The skies were already growing dark when I reached Thousand Birds Musical Instrument Store. From a gap which was about as wide as the width of a pencil, I could see all sorts of guitars that were displayed in the shop, which were glowing under the display lights. Somehow, the scene felt so nostalgic, I almost teared up from my eyes. I only went to the shop once, so why did I feel that way?
Ruby was tending the store alone, and there were no customers in there. She's on the other side of the counter. Using a piece of yellow cloth, she was carefully and tenderly cleaning the neck of a guitar with its strings removed.
"Here I am thinking that it's about time for you to come! I'm really happy, yeah?" Upon noticing me, she put the guitar down and stood up. "You're here to buy strings for your bass, right?"
I jumped in shock and nodded my head in a daze. "How did you know?"
"There's something that I'll have to apologize to you for." As she said that, she took out the bass's strings from a rack to the side of the counter, which has a lot of compartments.
"Which is?"
"I actually did something to the third string, so that it would snap more easily."
"Haa?" I gave a strange cry. "Why did you do that?"
"You burn-out really easily, right? I was thinking that you may coop yourself up in your house if you start to get tired of it halfway. If your string so happens to snap right then… see, isn't that a perfect excuse for you to come see me? So let me pay for that!" Ruby smiled as she took out three thousand-yen bills from her wallet, and put them into the cashier. Compared to the strings for guitars, the strings for a bass are shockingly pricey, but the shop owners will always help you change them. I was surprised, and for a moment I could not speak. I always thought that tuning will cause the strings to wear easily, so in actual fact the strings don't break that easily?
"What do you plan to do if I decide to give up on bass because of the broken string?"
"Then there's nothing else I can do. I thought about it before—I'll give up if things are not fated to be. However, you still came running to me, right?" Ruby said that with a smiling face, so there's nothing much for me to say. "You got the score?"
I nodded my head, and took out the score which was handwritten by Ruby from my bass casing.
"So, you're not here to complain about how the score is too difficult for you, right?"
"No… nothing." I moved my eyes away and cooked up a lie.
"Where have you played till?"
"At about the fourth variation, but I was stuck there ever since. I couldn't play the fugue at all, and I don't think it's possible for me to do so."
Ruby quickly finished tuning the newly strung bass, and then she began to play it while sitting on the counter. I listened to the fugue with a complicated feeling. The music played by Weiss' guitar is like it's directly shaved out from a giant pillar of ice. In contrast, Ruby's performance is like the frozen rays of winter—her music appeared unknowingly all of the sudden, and pierces right through the clouds. It is really unbelievable to see such clear sounds flowing smoothly without any hiccups.
After she was done with the performance, Ruby returned the bass to me. For a while, I couldn't bring myself to face her.
"It's not that hard! I didn't use any special techniques either. Just reduce the tempo by half, and carefully play through each and every note."
"Hyuuga… " I quietly muttered that with my head still lowered.
"Hmm?"
"Why can't you recruit Weiss by yourself? You play better than me anyway."
"Didn't I say that before already? It has to be you."
I shook my head weakly. "Even if it's me, I can't converse much with Weiss either. Weiss is unwilling to tell me anything, and all I did was make her angry…"
Ruby took out two round stools from the counter, and placed them in the aisle that displays the guitars. She then made me sit down by pressing me on my shoulders.
"It's not just that."
"Eh?" I lifted my head.
Ruby shifted her sight away from my face slightly, and it floated upwards slowly.
"That's not all there is to it. You see, before I knew the existence of Weiss Schnee, I already knew about you."
I gradually found it difficult to breathe. "W-what are you talking about now?"
"Namikaze, you do know about a music magazine named 'Friends of Musicians', right? In the July issue two years back, I read a critique that was published in it, and the title is 'Handel and the verses in the bible'. The article is roughly about how Handel's pieces, including those that aren't music, can all be interpreted as verses. Even though the logic's a little far-fetched, it still felt rather amazing. It's a rather touching article."
I was still dazed while I hugged onto my bass tightly with my arms. Of course I know that article. It's because, that critique…
"I took a look at the name of the writer, and it was Namikaze Kushina, a critic whom I'm very familiar with. However, something didn't feel quite right. The article was written in English simple enough for junior high school students to read, and the examples cited in it should not have existed in the junior high school education which Namikaze Kushina should have received, since she was already in her late thirties."
"Ah… " There's… there's actually someone who notices that?
"That strange feeling caused me to shift my suspicion to the whole article. I took out older magazines and revised them, by rereading every single critique written by Namikaze Kushina. Somehow, a few articles stood out from the rest, and all these articles shared the same weird feeling as well. I searched for a few CD reviews as well, and I managed to find one for Finlandia, which was played by the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra and conducted by Karajan in 1959."
I gulped. My dry throat was sore.
"However, I couldn't find anymore concrete evidence after that. I didn't know anyone from the publisher either—all I knew was that Namikaze Kushina had a son. What I know is, for some reason, she had written about her son in her articles quite a few times, and had even written out his name. Therefore, when I found that name in the booklet that detailed the names of all the newcomers—I guess you can understand how shocked I was then, right?" With a light smile on her face, Ruby prodded my nose with her finger. "The criminal is you."
"… What do you mean by criminal?"
"All my deductions are correct, right?" Ruby suddenly pulled her face close to mine, and I could only nod my head. There was actually someone in this world who found out the articles I had done in Mom's name, just by reading the articles alone.
"Therefore, I have already been paying attention to you for a long time, Namikaze. I need a secretary in my revolutionary army, and I can't think of anyone that is more suitable for that position than you. Thus, it's not me asking you to join along the way while I am trying to recruit Weiss Schnee." Ruby placed her hands on my shoulders. "I want you."
Don't say that sort of thing to me at such a close distance when we're all alone here. My mind was in a mess, and I couldn't say anything. In order to avoid Ruby's gaze, I turned my head away and packed my bass.
"However, for someone like me…" I confirmed the touch of my casing. "It's not like I'll benefit the band by joining. I can't play as well as Weiss does, and I probably will never catch up to her. All this while, I've… always been listening to music by myself."
Ruby narrowed her eyes and stared at me for quite a while. She then suddenly diverted her gaze, and yelled towards my back. "Yang, it's about time you show yourself. Want to come in?"
I turned my head around in shock. Yang was standing in the shadows of the few guitars next to the door. She quietly showed herself. There was a gentle expression on her face.
"You must have stalked him all the way here, right? As expected from a fighter in my revolutionary army. You are quite adept at stealth missions as well."
"W-wha!? I-I didn't stalk him!" Yang said that angrily, and stomped all the way over. "Ruby, you can't say things that will frighten Haruto!"
"That jealous look of yours is really cute too!" Ruby patted Yang's head lovingly.
I looked at her with a dumbfounded expression as well. Did she really stalk me all the way here? Is that really true, or is it not?
Yang glared at me while saying, "I just so happened to come here to take a look around, and it just so happened that you were inside, so it was inconvenient for me to enter."
Ruby consoled her by saying, "I understand, I understand, Yang."
"Yang, did you bring your drum sticks along?"
"… Drum sticks?" Yang tilted her head, then nodded.
"Mmm. I'll go wake up Kaka-nii inside and borrow the key to the recording room." Ruby shifted her gaze to me, and turned her hand into the shape of a gun. She then pretended to fire a shot into my chest. "Namikaze, let me light your passion ablaze."