I just so happened to meet Rossweisse-sensei on my way back home. After walking into the ordinary carriage which will stop at each and every station, she asked, "Seems like you have been chatting with Weiss quite a lot recently?"
I shrunk my head as I grabbed onto the overhead handles. I've been caught by a troublesome person.
"No, you can't quite consider that chatting."
"Just be straightforward and tell her that you'd love to share that room with her? Why are all the boys that eccentric?"
You think I could say that? Me? To Weiss?
"And also, what have you been doing recently? Seems like you've been together with Hyuuga from Class 1-A quite frequently, right?"
"Oh, well… " With her vice grip grabbing onto the back of my collar, I had no other option but to tell her the truth.
"A guitar showdown?" Rossweisse-sensei suddenly gave out a strange sound, which resulted in the rest of the passengers directing their attention to us.
"Should I say that you're stupid, or that you're similar to Hyuuga," Rossweisse-sensei gave a sigh as she voiced out her thoughts. Is Ruby that famous among the teachers as well? She doesn't seem to attend any lessons, so perhaps she is one of those so-called problematic students or something?
"Then Weiss said she's okay with the proposal? How can that be possible?"
"No, she was just stunned."
"Yeah, that's more like it. Then what are you going to do? Do you really want to do this?"
"Hah, there's a lot of reasons behind it. I'll put my best into this." I replied vaguely. I couldn't possibly tell Rossweisse-sensei about the various things that we've done to make Weiss participate in the showdown.
Rossweisse-sensei knitted her beautiful pair of eyebrows for a moment, and pressed her finger against her temple. "Look… I am very grateful to you for interacting with Weiss, but don't provoke her too much. She's a really delicate girl."
Even if she told me that, but for some reason, I couldn't help but get angry at how she wanted me to be gentle towards Weiss. That girl has said many terrible things to me, you know?
"Mm… " Rossweisse-sensei crossed her arms before her chest, and her expression suggested that she didn't know what she should say. "I think, the majority of the problems are due to a certain psychological issue she's having. Therefore… "
"What do you mean? What's this 'psychological issue' that you're referring to?"
Rossweisse-sensei stared at me without saying a single word. She then mumbled to herself with a hoarse voice, "If the person is Haruto, then it should be fine telling him…" But then she immediately shook her head and canceled that thought of hers.
"I can't be the one to tell you this. It will be for the best if Weiss is willing to tell you about it."
Psychological issues. I recalled the time when Weiss was holding tightly to a bag of medicine in her hands. So Weiss's really sick? I can't quite see that from the outside, but if…
"Umm, Sensei…" I thought of something else, and so I decided to ask her about it. "Weiss… I heard she is about to transfer away soon. Is that true?"
"Transfer? Why?"
"… Ah, nothing."
She's disappearing in three months. Then… What does that actually mean? I said nothing, and once again sank into my own thoughts. In any case, Weiss said nothing to me at all.
"A showdown through guitars huh… that's youth for you! But that may be a good thing as well." Rossweisse-sensei smiled as she gazed into the distance. "And Weiss has no intention of making friends. Even though it may be slightly unreasonable for me to be doing this, but it is quite a good idea to force her to join a club. If so, I'll be the adviser for your club!"
"So you think… I can win?"
"No, not at all." Rossweisse-sensei answered immediately. I gripped hard onto the handle and slumped my head in disappointment. "However, I heard that she only started playing the guitar half a year ago."
"Really?" She can achieve such skills within half a year? Tch, what's up with these so-perfect girls around me.
"Still, everyone will go through things like this, right? There are times where you just have to do the things you need to do. All the best, Namikaze. If you make Weiss cry, I'll never let you off the hook easily." With that, Rossweisse-sensei gave me a hard slap on my back.
I returned to my room and sat on my bed. After putting the bass on my legs, my fingers began to strum on the strings subconsciously. I then realized I was playing the bass of that piano concerto unknowingly. It's the piece which Weiss played at the junkyard on the day when we first met.
I went into my mom's room, and began stacking up the CDs of various piano concertos of the late romantic era, then took them all to my room. I spent the whole night listening to all the CDs continuously, to the point where I had even skipped my dinner. However, I did not manage to locate the track in my memory. That's not surprising though, since there are a few thousand piano concertos.
I switched off the sound system, and gave up trying to find it. I suddenly remembered my declaration to Weiss when I was tuning my bass: "If I lose, I'll never get close ever again."
That line suddenly appeared in my mind, but wow. What the hell was I saying? What I meant was that I'll never get close to that room, and that I'll never get close to Weiss, right? And since our seats are right next to each other, it will be impossible for me not to be close to her, right? What will happen if I lose? I kept thinking about those things. My excuse for talking to Weiss will disappear along with that as well, right? And I did say that I won't join the Folk Music Research Club if I lose. I recalled the song we played in the recording room that day—Kashmir. That is a wonderfully sweet experience that makes one breathless, and I felt like my body was burning in flames. Tomorrow… I will do my best and rock on. I will defeat Weiss Schnee.