2 Chapter 2: Christmas Carol

"Touch it like how you stroke a baby's head, Kousei..", said a familiar woman's voice softly.

"I'm scared. Please don't leave me alone..", a young girl's voice whimpered.

"He's my treasure..", the woman's voice whispered.

"Let's struggle together..", said the young girl gleefully.

"Don't forget me.."

Arima Kousei woke up with a start. His alarm was not about to go off until another hour. "I've been dreaming about my mom and 'her' lately."

Kousei reluctantly stood up from his bed, realizing that he was still wearing his school uniform from yesterday. He glanced towards his bathroom and contemplated on taking a quick bath.

"It has been almost three years. I should've moved on already..", Kousei thought, as he ditched his usual early morning preparations and opted for wearing a hoodie over his uniform instead. "Is it because of the Christmas presentation tomorrow? That's strange.. It's not even a competition."

Proceeding to open the door to walk to the studio instantly froze Kousei in place. The cold was bone chilling, and it was still dark. Walking through an  early morning winter landscape was definitely a terrible idea for anyone. However, he got used to it for doing it since the band practices started.

"No. It can't be that. But I do feel a bit of pressure..", Kousei pondered in his thoughts while carrying on to his destination. "Every time I step on the stage, I have to make them remember me..

"That's your fault.. such cruelty..

"You taught me how to play for everyone.. to make them remember me.. to reach them.. to reach you..

"Then you left me."

The halls were still relatively deserted the moment Kousei entered the school's building. Even if the corridors were already lit, there were no students or members of the faculty present. Only few of the maintenance crew were doing morning cleanups to prepare for the day's activities. It was still a good couple of hours before the bell, after all.

As soon as Kousei entered the studio, he sat on the piano bench and let his fingers touch the keys almost automatically. A familiar accompaniment piece resounded throughout the muffled walls of the studio. In fact, being so much into it let Kousei play it with his eyes closed. It was just his heart being poured through the intricate melodies of the song. It was as if a very dear figure of a blonde girl appeared standing beside him and played the violin over his accompaniment.

"As expected.. first place again, Kousei..", said by a tiny red headed boy with a monstrous hard case larger than him strapped on his back. The arrival of Kousei's classmate stopped him from playing Beethoven's "Kreutzer" midway on the piano. The strings specialist in their presentation came in shortly after for rehearsal.  

"I don't count in your little race, Taka. You know I couldn't sleep well during presentation preps..", Kousei replied, while Takashima Kintaro opened his case revealing a humongous musical instrument inside, a cello.

"Then, you might as well spend the night here..", Taka answered back while setting his cello up. After that, he took another instrument out of his hard case to hand to Kousei, an electric guitar. "Since we're both here now, why don't we start with the guitar riffs?"

"Wait, did you just get taller?..", Kousei teased Taka, as he took the guitar while patting him on his head. His little friend seemingly transformed into a tiny red godzilla in irritation. "It still amazes me how a miniature carried that amount of weight around school."

Taka is the same age as Kousei though, and had been his classmate since first year, but the growth spurt seem to have come late for him.

"Shall we?..", Kousei asked, as he positioned the guitar properly on his lap.

"Someday, I'm going to be a tall basketball player with hot chicks drooling whenever I dunk the ball in the rim.. mark my words", Taka angrily mumbled, as a vein almost popped in his head in fury. While he plugged an audio cord into the amplifier, Kousei laughed a little.

To clear things up, yes, Kousei can play the guitar now since he gets lessons from Taka consistently. Okutsu encourages its students to immerse themselves into different kinds of music. However, he remains a pianist who competes at least twice in a year. It would just not be a "presentation" in Christmas if he relied on his usual piano skills.

"Hey, you're not using a bow?..", asked Kousei while noticing Taka using his fingers to pluck the cello's strings.

"We're playing a mix of contemporary and classical music, Kousei, a Christmas medley. It'll sound odd if I use a bow while you play an electric guitar..", Taka replied.

"Well, that's your specialty, I won't complain..", Kousei answered back with an awkward chuckle.

After a few minutes into the two practicing a guitar riff of a popular contemporary Christmas song, "Jingle Bell Rock" by Americans Joe Beal and Jim Boothe, the door slammed open causing them to stop abruptly. A huge dark skinned boy with an afro entered the room pulling a cart full of junk. Well, it was not junk, but a set of "bells" with different tones.

"I will never win the race, you guys..", the round boy said in a tired, deep voice while panting. "With me carrying all of this around.. it slows me down. I woke up at five, you know..", he added after a deep breath. "I mean, why can't I just leave it here? The property custodian's messing with me..", he continued while he set his "bells" up. "Why do we have to do 'Carol of the Bells', anyway? We're doing contemporary in the end. Such a drag..", he said again, revealing his adorably whiny personality.

