Piano Competition

Arriving at school the next day was pretty forced since I was quite tired from yesterday, and the drunk trio from yesterday were all in bad moods. Turns out that they also remember some events from the previous night because as soon as I arrived in the staff room Itoko and Akari refused to make eye contact, avoiding me constantly.

The rest of the day went like that with Youko smirking at my 'misfortune' and Onizuka completely oblivious to the whole thing.

-At lunch time-

I'm currently tutoring Fumino, Rizu and Nariyuki in the subjects they want to pursue-Fumino with maths, Rizu with Liberal Art and Nariyuki in the three sciences. To my demise they are just as hopeless as they were presented in the manga, Rizu and Fumino geniuses in certain subjects but complete morons in the ones they want to pursue.

Rei: "We need more than just lunchtimes... let's do this then. Are you guys free in the weekends?" All three of them nod.

"We could study in the library but I need to be able to talk to you , so are any of your houses available?"

*I really need to get a place of my own soon don't I...* I thought while I imagined a scene of how startled the three of them would be seeing all the yakuza inside the mansion.

Rizu and Fumino shook their heads, leaving a reluctant Nariyuki nodding his head.

Nariyuki: "U-um I've got a lot of siblings at home, if you don't mind them...and it's not so spacious."

Rei: "That's no problem, Saturday at 11 a.m, would that be fine for you guys? I can't do it later because I'm busy in the afternoon, I apologise for the inconvenience." Rizu and Fumino nodded at the same time, their faces still a little depressed since earlier I had asked them for their previous exams. They weren't pretty to say the least.

When the bell rang I gave all three of them homework to complete for next time, simple exercises really, that they should have no problem with completing.

My schedule also got a lot more packed with only two hours free a week, the looks of surprise on the students faces when they found out that I was also their music teacher were quite priceless. After the first lesson and seeing how proficient I was with teaching music it only added to their shock.

-After school-

Rei: "20 MORE PUSH UPS!" I shouted at an extremely tired Youhei.

Youhei: "Y-Yes sir!"

His problem is discipline and temper and the way I know will work the best to fix these issues is some old school military training. Perfect for eliminating any kind of insolence, especially with 30 minutes of completing his homework and 30 minutes of rigorous exercise.

This way he can stay on top of his studies even if he goes to sleep the moment he reaches home because of exhaustion.

*ring ring*

My phone rang just when the after-school session with Youhei finished, after all Tomoya doesn't need to come anymore and I have already talked to the hospital director where Nao's brother is being held if I could book it to operate Tomoya's shoulder. From what Tomoya told me it is 100% fixable, my guess would be that his dad doesn't have enough money for the complete procedure.

Rei: "Yes Saki, I did not forget about the competition. It's only 4:30 right now so I still have time, I've just finished up."

Saki: "Sorry, just that Kousei is really excited for you to be there." She called me in case I forgot about the competition, from her voice I can tell she really cares about Kousei.

(A/N-I think I done fucked up, Arima is Kousei's surname.... I apologise if I ever mixed them up because I think I might have, I don't know)

Rei: "Don't worry, I'll be there. I'm heading over there right now, should arrive in 10 minutes."

Saki: "Alright, see you soon Rei." And with that she hung up.

I drive to the address that Saki gave me, a pretty big hall for such a simple competition. From what Saki told me Kousei got excited with my arrival and signed up to the only competition available right now, and that got his competitors riled up.

This turned a simple piano and violin competition into a show where the junior master pianists across Japan will perform, from what I know Kousei is ranked 1 and ranks 2 & 3 signed up because of him.

Saki: "Right on time, follow me." She was waiting for me outside the hall, smile on her face as soon as she saw me.

Rei: "Was I ever late?" I follow her and was given a judge badge, along with a clipboard and pen that had all the candidates information and order in which they will play in.

Saki: "One of the other judges is a friend of mine Seto Hiroko, you should get along with her quite well." She then gets close to me and whispers "She used to think that you'll be Japan's number 1 pianist, and even possibly the world's. You don't want to know how she reacted when I told you no longer play professionally." Her words made me shudder a little.

Rei: "I-I'll keep that in mind." My smile hiding the cold sweat on my back.

When I enter the hall is it completely filled up, with Raku, Tsubaki, Ryouta, Mikoto, Shu, Chitoge, Onodera, Ruri and surprisingly Akira, Tenma and Eri at the back-I guess that they came to cheer on Kousei. When I entered the hall Raku glance at me so I waved at him, causing the entire high school squad to notice me.

Tenma: "Is that Mr Ichijo? What is he doing here? HI MR ICHIJO!" I could hear her voice from the entire 30 metre distance, over the voices of the other spectators.

I wave back at the hyperactive girl, sweat dropping because of the way she disturbed pretty much everyone around her.

-at the back of the hall-

Shu: "Yeh Raku, why is Rei-san here?" All attention turned to Raku.

Raku: "Well from the trophies all around the house and if I remember correctly, Aniki used to be a big shot in the classical world. I don't think he ever lost a piano competition in his life, but he stopped competing at some point."

All of them turned wide-eyed and Tenma fist pumped the air.

Tenma & Tsubaki: "Mr Ichijo/Rei-san is sooo cool!" Both had stars in their eyes.

