Even if it wasn’t a trick I could manage, the more I thought about it, the cooler it sounded.
Maybe I could transfer just a little bit of the black droplets from my body into the shadows cast by the moonlight peeking in through the windows, to create a second monster, a Shadow. It would function just like a support character from a video game, and operate by my will, making reconnaissance within the school a breeze. Having an ability like that would be so cool.
“Acchi…kun,” Yano-san called out to me, walking alongside. I looked at her, but she didn’t look back. Instead, she was gazing slightly behind me.
“Can you…do some…thing like…that?”
I looked back to where she indicated and was immediately startled.
“Maybe, you know…a clone…technique?”
I could only shake my head. I had no idea of what that was.
Behind me loomed the very thing I’d imagined: a second monster. Pure black, it followed us step for step. It differed from me in one important way—the portion where the eyes should be was all black. I was certain that there had been nothing there moments ago. When I looked out the window, the moon was shining in from roughly ahead of me.
Temporarily ignoring Yano-san, who was staring curiously at the Shadow, I tried commanding it.
Move.
I pictured it running forward, flying past me. I was skeptical, but it couldn’t hurt to try.
After a few seconds’ lag, the Shadow moved, roughly as I had imagined. Careful not to break my concentration, I had it continue down the hallway and around the next corner.
It surprised me to see the Shadow behaving exactly as I ordered it to. I guess I really did have that ability after all.
Just as I thought that simply making the thing move wasn’t particularly good for reconnaissance, a second viewpoint suddenly appeared inside of my head. It seemed I was seeing from the Shadow’s point of view, beyond the corner.
What a useful body this was.
“It’s…gone.”
“It’s our lookout. Let’s continue.”
“How profes…sional.”
She must have been talking about our phantom thief game again.
“Yano-san, where is it you wanted to go?”
“Maybe the mu…sic room. I want…to see if it’s true what…they say a…bout pi…anos playing at…night.”
“Was there some kind of urban legend about that?”
“Well…there often…are, anyway.”
“That’s vague.”
Yano-san gave another self-satisfied smile at my retort. Just what was so funny?
Thanks to the Shadow’s reconnaissance, I confirmed that there appeared to be no one between our current location and the music room above. Just in case, I checked the hall to the left and right but saw no one there, either. I didn’t want to look at Yano-san’s hunched back, so I walked a bit ahead. Following right behind her made me look a bit too much like a pet for my tastes.
We climbed the stairs and finally arrived at the music room at the end of the fifth floor. I entered first and unlocked the door—the opposite of the way we’d left the classroom before. Within the music room, which was encased in soundproofed padding, the grand piano was as eerie as a monster itself. It lingered there, shrouded in tense silence. It seemed like the sort of thing that very well might eat somebody alive.
“The pia…no isn’t…playing.”
Obviously not. No spirit would bother lingering in the mortal world just to surprise someone who came barging in like this.
The Shadow stayed outside as our lookout. If anyone were to come, they would surely run away in shock.
As I stood around aimlessly, suddenly I was startled by a twanging sound. A single wave ran through the black droplets. When I turned to look, Yano-san had opened the lid of the grand piano and taken a seat on the bench. She was so short that when she sat, she looked very much like an elementary schooler at a recital.
“Acchi…kun, are you a Moz…art fan? Or a Vi…valdi fan?”
“I prefer Beethoven,” I replied. “Also, the sound of that piano really can’t be good.”
“Beetho…ven, huh?”
Not heeding my warning, she began to strike the keys with her tiny hands—four times in sequence. A dissonant chord reverberated throughout the room. I immediately withdrew my body and slipped into a box of cleaning supplies. Pretty quickly, I realized that if I was found, I could just scare the person away. Yano-san was the one who might end up having a hard time.
I slipped back out.
I had the Shadow check the perimeter outside the room. Apparently, the sound-proofing in this room was the real deal, as even after some time passed, no one appeared to be coming.
Yano-san looked my way, not appearing particularly panicked.
