CG 24: Arrival of the Support Character (Mashiro & Kon)
TIME flew by until it was already the end of August. Today marked my ninth lesson and solfège with Maestro Noboru. From Bach to Chopin to Beethoven and Brahms, Maestro Noboru assigned me a rich variety of music styles. He didn’t share Miss Ayumi’s method of slowly taking apart my progress with each song. Instead, he allowed me free rein to play how I wanted and made perfunctory remarks about it in French such as “J’aime (I like it)” or “Je n’aime pas (I don’t like it).” I was welcome to replay a song he’d given a disapproving shake of the head to, but if he shouted “Non!” a second time, he would never listen to me play that same song again. All of it made for thrilling lessons.
Living in Paris for a long time had given Maestro Noboru the habit of speaking in French whenever he got worked up.
“Je ne comprends pas (I don’t understand)!” I exclaimed.
“S-Sorry. Um, I was trying to tell you to think harder about why this passage’s tempo indicates allegro.”
“You were? Okay, then should I replay this part?”
“Yes, from the beginning.”
It’s thanks to Maestro Noboru that I added French to my self-study lessons. Every day was crazy busy. A whole month passed by in the blink of an eye.
“Maestro Noboru is the devil incarnate!”
“You still have it easy, Mashiro! He’s stuck me with composers who incorporate tons of Jazz elements like Piazzolla and Gershwin, you know? Worst of all, he never gives me the go-ahead to move on from it.”
Kon made a good point. For whatever reason, Maestro Noboru employed completely different teaching methods for us. We had taken him up on his offer to sit through each other’s lessons so that we didn’t have to suffer in the heat downstairs. His different instructions seemed so weird to us.
On this particular day, he had Kon play Piazzolla’s “Libertango”. Amazingly, Maestro Noboru joined in on the other piano halfway through her performance and it became a jam session.
“Kon, empty out your thoughts. Pursue only the rhythm and sound. Feel the beat.” Maestro Noboru freely mixed up the tempo, frustrating Kon to near tears. “Unfetter your heart, Kon. Come on, follow me.”
Aggravated by his overly abstract instructions, Kon suddenly started applying improvisatory elements to the music.
After a period of great productivity as a composer, Astor Piazzolla suffered a heart attack in 1973 and that same year he moved to Italy, where he composed Libertango, a portmanteau merging “Libertad” (Spanish for liberty) and “Tango”, symbolizing his break from Classical Tango to Tango Nuevo. The famous song has come to be symbolic with Piazzolla now.
I owned a CD of a famous cellist’s rendition of the song, but this was my first time hearing “Libertango” played as a piano duet on two pianos. Compact, dynamic, and unforgiving didn’t even begin to scratch the surface of describing this classical tango. The melody weaved between dark and intimate sentiments. Sorrow hung over the intense and gritty rhythm. The high notes beautifully descended. Kon struck to life every sorrow and burden she carried, turning them into a magnificent tango.
Tears welled in my eyes. I dropped my gaze to where gooseflesh rippled along my bare arm.
“Tres bien!” Maestro Noboru walked over to Kon, who was in a daze like she had her soul sucked out, and shook her right hand. “Kon, you can be more up-front about your passion for music. Acknowledge your own piano.”
“…I’ll try.”
“Then let’s tackle Liszt next week. I’m going to see how you play ‘La Campanella.’”
Sounds like she finally gets to go back to the classics.
Kon answered him with a relieved nod.
Lucky! I love “La Campanella”!
I stared at Maestro Noboru with excitement, prompting a, “Do you want to play too, Mashiro?”
“I want to play! But I have zero confidence I can play it right by next week.”
“Hmm. Next time then.” He smiled and declared, “That’s the end of today’s lesson!”
Our lessons had no set end time, so Kon called Mr. Nonaga to pick us up once we were finished. Maestro Noboru always played a variety of songs for us until our ride arrived. The amazing thing about him was his ability to reproduce any song he’d ever heard, including ones he’d never seen the sheet music for.
Kon and I were getting carried away tossing all sorts of song requests at him when the lesson room door flew open.
“NOBORU!”
“…Hah,” he sighed. “You found me then.” His fingers stopped on the keys as he grimaced at the beautiful girl with indigo hair who’d suddenly appeared. She stormed right past us as we gawked and dove for Maestro Noboru who was still sitting in front of his piano.
“I’ve longed to see you! Say, don’t you know just how much I’ve been dying to see you, Noboru?!”
