At seven thirty the next morning, after finishing the complimentary breakfast, Kisho left the room.
"May I ask, until what date is this room booked?" Kisho asked at the service desk.
The staff member was not the same one from last night. She took his room card, swiped it through the machine, and a look of surprise appeared in her eyes. Then she spoke respectfully,
"It's booked all the way until the end of this opening period~ We wish you a pleasant stay~"
Kisho responded with an "Oh," and took back his room card.
After spending four hours starting from the yellow-green rest area to listen to all the remaining chapters, Kisho returned to the hotel again.
There's free lunch—no reason not to eat!
While stuffing a big spoonful of the seafood rice bowl from the set meal into his mouth, Kisho flipped open his book and examined it carefully. Reading was really great—no matter how oily his hands were, the pages never got stained.
He discovered that even though he had already listened to all the musical sections, the six movements he had collected so far still each lacked a small measure at the end, making it impossible to connect them continuously.
"Mm..." Kisho's fingers brushed over the pages. That ominous feeling grew stronger as the collection became more complete, but he could still sense that it remained within a range he could control.
He went to the piano room on the second floor and sat down in front of the piano.
The sheet music recorded in The Fantasizing Musician was as clear as if it were carved into his soul. He placed his fingers on the piano keys and gently closed his eyes.
This was the first time in two lifetimes that he had played a "real" piano, yet it felt as though he had practiced thousands upon thousands of times before. Even if there was a hint of awkwardness, he could immediately adjust.
Kisho's fingertips moved skillfully across the keys, striking note after note, forming the dreamlike Song of the Four Seasons.
As the final note was played, Kisho's fingers remained pressed on the keys. He didn't even notice that a tear slid down his cheek.
He breathed lightly, calming his emotions. Next came that ominous piece—Sonata of Darkness (Piano).
The moment the first note fell, everything in the room seemed to freeze.
If Kisho had used "Gyo," he would have seen streams of black aura, as if they had substance, coiling around the piano like void serpents ready to choose a victim and devour them.
Kisho sensed it, but it was as though he were being controlled. His hands could not stop playing. It even felt as if his mind had lost control—his body would rather break free than stop before finishing the piece.
"Clang—!"
The music broke off just before the final missing measure. The extremely discordant melody echoed in the air like a snapped string, stirring hysterical irritation in the heart. Kisho slowly raised his hands. He saw that layer of black mist filling the entire room clinging to his hands, but because the performance ended abruptly, it was forced to retreat, dispersing at great speed with extreme reluctance—so fast that it all felt like an illusion.
"—This piece!"
Kisho suddenly opened his eyes and gasped for breath. With lingering fear, he stared at his hands, as if traces of black aura still remained on them.
If the score hadn't broken off here, he felt that he would have given everything to finish playing this piece, even at the cost of his entire being.
The feeling was so strong it seemed rooted deep in his soul, as if his existence would have no value unless the piece was completed.
"This piece is absolutely not right!"
Kisho closed his eyes, steadied his emotions, took several deep breaths, and opened The Fantasizing Musician.
Sure enough, the six pages that carried the Sonata of Darkness (Piano) movement—once snow-white—now looked as though they were dyed with black mist and blood-tinged aura. On the table of contents, a line of small text was marked: Collection Progress: 75%; Purification Progress: 1.76%.
"Collection progress 75%... If calculated by measures, I've collected 42 measures so far. That means there are 56 measures in total."
Kisho pondered. "Just as I thought, Whale Manor should contain the complete seventh section, as well as the single missing measure from each of the first six sections."
"Purification progress 1.76%—I only played the first section. Reversing the calculation, I probably need to play all 56 measures once..."
Kisho placed both hands on the piano and closed his eyes.
"...If playing it incompletely won't affect me, then no matter how terrifying it is, I have to keep going."
"Chrollo and the others withheld information from me. He didn't tell me the purpose of sending me inside. And on the manor's side, they also seem to be deliberately searching for a musician—if entering the manor means I must come into contact with this piece, then the only thing I can do is first figure out whether my aura can be of use."
Thinking this, he began playing again.
One section took six minutes to play. Six sections amounted to nearly forty minutes. After forty minutes, Kisho looked at the words on the table of contents—"Collection Progress: 75%; Purification Progress: 75%"—and in his hand appeared a seven-pointed star badge missing one point, oddly shaped. Aside from the missing point, the remaining six were composed of black mist, but when pressed, the mist condensed into an extremely thin, almost imperceptible layer of substance. In the hollow center of the badge, a skull-shaped black mist could faintly be seen.
At the same time, Kisho sensed that something new had appeared in his book.
The first page after opening The Fantasizing Musician was the movement title of Song of the Four Seasons, followed by four pages containing his four original compositions.
