The Musician

the noiseless piano

I sat in front of the piano, fear slashing through my mind. What if I screwed up? These people are supposed to be my enemies, so why are they helping me? What if I get sucked into the performance? 

I could feel Izumo and Akkihiko's eyes burning into me, the bar obviously set high. The real question was, would I be able to surpass their expectations? 

"Well?" Izumo asked, tapping her foot impatiently. "We don't have all day."

I turned around and looked at her, dead in the eyes with a deadpan expression. "I couldn't care less about the time," I said in a completely monotone voice. "You wanted to help me, even though I have close to no idea who you are, so my question is: why the hell do you care?"

Izumo and Akkihiko looked at each other, confusion written all over their faces. Why won't you play? they thought. I knew it. They just wanted to gauge my ability. I rose to my feet and headed towards the door, only to have my wrist grabbed my Izumo. "Hey," she said in a lowered voice, her eyes cast to the floor as if she couldn't bear to looked at me. "We're helping you because we're all musicians here, and even though we're enemies, musicians still help one another when they are in need." She raised her gaze to meet mine, which was beginning to waver. "So, go to the piano, and play whatever comes to mind. Sad or happy, just play whatever."

I looked her in the eye, and nodded without question. Izumo looked surprised, as if she was beginning to think that I would simply leave. So I walked over to the piano, sat down, and rested my hands on the keys. I closed my eyes and let the music roll through me like thunder over a storming ocean. I began to play a familiar song, Hikaru Nara, which I used as my warm up song. When I was done, I looked over at Izumo, expecting criticism. But Akkihiko gestured for me to play something different. I began to play one of my favorite songs, Birth - Acoustic Version by Dardust. It was a song of many moods, in my opinion, not like anyone cared. 

I suddenly felt isolated, as I was surrounded by nothingness. I looked up, and I saw ocean waves crashing over me, and it felt like I was sinking deeper and deeper, the sound of the piano slowly fading into the background. I was playing both the piano and violin parts of the song at the same time, so I was hunched over the piano that made no noise. I could hear clicks and clicks, fear dripping down my spine. I began to breathe heavily as everything stopped and a molten tortoiseshell cat sat on the piano. Why? it asked me. Why do you torture yourself like this?

Why do you torture me like this? I shot back.

Because I love you.

I could hear the voice of my mother, which caused me to stiffen. No, I didn't want anything to do with this. With the piano, with music, with musicians, with anyone or anything. I could feel my arms and hands stiffening faster and faster, as my fingers began to speed up, becoming faster and faster until no one was able to understand the music. I heard a few calls, which I had marked as family I never wanted to see again. "Yuri," someone said, their voice ringing in my head. The song changed. It was suddenly Kirameki, I knew the movement patterns so well I could pick out the song just by looking at someone's hands. 

I felt a sudden grasp on my wrist, cutting me off. I collapsed in the person's girl sound came back to me. I looked up and saw Akkihiko, a startled look slapped across his face, Izumo's stricken with concern for an unknown reason.  I turned my gaze to the noiseless piano and the cat sitting on top of it.

What will you do now?

A/N

Hello ~ ! So all of the songs mentioned in this chapter, Hikaru Nara, Birth - Acoustic Version, and Kirameki can all be found in the Apple Music ITunes store, on Spotify, and probably just about every other music platform, including Youtube. So if you want to know what these songs sound like, you can find out! I also have a writing playlist on Spotify, named w r i t i n g. It's by me, canihavea.latte,  so you can check that out too if you want! Maybe request some songs, I dunno. *^* 

Anyways, have a nice day! Or night. Whatever. 

Oh! I'll be starting a new book soon, so be on the lookout for that!

- Violet