Chapter 57: Murano Yoichi

"Hello, Suzuki-san! Glad to see you again. Driver-san as well! Afternoon!" A loud and boisterous voice sounded, reminding me of my old man. Only the person in front of me was much younger and had a certain sunny aura around him.

"Good afternoon to you too, Murano-kun. I'm glad to see you being as cheerful and active as ever." Suzuki smiled at the young man we met at the airport.

The driver smiled and greeted back warmly as well.

As it turns out, we weren't going to spend much time in Kyoto. Immediately arriving in Kyoto by car, we headed towards the airport, where we would take the plane (duh, what else could we take in the airport?) towards our final destination - Tokyo.

After his bright greeting, he turned towards me and looked curiously, "Oh my, I didn't see you there! Murano Yoichi's my name. Nice to meet you!"

Murano Yoichi is a young man with brown hair and has bright, sparkling eyes. Unlike many pianists, he had a healthy tan, and coupled with the muscles I could see on his arms, I knew that Murano played sports outdoor as well.

He was also tall, standing at least 1.8 meters tall. It might not seem much compared to the foreigners around, but he was a giant compared to an average Japanese. I'll not talk too much about his face since I'm not gay, but all you need to know is that he was handsome.

Still not as handsome as me, though.

"Nice to meet you as well, Murano-san. My name is Uesugi Fuutarou."

"Since you're here with Suzuki-san's recommendation, you must be good with the piano as well. Just drop the 'san' and all other formalities. We'll be together for the next month or so, after all. It's a pain to be so stiff all the time. Just call me Murano-nii or, if you want, aniki, since I'm older than you and all." He flashed a grin as he patted me on my back, "In return, I'll just call you Uesugi. How about that?"

Overly friendly at the first meeting. Extremely enthusiastic and have no sense of personal space. And a nice guy.

Those were my first three thoughts when he introduced himself.

I grinned. Maruno wasn't a bad person to be friends with.

"Alright then, Maruno-nii. Then I'll be in your care for the next month!"

"Hahaha, good! I'm starting to like you even more. This straightforward reply is a lot better than those dudes who always act shy and act as if they don't want to be friends."

Maruno asked some passersby to take a photo of us in front of the airport. After successfully coaxing some girls to help him out, he went back to my side after dragging Suzuki and the driver along. Squatting to reach my height, he placed an arm around my neck.

"Cheese!" Smiling for the camera, the four of us saw a flash before the girls returned our phones to us. I mean, I had a phone. It's time to use it to store some photos.

"Well, here is where I part. It was nice seeing you again, Maruno-kun." The driver tilted his cap as he said to Maruno before turning towards me, "It was nice seeing a child prodigy as well. I wish the both of you the very best for the competition."

"Thank you, driver-san!"

"Come to think of it, I still don't know your name until now."

"Well, you don't have to worry about it. If fate allows, we'll all meet again." The driver spoke with a small smile before moving towards his own car.

The three of us watched as the car left the airport for a minute before Suzuki broke the silence that hung between us.

"Well, now that's that. It's time to move to our actual destination!"

∞∞

"Phew...this is pretty...nice and comfy," I commented as I boarded the airplane.

Although I remembered traveling around the world with my parents when I was still a baby (I still don't know where they had gotten the money from until now), we often took the train or boat only. Even in my past life, I stuck around Tokyo my entire life, only heading towards a nearby provenance via train for any work-related stuff.

So, this would be my first time on a plane. And I had to say, the experience was pretty amazing. The comfy seats, the double window, the fantastic service which required so much money for even a packet of peanuts...

"Tch...which diamond peanuts are they selling for 500 yen per packet? Not to mention, the packet is barely the size of my palm."

"Haha, the more you travel, the more you will know. Tokyo is crazy expensive, you know?" Maruno smiled as he sat next to me. As a privileged first-timer on a plane, I was presented with the choice to choose my seat between the window seat, the aisle seat, and the seat in between them.

I don't fear heights, so I chose the window seat, hoping I would get to see sights I usually wouldn't be able to see when I'm on flat land.

"Don't get too excited, though. Once the plane reaches its peak altitude, you won't be able to see anything." As if knowing what I was planning to do, I was shut down by Maruno's words before I could even show my enthusiasm about seeing the sights.

"Eh..."

"But you can look all you want during the take-off and some rare moments where there aren't any clouds below the plane. I hope you don't get airsick; it would take away all the fun of riding a plane." Suzuki added from the aisle seat, "If you do feel nausea, I'll give you some sour candy or mint-gum to chew on."

Hmm...now that's a possibility that I never thought of before. I won't have airsickness, right?

"Uesugi won't feel airsick if he doesn't have any fear of flights or heights. Besides, the seat near the windows usually helps with airsickness. So you don't have to worry too much about him." Maruno continued.

The time taken for a plane to take off was annoyingly long. It was only after another half an hour of waiting before an announcement from the captain arrived, followed by the safety commands and rules, before we finally take off.

∞∞

The flight wasn't too bad. I don't have any other experience of flying on a plane, so I couldn't really make an accurate comparison. The flight was fast, lasting only 1 hour, give or take a few minutes, but it did give me the experience of riding a plane.

