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There’s a girl in the practice room at the end of the hallway, Kanade mused to herself.
Such a situation would have been out of place for several reasons. First, Kanade could not often be found in a school, sticking to online classes for the majority of her education. Second, even if she did attend school on a regular basis, it was after hours, even after clubs had left, and a twilight light was shining through the windows of the otherwise abandoned building.
A question remained, then: Why was Kanade inside the school?
Well, on one of her rare expeditions outdoors, as she was passing by the local girls’ academy (Miyanmasuzaka, if she recalled correctly), she had heard a strange melody emanating from the school. The melody was haunting but beautiful, tugging at Kanade’s heart, with an odd, nostalgic feeling clinging to the notes, as if it didn’t want to let go.
With the creaking of a loose gate, she was in, trailing down deserted hallways until she came to a stop at the end of the hall.
Through the practice room windows, she could see a girl; a student, by the looks of her uniform. Kanade watched as her fingers danced over the keys, and it was sure that she was the source of the song, its notes seeming to intensify as it continued, a heartwrenching melody.
Spurred on by her desire to discover the feelings woven into the piece being played, she pushed open the door.
The musician jerked slightly, turning to face her with wide, deep purple eyes, the same shade as the darkening twilight outside.
“Hello?” The other girl called cautiously. “I wasn’t aware anyone else stayed in the school this late.”
Kanade stood there, unsure how to respond. Despite the fact that she was walking into a room with another person in it, she hadn’t actually expected to need to interact with another person.
“Um.”
The girl bowed her head. “My name’s Asahina Mafuyu. Yours?”
Kanade managed to respond with, “Yoisaki Kanade.”
Mafuyu gave her a polite smile. “As you can see, I’m just practicing. I should really-”
“Can I listen?” Kanade blurted out.
A ripple of emotions colored the other’s face, from mild discomfort to confusion to surprise, all flashing through her in less than a millisecond, before she was perfectly placid once again.
“If you’d like, but I have to warn you that I’m not any good.”
“Oh, um, I wouldn’t want to bother you.” Kanade mumbled. Mafuyu shook her head, the same calm smile curving her mouth.
“You wouldn’t. Take a seat.” Mafuyu interrupted.
Kanade looked around the practice room; besides the piano bench, there were only a few uncomfortable-looking folding chairs. She sat anyway, assuming that Mafuyu did not mean for Kanade to sit beside her, and not wanting to bother Mafuyu as she played, decided the chair was the best option.
The song began again, just as melancholy as it had been before, but if Kanade focused, she could tell there was an extra layer of apprehension within the notes. Maybe she was truly bothering her, and Mafuyu was just too polite to ask her to leave. Yet, as she tried to stand, she found that she was spell-bound to stay where she was, the music tugging her back.
As the piece came to an end, Kanade stared at the piano so hard that she didn’t even notice that Mafuyu was staring at her, but when she noticed, she jumped.
“Oh, uh, sorry. I got distracted. It was a nice piece.” Kanade murmured, looking down at her hands. “Is this something you composed yourself, or…?”
Mafuyu stared at the piano for a few moments.
“I don’t know.”
She reached for the keys, resting her fingers on the notes but not pushing down.
“I’ve known this for as long as I remember, but I don’t know where it came from. All I know is that it needs to be better.”
“Better?” Kanade asked.
Mafuyu nodded, but did not speak further on the subject, so Kanade tentatively pushed forward, trying to figure it out.
“I mean- you’re so dedicated that you’ve come to your school after hours to practice, haven’t you? And, I mean, it sounds like you played the song perfectly.”
Mafuyu gave her a slight smile. “Thank you.”
Another long pause seemed to stretch between them.
“Do you mind if I play something?” Kanade asked. She didn’t want to impose, of course, but the actual, acoustic instrument was tempting, as she hadn’t looked at a set of black-and-white keys that weren’t attached to her computer in such a long time. Perhaps if she played one of the compositions she had been working on, it would let her experience a new angle on the piece that could help her develop it.
“No, I don’t mind.”
Mafuyu scooted aside, and Kanade blinked when she realized that Mafuyu was expecting her to sit beside her, not leaving the bench.
She took a seat and placed her hands on the keys, and experimentally played a scale.
Compared to her synthesizer, these keys needed a little more force to produce a sound, and it was as if the sound ever so slightly changed with subtle differences in pressure. Kanade could very easily see herself becoming addicted to the feeling, if she wasn’t so dedicated to her electronic compositions.
She began to play, the melody coming to her mind automatically.
Once she was done, Kanade blinked. She had gotten so lost in the piece she was playing that she hadn’t even realized that she had finished, the experience just slipping through her like water until she was done and it was like she had just emerged from a dream.
Mafuyu clapped.
“That was a very nice song, Yoisaki-san. Where did it come from?”
Kanade stared at her hands.
“My father, I think… he created this piece for my mother. She said it was her favorite song.”
If she was being honest with herself, she hadn’t expected herself to even do that. Mafuyu’s calm smile faltered.
“Your mother?” She echoed.
Kanade nodded.
“Would you play it for me once more?”
Again. She played the song, sinking into its familiarity, even though she hadn’t played it, hadn’t heard it, in years. Her fingers moved on muscle memory, and she was able to get through the whole song, then turned to look at Mafuyu.
Mafuyu had shut her eyes. If Kanade looked at her, she could see a faint tremble from within her.
“Thank you. Kanade.”
It had been so long since Kanade had even heard her given name that she jumped back in surprise, shielding her face in a panic in case she fell to the floor, but she managed to right herself.
When she uncovered her face, Mafuyu was gone.
Kanade blinked, but the spot where Mafuyu had once been sitting was completely vacant, leaving no trace of the person that had once been there.
Huh?
She stood up, gazing out of the windows.
Did I just… imagine things?
Mafuyu’s song lingered in her mind. Maybe, even if she had only imagined it, she could save a shard of the experience, the song that had tempted her into the abandoned school, and the girl with the eyes that reflected the twilight outside.