There was a brief moment of silence during the middle part of the song. The strange sounding chants beneath the clapping tempos began to gush their way up by stacking themselves in layers one after another. In the end, it cascaded into the finale after a violent explosion. The only thing I could see was the glittering lights reflected by the drops of sweat flying about me. I had no idea where Ruby was. Did we manage to convey our performance into her heart?
Even after hiding myself in the restroom for fifteen minutes, I was unable to make my heated body return back to normal. When our song was over, aside from the vigorous applause, I could also hear what sounded like cursing or cheers all mixed up together. It felt like those sounds were still reverberating in my ears. The throbbing of my heart persisted for a long while.
The performance of the class was about to start, but my legs were void of any strength to stand up. I asked myself: am I scared of listening to their performance? How can I not be? I do think I have performed really well, and I can be optimistic about our chances of winning—but for some strange reason, I was unconvinced. It's Ruby we are talking about here…
Even though they are performing the exact same piece as ours after us, and despite them not having the accompaniment of the bass and the drums, but do they really not possess any sort of secret weapons in their hands?
It's pointless for me to hide in here any longer! I hammered my knees with my fist, and finally stood up. What I wanted to hear was the chorus of Ruby's class. In which way will Ruby go about presenting it?
I walked down the corridor and pushed open the heavy double doors of the music hall. Their performance was at the final chorus of Ave verum corpus and was fading into the dark. I took a look at the stage and was surprised at what I saw. Long black hair which was formed into a ponytail—I recognized the back of Ruby in an instant. She was standing right in the middle of the stage. Facing her was the ensemble of her class, whose gray silhouettes were arranged neatly on the terraced stage.
Looking at the clothes that the girls were wearing—even without the veils, one could easily recognize their attire as the habits of nuns. So the school had actually allowed them to dress up as that. Well, I guess they were pretty lax about the restrictions.
When I got back to my seat, my classmates around me whispered.
"Where have you been, Maestro Haruto?"
"It would be bad if we got calls for an encore!"
"I really wish I could sing once more!"
"Yeah!"
After settling down on my seat, a hand reached out to me from behind me, and something appeared before my eyes. Oh, the program guide for the chorus contest. I turned my head around—it was Yang who passed me that.
"… What?"
"The song Ruby's class chose was not Somebody to Love."
For a brief moment, I could not understand what Yang was saying. Just as I took the guide from her in shock, the sounds of the piano began to ring on the stage. I turned my head back and listened to their singing.
It began with an almost silent singing that praises Virgin Mary—no accompaniment, just a simple harmony. I finally realized my mistake.
The elegant hymn was interrupted by the abrupt sounds of the piano. What came next was a passionate rhythm created by the clapping of hands and stomping of feet. The same melody from before coordinated itself to this tempo—there were times where they resonated with each other, and others where they screamed in contrast.
That's… one of the songs which appeared in the movie "Sister Act — Hail Holy Queen." This song was created by increasing the tempo of the hymn, then rearranging it to form the final product. In the movie, it's a song that re-lit the burning passion in the sisters, and got the younger generation to step into the church once more.
And now back in reality, it had caused us to glue our sight to the stage. I could not breathe. Why didn't I notice it then? The "Queen" which Weiss saw from the screen was not the name of the band, but the last word of the name of the song, didn't I realize it's a hymn and rock at the same time? Why? After all, it is possible to create rock with only the singing, the hands and the feet…
Ruby's hair swung wildly as she turned her body around. When she started to bring her hands up to her head to lead the audience into a clap, the whole music hall was swallowed up by the atmosphere around her. Her class' chorus and claps were overshadowed by Ruby's powerful solo performance. The song ended in an amazing round of applause and cheers that was comparable to an avalanche. Despite my chagrin, I still gave them a round of applause as hard as I could.
There was no need for the official results to show who won, and I do pity the class (which's Aika & Ruby's class) who got the honor of performing after Ruby's class (and in actual fact, there were quite a few people who went home straight after that). To add on, our class came in second. Yasaka went up the stage to receive the prize in the place of me, who was completely drained. I did not regain my strength even after Yang used the rolled up certificate to hit me hard on my body.
𖦹𖦹𖦹
Two days after the contest had ended.