That was Kimura Ganryu, a very talkative one, a classmate and good friend of Kousei's since tenth grade. He is a very kindhearted soul, only that he complains a lot when he gets tired. It was most likely because of his poor physical fitness on the heavier side. Nonetheless, he was the top student when it comes to beating anything or anyone up because of his size, the "death drum", the percussion instruments specialist.

"You'll still move freakin slow even without your 'bells', Ganryu..", Taka said with a smirk that turned into laughter.

"Ha-ha-ha.. very funny..", Ganryu replied sarcastically, while he sat behind the drum set. "Well, we can't start with the 'bells' yet until Emi-chan arrives. Let's just carry on with what you two were playing. One.. two.. three..", he added, at the same time, clapping his drum sticks together in unison with his counting.

Kousei immediately struck the lead line on three, then they played with drums this time. It was smooth as expected. They have been practicing since the start of the second term, after all. Bobby Helms, the one who popularized the song, along with composers Beal and Boothe, would have been proud of them.

Everything was going great until midway, the drums stopped out of nowhere. Ganryu was staring towards where the door was. He was smiling with eyes sparkling, as if he was suddenly taken to heaven.

"Oi, Yokozuna Kravitz, what the hell are you stopping for?!..", Taka asked Ganryu furiously before looking towards the door. When he finally caught a glimpse at what Ganryu was staring at, the same expression took over his face.

"Emi-chan..", they both said at the same time in glee. It was Emi, she was late again. Apparently, she was the only one who did not care about this race to be earliest. She always loved being "fashionably late" or making that "big entrance".

"Oh.. good morning, Taka-kun, Kimura-kun..", Emi flashed a quick smile. That obviously made Taka's and Ganryu's hearts jump, as they both turned as red as Emi's sweater.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, we have a winner. Even if she's last..", Ganryu whispered to Taka without breaking his gaze towards Emi.

"Uh huh..", Taka replied, also not breaking the stare.

"I don't know how she does it..", thought Kousei with a blank expression. "Everyone seemed to be enthralled with her smile all the time, but to me, she used it sparingly."

Even as Emi approached to kiss Kousei good morning on the lips, she kept her poker face on him. Though she was always quite successful on turning them both red as a tomato whenever she did that.

"Kousei's the real winner..", Taka whispered.

"Uh huh..", Ganryu answered.

Kousei looked at her for a while as she placed her bag at the side. She was wearing her red sweater, as usual, over her school uniform. Though she wore black heater leggings underneath to prevent her from freezing in winter. Sporting her black closed shoes, that were actually cross trainers, concluded her getup to make her so cute. However, "you're late again..", said Kousei to her.

"So?..", Emi shot a sharp glance at Kousei, while she sat in front of the piano.

Sweat started to form on Kousei's forehead. Emi was about to go beast mode again. But he still mustered the courage to answer back. She was late, after all. "We only have a day to polish our performance, Igawa-san. We can't afford to lose time."

"Time? You're the one taking constant breaks on the roof deck alone. Besides, I've already perfected my part. How about you, Arima-kun?..", Emi said with that cold blast coming from her stare, that ironically torched Kousei. She had a point. "Anyway, sit beside me, dummy. We're supposed to start this on piano, right? Shall we start, boys?"

They initially planned to start the presentation with Leontovych's classic, "Carol of the Bells". However mesmerizing it could be, they wanted to do something more out of it to really involve everyone in the venue.

Emi and Kousei began a soft piano duet using the piece climaxing midway through when the cello and the bells entered the scene. Eventually, it became a pseudo battle between Kousei and Emi on the piano, like two adept Samurai in a fatal duel, which actually reminded Kousei of his and Nagi's performance from three years ago. Of course, it was scripted that Emi would look like the winner, but of course, it did not mean that Kousei did not give her a hard time to spice things up.

"I was actually very skeptical about this..", Kousei thought while playing the piano piece with Emi. "But hey, it's just really me. Nothing's changed before each of my performances, really. I still sat on one corner every time before a presentation, hugging my knees, and pondering deep into my thoughts..

"Am I going to hear the piano? Will I reach them?

"I'm scared. Help me. Somebody."

"You have me..", a girl's cheery voice answered in Kousei's thoughts. "Don't forget."

"And I have them..", Kousei thought while looking at his three other classmates.

At the day of the event, the members of Kousei's little band were wearing awkward Christmas costumes. Ganryu was a snowman, which made sense because of his body. Taka was a reindeer with red hair, instead of his nose. And Emi was wearing a Santa dress with a matching hat that fit her perfectly, and still in red as always.

