"That was nice…"
Taki had walked Chiose home, and with that, all the noise of the outside world came to an end.
Taki was gone. The hearing aid was off. The lights in the room stayed dark.
In the space of a moment, every scrap of warmth that had come from Taki Shiina turned into memory,
and Chiose Noshiro was alone again.
"Haah…"
She sat down on the piano bench, the leather soft and yielding beneath her, and turned over every little thing Taki had brought her, again and again.
"Even if… Simulations are a pretty cruel thing, Taki is so adorable. She makes the Simulations feel not quite so cruel."
Through all those years of waiting for the fruit to ripen — which is to say, waiting to meet Taki again — Chiose had kept her daily life as steady as she possibly could.
Every day was piano and school. Everything else had been cut away entirely.
She had never crossed paths with a single other classmate. At school she drifted like a ghost with no one to belong to.
She never looked at the keepsakes the parents of this life had left her. Things like that would only unsettle her resolve, would only sink her into memories weighted with feeling.
She cultivated no other interests either, because anything else might dull her skill at the piano.
And now, after seven or eight years of silence… the net was finally being drawn in.
Taki was already folding herself into her life, and she could fold herself into Taki's in turn. She could grow closer to Taki still. That wasn't only what the script required — it was what Chiose's own heart required.
"Taki."
This Simulation, and it's you again.
So it seems everyone gets at least two Simulations. Getting to see you again this time — how could that be anything but fate's arrangement?
Nimble fingers slid over black keys and white, and the piano let out a string of low, sobbing notes.
"These years really have been lonely enough. But from now on my life gets to have you and the piano in it… That makes for a fairly interesting final stretch of a life, I'd say."
Taki, tell me.
This last stretch of my life — how long should it be? Two or three months? Or two or three years?
At the very last, Chiose's index finger came to rest up in the high register, and the music thinned away to nothing.
"Let's make it… a little longer."
Longer sinks deeper into a person. And the returns are better, too. Hmph.
"You did really well today, loser Taki."
It had been so long since she'd last said "loser" that the word came out strangely shaped in her mouth.
The way she said it was, frankly, about as loser-ish as it got.
…
Monday: guest performance. Taki mooched dinner at Chiose's house, where Chiose had made Japanese tonkatsu and grilled-meat bibimbap.
Tuesday: rehearsal help. Taki mooched dinner at Chiose's house again — samgyetang with vegetable macaroni that day.
Wednesday: a day off. Taki took Chiose out to eat, Japanese tonkatsu with curry — though Taki still thought the tonkatsu Chiose made tasted better.
Not that she could say why.
Could it be that Chiose's cooking simply came packed with more feeling?
Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday…
A blink, and a whole week was gone. A blink, and it was Monday all over again.
Every single day, Taki was stuck to Chiose's side.
On school days Chiose was just one classroom over, and any spare moment she had, Taki would wander in. It was something Taki had never once done before.
On days off, Taki would come find Chiose to play. They would either roam the city hunting for material, or drowse at Chiose's house listening to records.
They even went to Ring to catch live shows. Chiose couldn't hear them, but Taki didn't want her thinking she was being treated as anything less than an ordinary person.
[So — want to go get ice cream today?]
That was how Taki put the question, at the end of the school day.
She only asked because she'd just learned the sign for ice cream, and nothing more.
After days and nights of drilling sign language, Taki had barely managed to get a grip on that magnificent tongue.
"Mm-mm, either way's fine with me… Can I pay this time?"
Chiose was a little embarrassed about it, really. All this time it had been Taki lunging for the check.
[That's the one thing I won't allow.]
Taki refused without a second's thought.
She played the part of the wallet gladly. It was the least she owed.
If she had said she would carry Chiose's life, then she had to back it with action.
"Excuse me — would you happen to be Miss Shiina?"
"Huh?"
The instant that name landed in Taki's ears, she turned around with a flicker of irritation.
In this entire life of hers, the thing Taki Shiina hated most was being called by her surname — being addressed as "Shiina."
It made her feel that whoever was speaking wasn't talking about her, Taki, but about her sister, Maki Shiina.
Even praise along the lines of "Miss Shiina, you're incredible" left her without a shred of pleasure.
Well — except when Chiose said it.
Chiose was the exception.
Tilting her head up a fraction, Taki found she didn't recognize the blue-haired girl in twin tails standing before her. If the girl's tone hadn't been reasonably gentle, if she hadn't looked so thoroughly unlike someone spoiling for a fight, Taki would already have grabbed Chiose and walked away.
"Whatever it is, make it quick. I'm busy."
"Sorry to bother you! Hello, Miss Shiina. My name is Sakiko Togawa, and I attend Tsukinomori Girls' Academy."
"Short version," Taki said, squeezing Chiose's small hand, grateful that Chiose would never hear how impatient she sounded.
"Right! I want you to form a band with me, Miss Shiina — and I've already assembled all the other members! I was wondering whether Miss Shiina—"
"Sorry, but that isn't something I can decide on my own authority. I do have a partner, after all."
"Huh?"
Togawa Sakiko hadn't expected an answer like that. She looked with open curiosity at the girl Taki had been shielding behind her the whole time. "And who might Miss Shiina's partner be?"
"Her name is Chiose Noshiro. I need to ask her opinion first… Miss Togawa, would you mind waiting a moment?"
"Of course! Sorry to have interrupted."
The truth was that Taki had no intention of agreeing to Sakiko's offer. But… she thought this might be an opportunity. A chance for Chiose to brush up against a real band.
[Little Chiose, there's a weirdo over there inviting us to start a band. Interested?]
Whatever decision Chiose made, Taki would respect it.
"Mm-hm, sure, why not? But I still want to treat you to the ice cream today."
Chiose could swear she hadn't spoken as many words in the past several years as she had in this one month. Her throat still ached from it.
[Forget about the ice cream. So you're interested, then.]
"Mm-hm! Yes! Let's — let's go with that girl and take a look! A real band. I wonder what one is even like."
[A band… I'll be right beside you to see it, Chiose.]
Taki took Chiose by the hand, still standing guard in front of her.
Chiose Noshiro watched Taki Shiina talking things over with Togawa Sakiko, but she couldn't hear a word that passed between them.
At one point she even gave Sakiko a little wave. Togawa Sakiko in her junior high years really was rather cute.
…
When Taki faced the choice of whether to let Chiose join a band, she picked yes with almost no hesitation at all.
It's only that Taki Shiina would, one day, remember again the choice Sakiko laid before her that afternoon —
and the choice she herself made.
____
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