"Is this your first time in Tokyo?" Standing outside the Tokyo Airport while waiting for a taxi, Maruno asked, and seeing me nod, he continued, "What do you feel about this place?"

"Um...intrigued? I came from Matsuyama, where the environment is slightly more rural compared to Tokyo."

"You have never been overseas before?"

"When I was a baby, my parents often took overseas for my father's work."

Hearing my words, my two companions became intrigued, "And you still remember the times from when you were a baby? Interesting..."

"It does have its benefits, though it also has its detriments."

Maruno and Suzuki did not know how to reply to that, so they just changed the topic as the conversation continued.

"So what's our plan, Suzuki-san?" Maruno asked.

"The preliminaries will take place in Suntory Hall, Minato city, in three days. So we'll head over there today to check in to our hotel before getting both of you prepared for the preliminaries three days later."

The plan was relatively simple. Due to the competitiveness of the said preliminaries, we would barely have any time to go sightseeing.

Taking the train only took us about 30 minutes, and the entire process of checking in to our rooms took another 30 minutes.

Lunch was simple, including the basic staple of any Japanese meal. The only thing that differed from Matsuyama is that the food was more expensive here.

I really hope that I would win. Otherwise, just the food cost alone would kill me. Urgh...

After lunch was the scouting of the place where we would be performing. Suzuki said it would help us get used to the 'atmosphere' and prepare us so that we would not be shocked on the day itself.

The trip took another 15 minutes in a taxi. I expected to see many people scouting the place like we were doing, but I was wrong. It was much emptier than I expected.

"Are you surprised to see these few people?" Suzuki saw my puzzled face and asked.

"Yes. I thought there would be more people doing the same thing as us."

"Well, the preliminaries that would be held here would contain people from three different regions: Kanto, Kansai, and Chubu."

"But I'm from the Shikoku region, though?"

"Yes, but since both Suzuki-san and I are from Tohoku and Chubu, respectively, we decided to pull you to Tokyo instead. Hokkaido and Tohoku have their own combined preliminaries, while the last three regions, Kyushu, Chugoku, and Shikoku, would have the third area for preliminaries." Maruno said.

I see. I don't know how many pianists who are eligible to hand out invitations lived in Japan, but I'm assuming that there are plenty, judging from the need to separate the preliminaries into three different areas.

After the duo explains more stuff to me about the competition, we entered the hall. And I just have one word to describe the place.

Wow.

I think I'm going to be saying this a lot in the future, but it doesn't change the fact that this place was fantastic. The Main Hall looked similar to Towa's hall seating arrangement, with an additional two floors on each side, while the seats of the Small Hall (also known as the Blue Rose) can be moved, and the stage consists of three different sections which can be raised by up to 60 centimeters in increments of 20 centimeters.

With a basically 360-degree seating arrangement and a stage in the middle, Suntory Hall could hold almost triple the number of what Towa Hall could.

"This will be where you will be performing three days from now. What do you think?" Maruno looked at the grand sight and exhaled a deep breath, "Even though it's my second time here, the atmosphere never seems to let me down."

Second time? Oh yeah, I never asked Maruno directly about that before, but it turns out this was his second time here, huh? Somehow, I'm afraid to ask how it went last time.

But I didn't have to, since Maruno must have apparently caught the look on my face and answered immediately, "The last time I performed here, I didn't even make it out of the preliminary rounds."

"Did you improve?"

Looking surprised, Maruno stared at me for a while before bursting out in laughter, and in this hall, his laughter was loud enough to echo off the walls.

"Of course! And this time, I don't plan to just stop at the preliminaries!"

"Admirable."

"I already told you my goal, so what's yours?"

"Winning this competition."

The second round of laughter appeared, but I didn't stop Maruno from laughing. From everything I've learned from both adults, I knew that this competition wasn't something that could be looked down upon.

It was nothing like the small competition in Towa Hall; even the system knew this and even made a quest tailored for me.

"It might sound absurd, but what is a man without ambition?"

Pausing at my words, Maruno's smile hung on his face as he walked out of the hall.

"That's true. I've never even heard middle-schoolers enter this competition before, but to even get to the winner's position, we will eventually have to meet somewhere in the nationals. Don't hold back at that time because I won't." Turning around to look at me with a severe expression, "But I wish you luck."

Without waiting for me to reply, he turned to Suzuki, and his smile returned, "Of course, good luck to you too, Suzuki-san."

Heh. Good luck to you too. I plan to make my family rich, and I will not stop until I do so.

And so, like this, three days soon passed.

*****************

A/N: Phew! I finally finished planning out everything for the middle school volume and not just a skeleton. Still, I'm pretty hyped up about my own plans, and if everything goes according to the plan, I would guarantee that everyone here will be satisfied (assuming I can actually right well to convey what I want to convey).

I would say more about future plans, but I don't want to spoil anything. While the major characters wouldn't appear yet, I will make sure that the middle school volume would be amazing, having more action-packed scenes before toning it down and reaching high school.

P.S. Patréon is here. I always post more chapters ahead if I get the motivation to write. But I'll eventually post everything here. So if you want to support me, or encourage me to write more, then you can donate some money to poor me.