"Come to think of it, I'm the only one out of place with a green elf costume, but I'm the tallest of the group..", whispered Kousei to himself with an awkward chuckle. "But it's so much easier to go on stage with three other people to carry the burden. I really should've done this a long time ago."

And it worked like magic. The "bells" definitely enticed the audience the following day. The notes hit perfectly. The tempo was on point. The intensity was more than enough. It filled the theater with so much green, red, and white. Everyone got into the spirit of Christmas.

"And yes, I can hear the piano. It has been a while since I plunged into that deep dark place..", Kousei thought, as he pressed the keys with Emi at center stage. "A certain someone had saved me from that."

The first objective had been met. They needed the audience to be with them because they were in for some surprises.

As the first part ended, Emi transitioned smoothly to a different piece. It was so perfectly executed that no one would have noticed that it was a different song. This time, she played Adam's "Cantique de Noël". As she carried on, Kousei almost forgot that he was supposed to set a microphone close to her face.

"She's just so beautiful when she starts playing with her eyes closed and swaying through the rhythm of the piece..", thought Kousei while trying to break his stare towards Emi.

Then it happened, the day's first surprise, Emi's vocal showcase. Apparently, no one in school knew that she could sing because they were all consumed by her being a prodigious pianist. Although, at the very least, everyone was expected to be able to sing in tune since they were all in a music academy, but her ability was on another level.

The moment she sang the words, "O, Holy Night", the entire theater drowned in her angelic voice. Everyone applauded her with confused but immense admiration. All of the people present, including her bandmates, felt like floating slowly into the heavens. This was definitely a great Christmas present.

However, Kousei could only just imagine most of the boys in school salivating on his girlfriend's performance, which kicked him back to reality. He had to start preparing for the next surprise.

With Taka hitting his cello with the bow midway through the song was Kousei's first hint that he was almost up. Ganryu hitting his "stuff" near the end was his cue that he should be ready. And when Emi hit the high note of the finale, he positioned his hands on the stringed instrument.

The audience was not even finished applauding Emi when Kousei hit the first line of the lead guitar riff of "Jingle Bell Rock". The lights opened revealing him on the guitar, Taka on his cello and no longer with the bow, and Ganryu with his drum set, when Emi started singing the first lines of the song. She also played the upbeat piano piece simultaneously. This was the ultimate surprise of the night. And it was received with great praise.

Finishing the performance with a quick tempo, contemporary Christmas song was a brilliant idea. It turned the theater into one massive Christmas party. The audience seemed to not want to end it yet. Kousei did not want to stop, and same with his bandmates, but all great things must come to an end.

A standing ovation followed. Some were asking for an encore. Mostly all cheered loudly for the band, but most of the boys were for Emi, causing Kousei to sigh a little. And the girls cheered the loudest for one of them whom Kousei would like to think was for Ganryu or Taka, after Emi quickly shot a deadly "Ocular Jutsu" towards him. "I get it, she'll kill me if I acknowledge them".

The four bowed and waved towards the audience from their current positions. Then, Kousei shot a quick glance at his classmates, then at the people around him.

"This is my life now..", once again, Kousei pondered in his thoughts. "A musician. A performer..

"I like this feeling..

"This is good. I can get used to this."

"I won't forget this. Thank you so much..", a small framed blonde girl standing in front of the audience said.

"Wait. Who?..", Kousei took a second look. "She wasn't really there..

"Was I just imagining it?

"Yes, I definitely was."

Translation Notes:

Yokozuna Kravitz - a nod both towards the famous sumo wrestler character in the world wrestling federation in the late eighties and early nineties, and to the famous rock icon, Lenny Kravitz. In this chapter, Taka used this moniker for Ganryu basing it on his appearance.

Featured Music:

Kreutzer Sonata - originally known as the Violin Sonata No. 9, Op. 47, by Ludwig van Beethoven, is a sonata for piano and violin notable for its technical difficulty, unusual length (around 40 minutes), and emotional scope. In the original anime series, this was the first piece Miyazono Kaori played with the violin to depict her as a quirky violinist.

Jingle Bell Rock - an American popular Christmas song first released by Bobby Helms in 1957. It has received frequent airplay in the United States during every Christmas season since then. It was composed by Joseph Carleton Beal and James Ross Boothe. 

Carol of the Bells - a popular Christmas carol, with music by Ukrainian composer Mykola Leontovych in 1914 and lyrics by Peter J. Wilhousky. The song is based on the Ukrainian folk chant "Shchedryk".

Cantique de Noël - or "O Holy Night" in English is a well-known Christmas carol composed by Adolphe Adam in 1847 to the French poem "Minuit, chrétiens" (Midnight, Christians) written by wine merchant and poet Placide Cappeau. In both the French original and the English version of the carol, as well as in many other languages, the text reflects on the birth of Jesus as humanity's redemption.