One week later, Thursday. We didn't have school because it was a national holiday, so I had spent the entire day with Ruby and Yang at the school roof practicing my bass.
"Since Weiss dislikes the guitar, why is she still playing it?" Yang had plugged her portable music player into a set of mini-speakers, and was listening to the sarabande of English Suites. She asked that question while tapping her fingers onto her knees to the rhythm of the tune. "She's so good with the piano. Even if she does play the guitar, all she plays are some piano pieces, right?"
"Well, that may not be all she knows about the guitar." Ruby had laid out a huge amount of scores on the concrete floor, and was carefully reading them all while answering Yang at the same time.
Since the Folk Music Research Club isn't an officially recognized club, activities are conducted mainly on the roof. I don't know if she is planning to rope me into the club slowly, even though I am not a member of the club, Ruby still asks me to head to the roof daily after school.
"So, what are your thoughts after listening to Weiss's CDs?"
Yesterday, which was the six day since I started practicing according to the instructions given by Ruby, Ruby said to me, "Gather all the pieces that Weiss has played as well as their scores, and bring them tomorrow, you have her entire collection in your house, right?"
I do have the scores and the CDs in my room, but locating them was another matter altogether. I searched for the scores in my messy room almost the whole night, Ruby seemed rather happy as she looked through the scores which I brought one by one. I knew Ruby was scanning through the scores as she listened to Weiss's music on the piano.
"So the pieces Weiss Schnee plays are centered around Bach. Even so, there's no way for her to play the fugue with the guitar, it's technically impossible, right?"
"Probably?" I nodded.
Fugue is derived from the term 'flee' in Italian. This style of composition began during the early days of modern music, the baroque era, and was pushed to perfection by Bach. It's a style that has various voices entering at different times, that chases an initial melody therefore, some call it 'fleeing tune' as well. Which means that, since the guitar can basically play only a single melody, it is extremely difficult to reproduce the techniques of fugue.
"Therefore, if you are to challenge her, you'll have to do it through fugue huh…"
"I see… wait? What did you say?"
"Namikaze, I think it is about time you are aware of this, but the difference in skill between that of yours against that of Weiss Schnee', is akin to the difference of a white ant and a blue whale. It is impossible to win if we do not come up with a strategy."
"I do know that, but please be more gentle with your analogies, would you?!"
"Then how about an apple against the Earth?" Yang joined in.
"That's even worse!"
"However, you can't challenge her with Bach. There will be no chance of victory if you do that," Ruby resumed the topic.
"Eh, wait a second, I'm gonna play classical music?"
Ruby lifted her sight off the scores, and she looked even more shocked now. "But of course? How else do you plan to 'teach her a proper lesson'?"
"Umm, well…" To be honest, I never thought of that before. "There's nothing concrete, but I guessed something along the lines of me playing some rock for her to listen to, so that she can be slightly impressed with me?"
"Do you think that someone who possesses such sublime guitar techniques would be shaken by what you have to offer under these circumstances? Firstly, and it will be really troublesome for me if you have forgotten this, I want to welcome Weiss Schnee into my Folk Music Club as my comrade. Which means, I want to welcome her to be a member of the band."
"And so?"
"So we must be able to play the pieces together with Weiss, right?" As she flipped the scores on the floor, Yang continued, "It must be pieces that Weiss knows."
Ruby patted Yang's head lovingly. I see, so that's the reason we will be using fugue huh. The pieces that Weiss loves, but isn't able to play by herself in her current state. Which means, my bass was carefully modified so as to match up to the timbre of Weiss' guitar? Is that what she is implying? But wait… eh? That mean that me joining the club is part of Ruby's plans as well? So that is already a given in Ruby's mind? I did tell her clearly that all I want is that room, and I won't be joining the club.
"However, she may not fall for our instigation even if we are to carefully select one of Bach's fugues… moreover, even if we have successfully reached the battle, those last-minute skills of yours will probably be incomparable to hers, and things will just end with that." Ruby bit on her lower lip and tossed the scores away. "Well, we may still have a way out if you can stay by my side and take up a year of my training, but that will take up too much time."
I don't want that sort of training either! It just feels like my life will never be the same again if I am to undergo that sort of training.
"Hey, Haruto. Didn't Weiss say that she would be disappearing in three months?"
