, of all people, had made her dream come true, time and time again. Viktoriya was emotionally exhausted.

Now Viktoriya was empty; her worries and pain were gone, her stress was off, and Viktoriya let herself bask in the sun's gentle rays. Maybe that's why they pursued; that little spark ignited in their soul, and now she was ready to paint again, letting that blockade fly away.