On the other hand, an even younger man (just two years younger than Shuichi) having short but thick black hair and a skinny body built---which was also obvious in his features---was sitting on a big boulder near the town's famous lake. This lake, however, was located just below the cliff where Hiwara Shuichi was standing. The teenage boy was armed with his trusty guitar, notebook, and pen. And what else was there to do with those things?
That's right. Hoshiyama Itsuki---despite the stoic look laced with disinterest he always showed to people---was one of the upcoming stars in musical composition. Well, many people said that he took after his mother who was one of the best composers of her time. And up to now, he wanted to live up to it. After all, it was one of the few ways to remind him of his dead parents who were both raised with music around them and had made them famous even now that they weren't residing in the world of living anymore.
The composition that he was currently working on was another that bothered him a lot of times. The lake he was looking at was one of the places where he could see a mysterious girl calling for help. Well, he only saw her in dreams. And in those dreams, his sister Erika was there as well, assuring the mysterious girl that everything was going to be okay. Weird enough, Itsuki could feel that his sister had spoken those words to someone before. But he couldn't tell when and where.
The continuous ringing of his phone snapped him out of his trance. He took the phone out of his pocket and immediately opened it as soon as he saw the name of the person calling now on the screen.
"Hello? Is there something wrong, Erika?" he started, with slight hints of worry in his tone. He was always a worrywart for his sister, anyway.
"No. I'm just calling to say that I'll be practicing at the conservatory instead of the music hall."
Itsuki frowned. "What made you decide to practice there?"
Erika's groan was heard on the other line. "Construction noise. I forgot that they're going to extend the Kawazumi Hall's east wing starting today. The conservatory is the only area right now where the construction noise won't distract my concentration."
Itsuki sighed. Well, Erika does have a point there. "Fine. Do whatever you want. I'll finish my composition here for a while before I pick you up. Hideoki-san wouldn't want us to be late for dinner or else, we're both dead."
"Well, you're the one who's always coming home late. Not me. I'm not the one who gets scolded most of the time."
Geez! Does she have to bring that up again? "Shut up! I'll pick you up so don't go anywhere else, okay?"
"You're one insisting brat, Onii-chan. Bye!" And the line went dead.
Itsuki could only sigh at that action before putting his cellphone back in his pocket and continuing with his songwriting. But his hand was somewhat stuck in one position. His mind was traveling somewhere else again.
~"If I'm going to be reborn, I only ask for one thing. I want to be with you again in my next life..."~
Itsuki felt that those words were spoken to him and it was the mysterious girl in his dream who had said that. He knew full well that it was a promise spoken by a girl who was determined and hopeful to be with the one she loves in each of her next lives if she were to be born again.
But if those words were spoken as such, how come he could sense something strange from it? How come he could feel like something important will be taken from him if he decided to know more about those dreams?
Right now, Itsuki chose not to let those words bother him. And so he focused on his songwriting business for now.
xxxxxx
Meanwhile, on the other side of the town, a petite girl with waist-length brown hair wearing hakama and armed with a longbow and quiver of arrows was walking towards the practice area. Her focus leaned on her training for the upcoming archery competition that was about to happen two weeks from now. And for Fuumiya Misae, failure was not an option. After all, she had been undefeated in that field for 5 years in a row. Defending her title for one more year would make her a legend in the town. In other words, a Hall of Famer.
Archery, both western and eastern archery, had been a part of Misae's life for as long as she could remember. It was one of the things that reminded her of her parents who both died in the hotel fire 10 years ago. After all, they were the ones who taught her a lot about archery since it was their proficiency, though her father leaned more on horseback archery. Coming from a family of legendary archers in the country was something that Misae wanted to continue living up until the end.
Okay... That was enough to reminisce about the past for now.
What she had to focus on at the moment was her training. Well, she had been doing that all morning ever since she asked permission from her guardian early in the morning. But practicing alone in the afternoon was the one Misae looked forward to. That way, she could concentrate more and she could do more to make sure her shots during the tournament would be precise and her control wouldn't be a problem. It was something she was famous for, after all.
Upon setting up her garments and materials, especially her bow and arrow in place, Misae's gaze towards the target board hardened and was calculating. She positioned in her stance and started pulling the string of the bow with an arrow in place. A few calculating moments later, she released the arrow and watched it carefully. A triumphant smile showed on her face when the arrow she launched hit the center. Bull-eye!
She gave herself a satisfying nod and did target shooting a few more times. Almost all of her shots hit the same place-the center of the target board. Upon realizing that she used up almost all her arrows for that practice, she decided to proceed to the target area to retrieve all of them. But the sounds of someone clapping alerted her senses and made her pull the last arrow from the quiver.
"Woah! Before you decide to hit me with that, make sure I have my safety vest to protect me from it."