Having heard that from Yang, I looked into the sky and began recounting. Actually, Weiss did say that in front of the whole class on the day she transferred to our school. As she did lots of unpleasant things later on, I had completely forgotten about it. Those words what exactly do they mean?
Ruby asked yet again, "Disappearing in three months? She said nothing else aside from that?"
Yang pressed her finger against her lower lip and thought for a moment, before shaking her head. "'I'll be gone in three months, so please forget about me' that's all she said. What does that mean? She's transferring to another school? Could she be going to study in the high school affiliated to the College of Music?"
"That's bad then," Ruby crossed her arms and said, "If we can get her into the club, I can still tie her down by mesmerizing her with my charms. However, it will be troublesome should she disappear before that."
"Hyuuga, there's the Immorality Act, so you know you can't do anything that's overly crazy, right?"
"No worries, if it's me, I can do that without stripping, so I won't be infringing the Immorality Act."
What's with that eager look of yours?
"So… Namikaze, if you do not have the resolve to die for my romance and revolution… Oh!" Ruby suddenly switched off her discman.
"What's wrong?"
"Weiss's here."
I looked downwards through the fence. I managed to see her back with that snow-white hair vanishing into the classroom of the old music building. I'm sure Ruby didn't see that, so how did she know Weiss was here? Is she a wild beast? We laid our bodies low, and quietly waited for a while. Soon, we could hear the sounds of the guitar. Eh? What's this tune? I heard it somewhere before, but I can't remember. There's a hint of Liszt in its style.
"It's Paganini." Ruby said into my ears. I remembered. Niccolò Paganini, a violinist who is known as the Devil due to his overly impressive techniques. He is a very talented composer too, but due to his distrusting nature, he hated releasing the scores of his compositions. So because of that, nearly all of his works are lost. His violin concerto and capriccio, along with the piano etudes composed by Franz Liszt based on his capriccio, are probably the only works of his left in modern times.
What Weiss was playing was the etude composed by Liszt. It felt like the bones in my body would creak from those intense vibratos should I listen on any longer. Yang was cringing as well. What an irritable performance.
"I see… Paganini huh." Ruby was muttering to herself yet again. I turned around to take a look, and saw her digging through Weiss' CDs with a serious expression. Her left hand was sifting through the scores as well. What's going on?
Finally, Ruby found a CD and a score.
"Found it."
"What's with those things?"
"Namikaze, can you lend me these?"
"Well, I'm fine with it…"
"Then I'll be heading home first. I have a song to compose."
"That song?"
"That's right, Paganini. We'll do exactly what Paganini did. We can win with this." Ruby's face was overflowing with some sort of energy, but I was completely confused. What does she mean? What Ruby is holding in her hands is not Paganini at all
"Of course. The only person who can teach Beethoven a lesson is Beethoven. Right?" Ruby flashed me a cute wink, before walking towards the school building with the score and the CD. She's still the same as ever, saying things that no one can understand. The same thing Paganini did? There's no way I could get it no matter how hard I tried, and so I placed my bass back onto my thigh.
"Ruby looks really happy…" Yang was sending Ruby off with her gaze, and murmuring to herself in a daze. Well, that girl looks happy all the time anyway. "I never thought Ruby liked you that much."
"The one she likes is Weiss, not me. I am just the bridge that connects them together."
Yang narrowed her eyes and stared at me, as though she was dissatisfied with something.
"What?"
"Mmm, nothing."
Yang suddenly stood up and sat down right behind me, with her back pressing against mine. I moved slightly forward in shock, but since she came leaning on me yet again, I could move no further.
"She said we're fighters." Yang suddenly spoke.
"Fighters?"
"Yes. Haven't you heard? Folk Music Research Club is just a front to fool the world. We are actually a revolutionary army."
"Nope, not at all."
A front to fool the world? Ruby actually managed to say that? Oh please!
"What was it again? She said something like, the Sixth International or the Vanguard Party or something."
Is that some sort of misleading students's movement of a certain unknown era? Also, what's with the sixth? Where's the fifth?
"I really don't know which of her words are true, and which of those are meant as a joke."
"Perhaps all of her words are true?" Yang laughed, "But what if all of them are just a joke? Or rather, there's no way one can discern the truth from the jokes in her words, right?"
"I guess you can put it that way."
