Weiss came back from America. I recalled that day—the things that happened on the day when Weiss returned from America.
The procedures for Weiss joining the club was done in the female restroom at the Narita airport. Back then, I was outside on lookout. What sort of expression did Weiss have when she signed the club application form? What did they talk about? I had absolutely no idea.
It's pretty scary how far the magazines get around for their gossip. One month before Weiss left for America, there were already several magazines that published colored images of Weiss on their covers. The movements of the girl piano prodigy who had disappeared from the international stage two years ago was well grasped by everyone, probably in no small part due to the fact that her father—the 'world renowned Senju Tobirama'—was traveling along with his daughter. And also, everyone already knows about her sickness.
It's said that during the start of December, when Weiss returned to Japan with her father, there were a lot of reporters gathering at the airport. She disappeared when her father went to take their luggage. Rumor has it that she was taken away by three unknown teenage boys and girls, and after some digging, the suspects were some club members of a certain Folk Music Club that has a secret agenda. Is it really fine for us to be described like that…? After that, I made a call to Tobirama, in order to ask for his help in explaining everything to the media—and he became fuming mad.
Half a month went by before everything around Weiss finally died down. The pianist Weiss Schnee had always been really silent, but now she has her guitar. For her, the guitar is probably not something she escapes to, but rather, another path to walk on.
"So what's going on now? Why is Weiss suddenly addressing you with a pet name?"
Yang, who was late, sat on the chair of the drum set, then guzzled down Weiss's leftover Oolong tea as she said that unhappily. As expected of a martial arts black-belt—even though her body size is roughly the same as Weiss', with her staring at me with her eyes opened wide, it felt like she could immediately grab me by the back of my neck despite her being quite a considerable distance away from me.
The problem all started with the Oolong tea. Yang spotted the bottle when she stepped into the clubroom, "This is Haruto's, right? Then I'll be drinking it!" And with that, she was about to take a huge gulp from it. Just then however, Weiss said in a strangely angry voice, "I gave that to Ruto!" Why are you girls doing that? Please head outside if you two want to quarrel!
Using the floor tom as a table, Yang and Weiss continued with their satire against each other non-stop. I felt the whole thing was rather silly, so I focused on tuning my bass. By the time I was done tuning and was about to plug my bass into the amplifiers, it seemed like Weiss was already tired of arguing with Yang. She directed her attention back onto her guitar.
With her lips clipping onto the pick, she slipped her fingers that could hardly muster any strength into the loops on the pick, and in the next instance, she swung her hand with force. A series of sharp sounds leaped out from the Marshall amplifiers like a gush of powerful flowing waters. The impact which I felt was as if my spine was impaled by drills, and my body trembled uncontrollably—I took another firm grip at my bass with my sweaty palms.
Weiss doesn't use any effect units, so it sounded just as it was: the guitar and the amplifiers—the rawest form of energy produced by clashing the most basic technology of the Fender and Marshall companies together. Hanon's Virtuoso Piano—Exercise #43—even though it should be a very lifeless tune that's used especially for practicing finger techniques, the notes that flowed out of Weiss's guitar could never fail to accelerate the throbbing heart within me.
Just as I was shifting my gaze back to my bass, I suddenly heard the sounds of the cymbals entering in. It integrated itself into Weiss' guitar while playing the semiquavers, and produced a rough metallic sound. The bass drum stomped in rowdily, as though it was ushering them along. The drum sticks in Yang's hands were moving rhythmically with great speed, and it looked just like the wings of a dragonfly that was dancing in the air.
Weiss looked upwards suddenly, and halted the performance abruptly. I thought Yang was stopping along with Weiss, but she was actually observing the breathing of Weiss, and she managed to ride on Weiss' tempo perfectly when Weiss resumed her play. So they are quarreling with their instruments after the earlier squabble? Well, recent practices had always started on a similar note… and it's all thanks to the club president who's always late!
I held onto my breath and gently plucked the strings of my bass. I dived into my own notes amid the machine-gun-esque melody, and searched for my own space. Suddenly, a gush of cold air flowed into the room via the opened doors, which interrupted the jam session.
"Morning comrades! So you guys are already ablaze? I'm really happy to see that!"
There was a slender silhouette at the entrance. Her silver eyes were sharp, just like those of a feline's. She's the president of our Folk Music Research Club, Hyuuga Ruby. She was carrying a guitar case on her shoulders. Seeing that she was sweating quite a bit, she had probably just reached the school on her bicycle (if she got here during the morning, she should have placed her guitar in the room first, just like what Weiss and I had done). This girl's always like this, so how on earth did she manage not to get expelled from school. That mystery is probably strange enough to be listed as one of the Seven Inconceivable of our school.
"Weiss doesn't look quite happy today either—what a beautiful sight!"
Ruby praised Weiss while walking past me to get close to her. Since Weiss had nowhere to run, the only thing she could do was helplessly watch on as Ruby hugged her tightly and rubbed their cheeks against each other. Rather than feeling a sense of disgust, Weiss looked more as though as she was just embarrassed. Also, she was looking at me with a gaze that was crying for help, and that made me feel quite troubled as well.
"Ah, no worries, I won't forget about you either, Yang! Your hair seems slightly messed? Hmm, you're still cute either way."
With that, Ruby hugged Yang's head and stroked her hair. Yang seemed really happy, and she even burrowed the tip of her nose into Ruby's chest. Then, I almost felt like saying "Sorry for interrupting," and just walked out of the clubroom.
It's one of the things that I found out only after I had joined this club which consists of three girls and a guy… and that is: the fact that Ruby loving girls is really true. I originally thought she was just joking, but whatever things this girl says is really true.
"Namikaze, you're the one who fixed the door?" Ruby suddenly directed the conversation topic to me.
"Yeah." Since the door could not be shut tight, some of the noise could get out of the room through the slit below.
"Well, it's great that the sounds won't escape the room anymore," Ruby looked at the door and spoke softly.
After returning to class, Weiss still wore a grumpy expression on her face, just as before; and she was as defensive as ever when it came to interacting with the rest of our classmates. Those classmates of mine too—despite knowing about Weiss' sickness, they still treat her like they did before she went to America, and teased her like she was some wild cat who's wary of humans.
Everything that happened before that seemed like an illusion. Nothing's changed. The only difference is that Weiss has started to participate in the club activities with us.
"Ruto, there's too much syncopation. It feels really uncomfortable."
"Ruto, stop being led away by my shuffle rhythms. Play your quavers properly."
Ever since her returned from America Weiss started to address me with that. I don't know why she suddenly started calling me with that pet name but I quite like it so I just let her call me that. And during our practice, Weiss only complained about me, though part of the reason was because I was the person with the lousiest techniques.
During these two weeks, the conversations between Weiss and I increased, though most of them were about things related to music. Therefore, I did not have the slightest idea about what Weiss is thinking when she is together with the band.