I feel like I’ve heard this same line somewhere before…
The girl looked around the same age as us, while Maestro Noboru was in his thirties. Even if I tried not to think it, the words “Lolita complex” and “pedo” jumped to mind. The thought must’ve crossed Kon’s mind too, because she took a big step back with me.
“It’s not what you think, girls! This is my little sister.” Maestro Noboru accurately read our looks of disgust and was trying to pry off the girl clinging to his neck. She wrapped her arms even tighter around him like an anaconda, cutting off his airway and causing him to gasp for air.
“U-Um, if you don’t cut it out soon your older brother won’t survive the afternoon,” I timidly pointed out. I couldn’t stand to watch my piano teacher get strangled to death.
The girl glanced over her shoulder at me and released Maestro Noboru at long last. “Who are you people? Ah, right, I should introduce myself first. I’m Noboru’s younger sister, Midori Misaka.”
So her name’s Midori Misaka, huh? Wait, what?!
“WHAT?!” Kon and I shouted in unison. Midori’s eyes bulged with fright. Even Maestro Noboru stared at us in surprise, tears in his eyes as he sucked in air.
“Ah! S-Sorry. We overreacted because we’ve heard of you from a friend.” Kon recovered faster than I did and hid her shock by introducing us. “I’m Kon Genda. This is Mashiro Shimao.”
It was Midori’s turn to be surprised by our names. “What? Are you two really that Kon and Mashiro?” We nodded. For reasons beyond my comprehension, Midori squeezed her hands together and broke out into a broad, ecstatic smile. “Then you’re that Kou guy’s little sister and the other girl is Sou’s femme fatale! Who woulda thought we’d meet in a place like this!”
I gagged hard at being called Sou’s femme fatale.
How did I become an attractive and dangerous woman fated for him?! Scary!
But that’s beside the point! This girl really is Sou’s fiancée, Midori Misaka. Hold up. What in the otome game craziness is going on here? I want to pull Kon aside and hash out what’s going on right now!
Mr. Nonaga, get here soon!
One of the gaming gods must’ve heard my entreaty, because the second-story intercom connected to the front door went off seconds later. Maestro Noboru staggered to his feet and ambled over to check who was on the screen.
“Looks like your ride is here, girls.”
“Let’s go, Kon.”
“Okay. Thank you, Maestro. We will be back next Saturday.”
We hastily scooped up our lesson bags, dropped into a casual bow, and tried to escape from that room. Lo and behold, Midori trailed right behind us. Never exchanging so much as a single word, I slid on my sandals in the foyer and turned around to say goodbye to her. My eyes met smack-dab with Midori’s Cheshire cat grin.
“Say, can I call you both by name?” she purred.
“Huh? Um, sure, be my guest,” I fumbled.
“Sure, you’re more than welcome to.”
Why was she in such high spirits? I prepared myself to be shredded a new one with a clichéd, “Don’t lay your dirty fingers on my Sou!” The next words out of Midori’s mouth, however, caused my mouth to drop.
“Great! Hear me out. I want nothing more than for you to end up with Sou, Mashiro. I’ll help you out in any way possible to make that happen! I’ll crush any opposition Auntie Reimi poses!” she declared, putting her hands on her hips.
Auntie Reimi? Isn’t that Sou’s stepmom?
…Crush her? Scary! This girl is the extreme type!
“I heard that you are Shiroyama’s fiancée though, Midori,” Kon pointed out, her voice tight, earning the greatest grimace seen on Earth from Midori.
Her impeccable good-looks were unfazed by the scrunched up expression. What kind of mechanism was in place that made even grimacing attractive?! If only the situation allowed, I would’ve fallen on my knees before the girl whose beauty was on par with Kon’s.
“I so don’t WANNA! I don’t even like joking about marrying that crabby, unsociable, coldhearted jerk.”
Who is she referring to? Sou’s the adorable, puppy-dog type.
Unable to believe we were speaking about the same person, I asked, “Are you talking about Sou Shiroyama? You sure you don’t mean a nice, lonely boy who gets easily attached?”
“Sie machen wohl Scherze!” she exclaimed in German. “As if! Sou Shiroyama just pretends to be that way with you. Every time he sees my face, he looks at me as if he just stepped in dog poop! It’s not like I want to be with him either!”
I had no idea what she was recalling, but Midori started stamping her feet on the ground. That’s Maestro Noboru’s sister all right. She definitely matched him in eccentricity.
Kon held her head in her hand beside me as I escaped reality by being oddly impressed by Midori’s personality.