The video was not long—just six and a half minutes.
Its title was Paganini Caprice No. 24, followed by a suffix: Hanadasaki Ame Performance Version.
As a proper music student and the double bassist of her school's wind ensemble, Nagasaki Soyo naturally possessed a decent level of musical literacy. She had heard this famously difficult and utterly classic piece more than once.
Precisely because of that, her finger trembled slightly when she tapped the video open.
In the video, at the center of a music room, a slender figure with a cherry-pink braid held the bow in his right hand, the violin resting on his left shoulder, while the fingers of his left hand danced lightly across the strings. With every motion of the bow, a magnificent and ever-changing elegant melody poured forth.
It was fluid and nimble, without the slightest stray note. The composition itself was fierce and unrestrained, yet under the performer's hand it seemed like a wild beast that had been tamed, every rise and fall perfectly controlled, flawless enough to serve as a model example for any violinist!
As the effortless performance continued, Nagasaki Soyo almost felt as though the so-called Devil's Violinist had returned to the world, lending this piece an unbelievable magic through those hands that looked like works of art themselves, drawing the listener in so deeply that escape became impossible.
Even through the phone screen, she could feel the supreme level of technique and emotional expression in the melody. If this had been heard live, just how overwhelming would that audiovisual experience have been?
Riding the rise and fall of the music, the six and a half minutes vanished in a flash.
The moment the video paused, Nagasaki Soyo seemed to hear the sound of Yashio Rui's dream shattering.
After all, anyone who studied music dreamed of standing in the spotlight, commanding the attention of the crowd, making every listener fall beneath the spell of their music.
But there could only ever be one person at the very center of the stage. And the moment you encountered talent so overwhelming it crushed all comparison, you understood with painful clarity—
that person was not you.
[Rui: I haven't picked up the violin in a very long time.]
That message arrived from Yashio Rui right after the video.
[Rui: So I also haven't seen him in a long time. Though even before that, he didn't come to the teacher's place very often.]
[Rui: He learned far too quickly. After only a few lessons, the teacher had nothing left to teach him. I've never heard of anyone whose talent could compare to his.]
Nagasaki Soyo gently rubbed the phone screen with her fingertips. She wanted to reply with something, but for a moment she had no idea what she could possibly say to comfort her.
The girl had been shaken so badly she had given up the violin altogether. What was there to say?
Even if she pulled herself together, the objective gap in talent would not disappear.
In the end, Soyo decided not to offer comfort at all.
Instead, she began considering how she ought to interact with Hanadasaki Ame.
People blessed with that sort of extraordinary talent often possessed a unique intellect, an unusual way of perceiving the world, a mind that worked differently from ordinary people's. And precisely because of that, they could easily become withdrawn and difficult to approach.
He was very likely the type to act arbitrarily, place himself at the center of things, and pay little attention to how she felt…
Ugh. Just imagining it made her feel pressured enough for her stomach to start hurting.
Nagasaki Soyo let out a deep sigh in her heart, hugged her phone, and stared blankly at the ceiling, drifting into a daze.
For no particular reason, she thought of another familiar figure—a girl with light blue hair tied into twin tails that fell over her shoulders. She had been so gentle and considerate, so pure and unblemished, that simply standing beside her had felt like bathing in the spring breeze.
How badly she wanted…
to go back to that time, just once more, and feel that warmth again…
She sat there lost in thought for a while before finally coming back to herself.
Glancing at her messages, she saw that Yashio Rui had asked why she was looking into Hanadasaki Ame in the first place.
After a moment's thought, Nagasaki Soyo answered honestly.
[Soyo: My mother is planning to remarry. He might become my younger brother.]
Just as expected, that message immediately piqued Yashio Rui's interest, and the two of them kept chatting after that.
And so Nagasaki Soyo used the conversation to kill the evening's boredom.
If she had no one to talk to, she would just stay shut up inside herself, endlessly scrolling through one social app after another like some hopeless phone addict—only to become more and more depressed and irritated the longer she scrolled. The more upset she got, the more she kept scrolling, as though trapped in some vicious cycle.
The floor she lived on was too high up, so options like going downstairs for a walk or to buy something rarely even entered her mind.
Of course, going downstairs was not actually inconvenient at all.
She had simply found herself an excuse she could accept.
After chatting for quite a while, it eventually reached Yashio Rui's bedtime, so Rui said goodnight and left.
Nagasaki Soyo, however, was not sleepy at all. She had spent too much of the vacation lazing around, and her sleep schedule had become somewhat chaotic.