It was a Sunday night. We agreed to meet up near the ticketing gates of a busy train station in Tokyo. I was worried I could not spot her, but those worries were all for nothing. Ruby appeared at the stairs while wearing a glamorous black gown. She still stood out from the crowd despite being roughly two hundred meters away from me. Beneath the lace shawl, I could clearly see the back of her revealing gown cut deep down, and that made my heart skip a beat. Her long black-red hair was tied elegantly into a bun, which made her look just like a celebrity who is invited to some grand party. And that was not the end of the surprises.
"Sorry, I'm late. Let's go," just as Ruby was done saying that, she wrapped her arm around mine, and that caused me to nearly fall. "You seemed nervous. This should not be your first time attending a classical music concert, right?"
"You're not wrong…" But this is the first time I am attending it together with a girl.
"Then again, I was way more surprised than you are!" Ruby began talking about the contest as we made our way to the concert hall. But since the event ended in what I felt was an embarrassing note, I was hoping that no one would talk about it. "Are you that dissatisfied with the results? Your choice of song and the performance were both pretty good. I never thought you guys could pull off Queen's song at the chorus contest."
"No, you see… there's a lot of things to it."
I never told Ruby why we chose to perform Somebody to Love, because it was a really embarrassing misunderstanding.
According to one of the committee members, there was a huge gap between the scores of the winners and the runners-up. It's not just because the principal had awarded really high marks for the hymn—it was obvious from the reactions and atmosphere of the audience that the victory belonged to Ruby's class. We lost to them thoroughly.
"Ah, you see." Ruby tightened her grip on my arm and said, "I think there's a much simpler reason for our win. It has nothing to do with how good or bad the performance was. The time signature of Somebody to Love was in the 6/8 beats, right? It is a pretty dynamic song, but the time signature makes it hard for the audiences to move their bodies left and right to the beats while sitting on the chairs! I had actually considered using that song for the contest as well."
I took a glance at Ruby's face and sighed.
"Hmm? What's wrong?"
"No, nothing."
So my train of thought was not comprehensive enough… How long will it take before I can finally catch up to this girl here? Just as we could barely see the roof of the concert hall from among the buildings, Ruby suddenly said. "But you guys are really strong opponents! I am proud to be able to compete against you."
Ruby stopped in her tracks for a moment and stared at my face with a suspicious smile on her face. "And also, my mood tonight is excellent due to my victory over you guys. You can do whatever you like, so have you booked a room at the hotel?"
"N-nononono!"
When was she serious, and when was she not?
All the seats in the concert hall were occupied. Just as expected from the world renowned Senju Tobirama, the audience was generally made up of slightly older fans who are all well dressed up. I could not find any young people around. While breathing in the smell of the spring night and the scent of perfume, I then led the search for the numbers of our VIP front-row seats by pulling Ruby along by her arms. I finally found the two empty seats, but I was surprised by what I saw next.
To the left of the two empty seats, was Weiss in an elegant white one-piece dress; to the right was Yang, who wore a short, yellow, halter neck dress with a pale gray hem and white pumps.
… W-why? Why are both of them here?
"Oh my, what a coincidence!" Said Ruby. Coincidence my ass! This is way beyond coincidence!
"Hurry up and take a seat. The concert is about to begin." Weiss said softly with a hint of unhappiness in her voice.
After forcing me onto the seat next to Weiss, Ruby sat down elegantly beside Yang.
"Weiss was the one who demanded the tickets! She actually managed to get them!"
I could feel my head aching. I see… she must have means to do so since she is the daughter of Tobirama. But to deliberately get the tickets to the seats located on both sides of ours… just how unreasonable was she!? Did you really have to do that?
"She probably doesn't want us to be by ourselves."
Ruby looked past me at Weiss's face with a huge smile on her face, and the silent Weiss nodded her head with a flushed face. Just what was going on here? I don't get it at all! Considering all the trouble we had gone through during the contest and stuff, wouldn't it be much easier for her to just do this right from the beginning?
"Isn't this perfect, Namikaze?" Ruby nudged me with her shoulders. "Everyone ends up as winners. How nice it would be if all the wars were to end up like this!"
Though I had the feeling that Ruby's the only real winner here, but… ahhh, whatever!
"Speaking of which, is it too late for us to call up the hotel and request for a change of rooms to a four-person suite?"
"Haruto, did you really book a room at the hotel with Ruby!?" Yang jumped up.
"W-wait, don't lie, Hyuuga! Ah, oww oww oww, stop that Weiss! It hurts! You can't bend human fingers like that!"
Just as we were stirring up a ruckus, the orchestra was already done with the tuning. Tobirama finally appeared on the stage amid a thunderous applause.