Sayonara Piano Sonata Vol 3 Chapter 3

As I mentioned before, our school had a large music hall that was capable of accommodating more than a thousand people.

The size of the music hall was huge; and sometimes, bands from town would even use the music hall as a venue for their concerts. It was a facility our school was proud of.

However, Kagurazaka said this as she sat down in the last row of seats, looking downwards with her hands crossed in front of her chest:

"This won't do. This venue isn't suitable."

"Why?"

The first-year male student and I asked at the same time. He was one of the first-year members of the school festival committee, and had followed us here earlier.

"Because we're a rock band!" Chiaki stuck her head out from behind and answered before Kagurazaka-senpai could. "Think back to the chorus contest—the people in the audience couldn't even stand up to enjoy themselves, right?"

I faced the stage and looked at the audience's seats, which were arranged in the shape of a bowl. It was just as she said. If people in the audience became engrossed in the beats of the rock music and started shaking their heads about, a slight careless movement could result in an unfortunate accident, with the audience member falling over and getting injured, or even dying.

"Well, since most of the stage lighting is located in the sports hall, I think it'd much better to hold our performance there."

A month had passed, and the school festival was already drawing close.

Because the sports hall and the music hall were both available as venues for the school festival, there wasn't a need to worry about not being able to accommodate all the music performances and stage performances.

Well...... that's only if Senpai and Chiaki don't make any unreasonable requests.

"Urm...... but the sports hall is already booked for the Drama Club's performance and the class performances. Moreover, the Karate Club forced themselves onto the schedule just yesterday, as they wanted to do a martial arts performance, so the schedule for that venue is full. Can't we just have all the musical performances here?"

The committee member spoke to Senpai in a polite manner, and observed her with a timid look on his face. He was probably stuck with the task of following us around till everything was settled, as the festival committee had probably anticipated that the Folk Music Research Club would create some sort of problem. Sorry—I apologized in my heart and slapped my palms together.

"To put it more explicitly, the stage is the furnace of our passion, and is something I cannot control. The audience will definitely jump about in excitement, and some may even rush up to the front of the stage! And if anyone got hurt, it'd be a problem for the committee, right?"

The committee member could only answer with an unintelligible "Ah, u-uhh......" as Kagurazaka-senpai pressed on. She had cleverly turned her selfish request into a matter of public safety, essentially forcing the committee member to accept her request as a precautionary measure against certain disaster. Senpai's as cunning as ever.

"I-I'll discuss it with the rest of the committee."

The committee member ended up running away from us. And as I looked at his back, I prayed that he would be luckier in the future.

"Oh right, I'll be going to the student council's office for a while," said Senpai, with her arms crossed in front of her chest.

"What for?"

"Obviously to check on the clubs that'll be using the sports hall. From here on out, we'll have to be on the lookout for some way to cut into the queue."

Senpai's hair swayed about like the tail feathers of a cuckoo as she ran away. I let out a sigh as I watched her disappear. She may look like someone that does things sloppily, but when she's hatching a ploy or something, she really gets serious. I wonder what she'll be like when she steps out into society.

"Things will be getting busy!"

Said Chiaki in enjoyment. During those busy days, there was no time for me to catch my breath after school. Though the chorus contest had already finished, the sports day was fast approaching, and after that was the school festival. Those hectic high school days, filled with all sorts of activities, continued on until November.

Chiaki and I were headed to the music preparatory room located at the other end of the corridor. There, Mafuyu was looking for pieces that could potentially be used for our performance at the school festival. She was working hard because of Kagurazaka-senpai's willful words: "I do not wish to perform the same piece twice on stage. We've gathered ourselves a group of interesting people, so I want to try dabbling in classical music."

However, someone at the other end of the corridor spotted Chiaki and me and started walking towards us. She stopped in front of us and stretched her arms out, preventing Chiaki and me from moving forward. The person before us was none other than the music teacher that wore the shortest skirt—Miss Maki.

"It's best...... to leave Mafuyu alone for now."

"Did something happen?"

"Mmm—"

Miss Maki jerked her thumb towards the door of the preparation room. There wasn't any need for her to explain any further.

Sounds of the piano endlessly flowed from the room.

The three of us stood in the middle of the corridor for a long time, listening to the music that had passed through the wooden door and swirled around our ears. The gentle stampede of the passage sounded just like the footsteps amid the crowd.

"...... I've heard this piece somewhere."

Chiaki mumbled.

"It's ."

It was the twelfth movement of Modest Mussorgsky's