After idly reviewing the chat log from that evening, she opened the video Yashio Rui had sent her once more and listened again to that strangely enchanting violin performance.
Then, after a moment's thought, she got up to fetch a pair of earphones, wanting to listen more carefully while also taking a proper look at the figure in the video.
The camera angle was not directly facing Hanadasaki Ame but off to the side, though it still showed his appearance clearly enough.
He was extremely cute, possessing a peculiar charm that seemed almost to transcend gender. He hardly looked like a boy at all. It was only that his talent shone even more brightly than his appearance, so earlier she had been so absorbed in the music that she had not paid much attention to how he looked.
That sort of appearance would probably be very popular with girls.
Though perhaps not in the romantic sense.
If anything, it seemed dangerously easy for him to end up as the "guy best friend" type instead.
She wondered whether he had a girlfriend.
After speculating for a long time, Nagasaki Soyo eventually drifted off to sleep right there on the sofa without realizing it.
Even in her dreams, she found no peace.
It was as though a rainstorm had trapped her. She wandered through a practice room, unable no matter what she did to chase after those figures disappearing into the distance beneath the rain.
From high above, a faint, drifting violin melody fell down and intertwined with the rain itself…
A little after five in the morning, she woke from the darkness and silently removed her earphones.
She checked her phone.
As expected, the battery was dead.
Ugh. What a pain…
…
Kaihin-Makuhari Station, Mihama Ward, Hibino 2-chome.
There were many office buildings, hotels, and shopping centers nearby. To the south lay leisure facilities such as Makuhari Messe and the Chiba Marine area. Whenever events were held, the place became especially lively, though even in ordinary times it remained a bustling, highly modern commercial district crowded with pedestrians.
A little after one in the afternoon, Nagasaki Soyo was already waiting near the station exit.
They had agreed to meet at two, but she had arrived early on purpose, and had even chosen a spot where she would not stand out. Her plan was to observe Hanadasaki Ame for a while before showing herself once he arrived.
Trains came in frequently, and whenever passengers exited the station, the nearby professional baseball team's fight song played over the speakers.
After hearing it twice, Nagasaki Soyo could not help muttering under her breath,
"So tacky."
She honestly could not understand why they had to play a baseball team song. It was not as if she had heard that team had a particularly impressive win rate, either!
While waiting, she kept her head down, looking at her phone and occasionally messaging Hanadasaki Ame.
He said he was in the middle of viewing properties, but that he would arrive on time.
Nagasaki Soyo had no idea what exactly he meant by "viewing properties," but she stored it away as a possible conversation topic.
She needed to prepare plenty of those. Otherwise, if he turned out to be the taciturn, solitary type, it would be all too easy for the conversation to die almost immediately.
A few minutes before two, a car pulled up near the station. The passenger-side door opened, and a soft flash of cherry pink sprang out.
Nagasaki Soyo looked over involuntarily and spotted Hanadasaki Ame in the distance.
After thanking the person who had driven him there, he started walking this way.
He looked open and composed—not nearly as withdrawn as she had imagined…
Just as she was thinking that and preparing to step forward to greet him, she suddenly stopped.
Someone had gone up to Hanadasaki Ame and started hitting on him!
…
Join here to read ahead.
In Star Rail, Ultra-Beast Armored — Have I Caught "Equilibrium"? l (Chapter 80)
Uma Musume, But I Only Have Five Years Left to Live (Chapter 172)
Zenless Zone Zero: I'm a Doctor, Not a Bangboo (Chapter 115)
Ben Tennyson Wants to Join the Justice League (Chapter 116)
TYPE-MOON: Redemption Beginning with the Holy Grail War (Chapter105)
Yu-Gi-Oh! — Transmigrated into the White Dragon Girl (Chapter100)
"Is this chat group even serious?" (Chapter69)
I, Lord Ravager, Utterly Loyal! (Chapter119)
Can Playing Games Save the World? 65
Crossover Anime Multiverse: The Demon Hunter of an Unnatural World 70
From Junkman to Wasteland 60
Weekly Refresh of Overpowered 31
I'm Grinding Proficiency Like 40
From Kiana, Lord Ravager, Onwa 66
Honkai: Is This Still the Prev 42
Elf: My Starter Pokémon Is Inc 50
Warhammer: My Primarch Is Remi 52
From Demon Slayer to Grand Ass 55
The Way the Umamusume Look at 42
Uma Musume, but My Cheat Power 40
Naruto: Weaving the Future, Be 36
Zenless Zone Zero, but Kamen R 30
Multiverse Crossover: The Perf 26
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