“Is this…what fate feels…like?”
“You think that was fate just now?” After I got over my astonishment, I shot her a sharp glare. “What’re you gonna do if we get caught?”
She gave a satisfied smile and a weary reply. “It’s mid…night break, so…it’s fine.”
What the hell, I thought to myself, but I was the one who’d look like an idiot, getting mad at a dunce like her. Nothing I could say would get through to her, no matter what it was, and so I sighed.
“If we get caught, don’t bring up my name,” I said sternly.
“Of…course not.”
When I looked at Yano-san, my eight eyes dripping with mistrust, I saw that she had moved to one of the student seats. Just like during the daytime, she was a girl who lived life at her own tempo.
During lessons we sat in the seats here in the same seating order that we did in the classroom. Naturally, Yano-san followed that order now.
As I closed the lid of the piano with my tail (so that she couldn’t play it again), Yano-san asked a friendly question. “Acchi…kun, what music do you lis…ten to?”
“I mean, the normal stuff.”
“Like…who?”
She was staring straight at me, so I gave the same answer that I always gave. I offered up the names of artists who everyone at least knew by name, but weren’t overly famous, who were on trend but not necessarily household names. There were singer-songwriters who always made the rankings on Tsutaya whenever they put out a new CD, and bands that a few girls in our class were raging over not being able to grab concert tickets for. Yano-san listened, nodding dutifully.
“What about you?” I asked her out of politeness. A second later I found myself thinking that she was probably the sort who listened to quirky things. The kind of music I would never get even if I tried.
I was wrong.
“Well, as…for me…”
She happily divulged the name of just one group. The smile on her face was not her usual smug grin. In fact, her cheeks glowed with pure elation, like she was revealing a secret that she had kept for a long time to a friend. It was the first time I’d ever seen such an expression on her.
I was stunned. The group she had named were not the sort of musicians that one would speak of so confidentially. They were a group that nearly everyone in Japan knew of, who even I had known of since elementary school. The kind of group you would be embarrassed to bring up in serious discussions amongst your friends, who would get you ridiculed if you admitted that you still listened to them. To put it frankly, they were overhyped and super lame.
These were the artists for whom Yano-san confessed her love, as though they were a splendid treasure kept by her and her alone.
I was stunned. “I see,” I said, the only suitable reply.
She asked me, “Acchi…kun, do you like them…too?”
“I listen to them now and then. They’re all right.”
I couldn’t pretend I didn’t know who they were. Not when, honestly, I still listened to them fairly often.
Yano-san then fervently began explaining the group’s appeal to me—the songs, the lyrics, the melodies, the members—all things that I already knew.
As she was explaining which of their albums was the best, her alarm rang from her pocket. I was relieved to know that our time was over, though for a different reason than the night before.
After poking at the phone and silencing the alarm, Yano-san stood and stretched.
“Guess it’s…over. I’ll go…home and…sleep.”
Saying nothing, I opened the door with my tail and allowed her to exit the music room first. I locked the door in the same way I had locked the classroom.
“You can…go ahead,” she said to me, as I returned from the black droplets to my original form on the other side of the door. I had no idea how Yano-san returned home, but there was no need for me to know. Following her suggestion, I headed outside.
I wasn’t sure whether or not I should be giving some word of parting, but then again, I had only come to fulfill a bargain, so exchanging pleasantries would be weird. That said, it would be just as weird to ignore her. As I sat considering this, she gave that satisfied grin.
“Will…you come here again to…morrow?”
I was silent. I had no intention of coming. And yet, she had given the decision to me, leaving me unable to say as much bluntly.
Unable to answer her question, I decided to simply leap away into the night sky. However, I realized there was still one thing I should say to Yano-san, if nothing else. So, with my back still turned, I tried my best to keep my voice calm. “Sorry for kicking you after gym class.”
“Don’t ap…ologize for things…that happened during the…day at…night.”
Seriously? After I bothered to apologize at all?
Night really was a time best spent alone.