"Didn't I injure myself during the competition last spring? The doctor said back then that I can no longer practice my martial arts ever again. I was really depressed… so I frequently ran out of the house in the middle of the night, and roamed around the station by myself. Many people came to me looking for trouble. Since I was mistaken as a boy, plus the fact that I couldn't harness my strength due to my back injury, I was actually really weak. However, I could still take them on if it was not more than one on three."
"There's no need for you to take on those sorts of things."
"I was chased by them, so I ran into the basement of a building. Then I realized it was a live house, and it was there where Ruby held them off for me. She's really cool, she actually took some drinks over, and asked them for the entrance fees."
"That's cool?"
"Ah, but she asked for my entrance fees too."
"Just as I thought."
"As I didn't have much cash on me, I could only pay using my body."
I wanted to smack her on that, but I gave up in the end.
"So, what's the fighters thing about?" That term sounds like the grunts in the movies though.
"Right. Ruby said, that to start a revolution, she'd need at least 3 more people. The chairman, the treasurer, and an army commander or something. With Haruto joining us, all that's left is Weiss."
"Hold on, I haven't joined the club yet"
Suddenly, I could no longer feel Yang's back. I fell backwards onto the concrete floor, and my head knocked into it gently, the pain spread to my jaws.
"Ugh…" As I opened my eyes, I saw Yang's upside-down face closing in on me. I gulped in shock.
"There's no reason not to join us, right? You've bought your bass too."
"That's because…"
Yang grabbed my head with both of her hands. I could no longer move even if I wanted to.
"… Is it for Weiss?"
For Weiss, it's slightly different from what those words were implying, but I nodded my head anyway.
"Why? Why are you doing that much for her? There shouldn't be much drive in you, no? Moreover, you've been practicing nonstop recently, and your techniques are getting better. I was quite surprised about you, you know?"
I wouldn't know how to answer her if she asked me that one more time. 'It's to get back my personal practice room' that sounds like an excuse no matter how you look at it. I mean, if all I want is to be able to listen to my CDs leisurely after school, there should be other simpler methods to achieve that. So is it for the reputation of rock? Or my pride? No matter how I try explaining it, there's something that doesn't feel quite right. But no matter what, I have to challenge her. I thought quietly for a while.
Yang then released me and stood up. "How did you and Weiss know each other?" Yang sat against my back again, and asked.
"Why are we talking about this?" It's hard to explain what happened that day, so I had no desire to talk about that topic.
"I just told you how I met Ruby, so it's your turn to tell me."
I couldn't think of any good reason to rebut, and Yang was knocking her head into mine several times. I began telling her what happened as I recounted the incidents of that spring. About the department store that's filled with rubbish at the ends of the world, and how Weiss was playing the piano sonata by herself. I left out only one thing, about how the junk actually made the sounds of an orchestra. She probably would not have believed me, and somehow, I felt it would be better if I kept that a secret, even from someone like Yang.
"That place seems quite interesting. I want to visit it too."
"No, it's not fun at all."
The heaps of large-sized rubbish are like skeletons from some war, left to rot gradually as days goes by, among them, stood a piano. Everything's deadly quiet, and the world has ended for that place. Weiss is probably the only person who is able to bring life back into that place. I tried to recall yet again, the melody of the piano sonata which Weiss played on that day. It's formed via a sequence of arpeggios, just like the gentle bobbing of the surface of the seas. Is that Debussy… no wait, it's probably Prokofiev? I still can't recall the name of that tune.
Also, it somehow feels like that's something that I cannot touch. Weiss did say back then that she wanted me to erase that song from my memories. If so, that song must hold a certain key. For Weiss, that is a song that leads to one of the secrets that she is holding. It was till then that I realized I did not understand Weiss at all.
"In any case…" Yang's voice suddenly appeared before me and pulled me back to reality. Unknown to me, Yang was already squatting before me and staring into me. "You are very concerned about Weiss, right?"
"Hmm… mmm?" I replied vaguely, "Nah… what? I don't get what you're talking about?"
"There's no need for you to play dumb at this point." Yang showed a faint smile, and gently knocked my forehead once. She then stood up. "Alright, I'll be heading back home as well. I wanted to ask if you need my help in your training, but I guess it doesn't matter."
Yang walked back into the building without even looking back. I was left alone on the broad empty roof, and the lonely melody of Weiss came from beneath my feet.
Why are all the girls around me such perplexing people? I shook my head, and picked up my bass once again. I suddenly remembered how Weiss came barging onto the roof, and thus I began practicing again after I was done tuning the instrument.