Ruri: "Then why did your brother stop?" She held up her glasses in curiosity, she did meet Raku's brother at school but she couldn't profile him for some reason.

Raku: "He never really pursued it to that extent, when I asked him about it he told me that he didn't want to become a pianist.

I've also heard that a lot of people begged him to continue, he refused them all of course." This time all of them scrunched their eyebrows in confusion.

Shu: "Don't get him wrong because I'm sure that most of you don't know an important detail about Rei-san" All of their attention was now on Shu.

"I'm sure that most of you don't know about Rei-san's career in medicine, do you? How he became a doctor at the age of 19?" The latest piece of news caught them all by surprise, so badly they couldn't react at all.

Shu was the closest to Raku so only he and Kousei knew about Rei's identity other than being Raku's older brother and how they look nothing alike.

-Back to Rei-

I reach the table at the front reserved for the judges and spot two women talking to each other, one being a youthful looking woman with short black hair split in the middle and the other an older looking woman-dark brown hair tied in a professional pony tail.

Rei: "Hello, a pleasure to meet the both of you, I'm the third judge. My name is Ichijo Rei." I hold my hand out, which they shake and introduce themselves.

"Hello Mr Ichijo, I'm Ochiai Yuriko" the older one said.

"Rei, I finally make your acquaintance. I'm one of Saki's friends if she ever mentioned me, my name is Seto Hiroko. Please call me Hiroko."

I realise that both of them are taken a bit aback at my youthful look, after all most professional male musicians don't care much for their appearances.

I sit down next to Hiroko after the introduction and lay out the clipboard and candidate sheets on the table, ready to start assessing.

The first ones were the violins, all doing exceptionally well to my surprise yet I could tell that only a handful managed to capture some essence of the song they were playing.

Most just the played it robotically and somehow tried to follow the articulation of the music, clearly none are able to tell how the piece is truly meant to be played.

Last candidate to walk onto the stage caught my eye, with her messy blonde hair and blue eyes-Miyazono Kaori.

When she began playing it felt as if I was drawn by her playing, emotions exploding from the violin. When it came to an end, the two judges next to me frowned at her performance slightly.

*clap clap clap*

The entire hall's attention is drawn onto me, laying in my seat with my eyes towards the violinist.

Rei: "Well done Miss, now that is finally someone that understood how the piece is meant to be played." Saki at the back was smirking at me, I could tell from how well I knew her.

The young violinist clearly did not expect such a reaction from the usual stuck up judges, so she was pretty stuck on the stage not knowing how to react. She blushed a little in embarrassment, bowed and ran off the stage.

Hiroko: "Rei, you do know what we judge these candidates for right?" She trusts my skills as a pianist, but now she is questioning my skills as a judge.

Rei: "Yes, we assess how well these candidates understand the piece they are playing."

She frowns a little at my words but nods her head in agreement.

Onto the piano competition, and the first few candidates are similar to the previous violin ones... except a lot worse. They were playing Chopin, my favourite composer of classical music in this world and my previous one.

I've spent hours and hours even with my world-class piano skills to master the art of truly playing a Chopin piece... and to me these people are just plainly butchering the pieces.

I turn my head to Saki who knows my prowess and love for Chopin's music, her reaction is a light laugh and shakes her head at my pained face.

Eventually I endure and raise my hopes when the rank 3 in Japan takes the stage, a young girl with long light brown hair, short bangs cut above her eyebrows-Igawa Emi.

Unfortunately even with her body moving all over the place and overdramatic performance, I realised my hopes were for naught. Not even close to my expectations of someone deserving rank 3.

Maybe she noticed my dissatisfaction, because when she looked at the judges table and saw me her face instantly turned red and ran off the stage. The audience were very confused but the show must go on, so on comes the next candidate.

Let's see how rank 2 does it, my hopes not as high since the previous disappointment. A man with chin length wild blonde hair entered the stage-Aiza Takeshi.

Thank god my hopes weren't as high because the fall wasn't as big, another disappointment... like seriously at least some of the violin performances were decent.

Kousei don't let me down, the so called piano prodigy that took my throne. I've got high hopes for you, and I want to be able to enjoy your performance.

...Why is his playing so robotic was my initial thought, so I turned to Saki for some answers. She just bit her lip and averted her gaze, maybe he tried to imitate the way I played each piece without any mistakes instead of imitating the way I drew emotion from the pieces.

When he finishes his performance I silently leave my seat, shocking everyone in the hall.

I make my way to the vacant piano seat, Kousei behind me with confusion in his eyes.

Rei: "This is how you play Chopin." I spoke in a hushed voice so only he could hear me.

-third person-

When Rei got to the stage the audience were extremely confused, having never seen that before. He looked at the candidate that played last, then sat down on the piano seat and started playing the same piece.

The judges were left baffled, not to even mention the examinees reactions at his playing. How is his playing so perfect, so articulated and emotional at the same time.

They were all learnt to focus on one aspect as including all three is nearly impossible, at least not in a balanced way. And yet here was the man who is able to achieve that perfect ratio....

At the end of the performance the 2 judges got up from the seats and clapped at Rei's performance along with the audience.

Kousei behind Rei on the stage had a worshiping expression on his face, the first time he witnessed his idol play in the flesh. A fire started to ignite deep inside as he and all the other pianists were inspired by Rei's performance.