Misae seemingly froze to her spot for a few moments before exhaling a sigh of relief that it wasn't an enemy, but her childhood friend.
"Shuichi, next time you decide to surprise me like that, I'll make sure you'll end up with more than one arrow poking out of your body," she warned with a narrowed stare at her biker friend.
Yes, the one who was in front of her was Hiwara Shuichi.
"How long have you been standing there, anyway? Were you watching me practice?"
Shuichi nodded. "Since you started practicing here alone. I had to make sure you go home before dinner or Hideoki-san will kill us. I can't ask that favor to Eichirou since he was busy arguing with Kanako-chan over his lunch."
Misae couldn't help sighing and shaking her head over his other friend's childish acts again. "Eichirou-san's hopeless over as simple as food. No one could tell he's a renowned photographer in town whenever he acts like that."
"We can't do anything about it. He's already like that." Shuichi's face became serious. "What time are you heading home, anyway?"
Misae faced the target area where her other arrows landed. "One more round and then I'm done."
It was the approval Shuichi needed before he placed himself somewhere he could still see Misae's practice and not disturb her. He knew full well how Misae valued archery in her life, the same way he valued bike racing in his life.
True to her words, Misae wrapped up her practice after one more round of target shooting. Of course, she left the place with a satisfied look on her face. Now she knew she was ready for the competition, although she couldn't let her guard down just yet. A lot of things could still happen that might cause her to lose concentration.
Shuichi's favorite red bike was waiting for them as Shuichi handed Misae his other helmet. No one quite knew but Misae was the only girl so far that had ridden Shuichi's motorcycle and Misae was proud of that fact, even though she doesn't show it.
With smiles on their faces, Misae and Shuichi rode the motorcycle to head home before their guardian chewed them on for being late.
xxxxxx
At the Tsukikage Town's Music Conservatory, a teenage girl wearing a white summer dress over a light blue cardigan with her black hair whose length only reached three inches below her shoulder was busy practicing her chosen musical piece on one of the grand pianos there. She chose to practice using the grand piano in the stadium. Only a few people were permitted to use that piano for practicing. Hoshiyama Erika was among them, but she was permitted for one special reason.
That grand piano once belonged to her father who was a famous pianist in their town. His talent in piano was so impressive that it earned him several more performances throughout the country. It would have lived on for a long time if his father didn't die along with her mother in the hotel fire 10 years ago. She and her older brother Itsuki were some of the few survivors of that tragedy.
It had been 10 years, and right now, she was quite happy with her life even though her parents were dead. Her parents' friend was their current guardian who raised her and Itsuki like his own children.
Erika continued practicing without a care in the world since she needed to do her best for the upcoming piano recital she was going to participate in a month from now. It would also provide her access to study in one of the prestigious music schools in Japan if she did her best and impressed the sponsors. But since she was still having a hard time deciding on whether or not she would leave Tsukikage Town for her dream, she would play the piano to her heart's content.
She was almost done playing the piece when she suddenly heard footsteps coming from backstage. Of course, she got startled by that which made her almost immediately stop playing the piano. She was about to leave the stadium and get her things when a familiar voice spoke.
"Geez! It's just me, Erika. You don't have to be that scared."
Erika exhaled sharply when she heard her brother Itsuki's voice. "Urgh! Do you seriously have to scare me like that, Onii-chan?"
But the answer she got from him was a noncommittal shrug and approached her. Itsuki wordlessly took her bag and started walking away from there. He stopped in his tracks for a short while before turning to face her.
"Come on. We need to head home fast. I don't want Hideoki-san to scold us when we get there late."
"Is that all you have to say? Shouldn't you be saying something to me about your composition?"
No words came out of Itsuki's mouth after Erika asked those questions. At that point, he didn't want to talk about it.
"I'll show it to you when we get home. I'm done composing it, anyway. You can even try playing it if you want."
Erika's face brightened at his words. "Really? I get to play your latest composition?"
Itsuki nodded. This time, with a smile on his face. He rarely smiled in front of everyone but not to Erika. After all, she was one of his reasons to smile.
With those words, Erika followed her brother and clung to his arm. She always does that whenever they go home together. It was a habit ever since the fire that took their parents' lives 10 years ago. And it was always a gesture that calmed them both, that gave them strength.
"I wonder what Hideoki-san would make for dinner. I realized that I didn't even have lunch a while back," Erika suddenly blurted out.
Itsuki frowned. "You didn't eat your bento?"
"No. I gave it to the old man selling scraps on the way while I was heading here. It's better that he ate it since he was working very hard."
Itsuki couldn't comment anymore about it. He knew Erika was like this, always thinking of others more than her. He could only smile at it.
"Well, I'll just give you a pig portion later before Eichirou-san gets all of it to fill his bottomless stomach."
The siblings laughed at it before Erika let out an agreeing sound and nodded.
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