Now, after Song of the Four Seasons, a new chapter directory had appeared: Songs of Taboo. Flipping further, there was a subdirectory for Sonata of Darkness (Piano), along with six incomplete musical sections.
"Does this mean that Songs of Taboo will have versions other than the 'piano' one?"
Kisho then turned his gaze to the skull badge that had appeared in his hand.
He could feel that when he looked at the skull formed from condensed black mist, the skull's hollow, abyss-like eyes were also staring back at him. Its empty mouth gaped wide, as if eager to swallow him whole.
"Although it looks pretty terrifying, once the 'purification progress' shown on the table of contents reached 50%, the ominous aura and the urge to absolutely finish the piece disappeared. Thinking about it that way, this badge might be harmless. Should I try it?"
"...There's no other way anyway. Either way leads to death—trying it might actually leave a way to live."
After a brief thought, Kisho no longer hesitated and pinned the badge onto himself. The skull on the badge flickered with a dim light. Kisho could feel his aura uncontrollably leaking out of his body and being devoured by the skull badge. The sensation was extremely unpleasant, but Kisho simply sat quietly on the piano bench with his eyes closed, until the skull seemed to stop as if it were full.
He once again placed his fingers on the keys. Notes flowed out, and black mist slowly spilled forth along with the melody. Under the effect of Gyo, he saw the black aura spreading through the room, but the moment it touched him, it was entirely swallowed by the skull.
"The badge is called 'Calamity's Mouth.' The name sounds pretty fierce, but it can devour black mist that's just as fierce. But if it were the complete version of Sonata of Darkness, would it still be able to withstand it?"
Kisho lowered his head and removed the badge. In an instant, the badge vanished from his fingertips.
Kisho paused slightly and rubbed his fingers together.
"And why is it that the Sonata of Darkness I played was able to condense into a badge that could even be considered a positive status?"
This question led nowhere, so Kisho stopped dwelling on it. He stood up, stretched his body, and closed the piano's key cover.
"Alright, time to go get my inner venue admission ticket."
...
In the red-yellow rest area, Kisho walked over to that pianist.
The latter hadn't looked at him the whole time. Only after finishing a performance did he turn to him and smile faintly.
"Kid, are you also interested in the piano?"
"Yes."
Kisho nodded. "I want to try. Is that okay?"
"Of course." The young pianist smiled and stood up. "Please."
Seeing a ten-year-old child wanting to play the piano, the onlooking tourists grew interested and stopped to watch. Some mocking tourists even shouted loudly,
"Kid, can you even play? Don't embarrass yourself in public!"
Kisho had no interest in paying attention to them. He slowly sat down in front of the piano.
Flowing, cloud-like notes poured out. Yet no one saw the black aura filled with despair and pitch darkness, silently roaring as it enveloped everyone present, waiting only for the final note to fall so it could feast upon the sacrifices chosen by the demon king.
The music carried a bewitching magic, luring everyone to keep listening, to offer themselves as sacrifices.
However, the music abruptly stopped. The black mist seemed to have its pause button pressed, retreating yet again with extreme reluctance, for who knew how many times.
The entire venue fell into icy silence. Then, thunderous applause erupted like a tidal wave.
"Why didn't you continue?"
"Hey, kid, keep playing!"
Many people around shouted for him to continue playing. If one used Gyo, they could even see the black mist still clinging to them, not yet fully dissipated, desperately trying to burrow into their bodies.
Kisho had no intention of paying them any attention. Not to mention that he truly couldn't play it fully—even if he could, he would never play such a lethal piece of music in front of a crowd.
He looked at the young pianist, whose expression was no longer as relaxed as before, and smiled slightly. His gaze was firm, filled with determination.
The young pianist looked solemnly at the boy before him. After a long while, he slowly took out a black whale-shaped badge from his pocket and respectfully said,
"Please use this badge. On the evening of March 7th at six o'clock, in front of the Whale Hotel, a special car will be waiting to take you to the place you wish to go."
He paused, then continued, "However, if you leave the garden or fail to wait at the designated time, it will be considered that you've given up your qualification. Also, the badge is for your personal use only. If the badge is transferred to someone else, it will likewise be considered a forfeiture."
"Alright, I understand."
Kisho took the whale badge and nodded.
...
After returning to the room, Kisho lay on the bed, tossing the whale badge up and catching it, tossing it up and catching it. After repeating this many times, he sighed helplessly.
Shalnark had only given him three days. Tomorrow would be the third day—but how was he supposed to pass the information to them...
And moreover, he had already run around the flower sea two and a half times, yet he hadn't seen any path leading to the island in the lake at all.
So up to now, the only gains were that whale badge and his own "Calamity's Mouth."
"Mm..." Kisho let out a long sigh in his heart. "I can only take things one step at a time..."
During the remaining days, aside from sleeping until he naturally woke up each day, Kisho quietly trained "Ten" and "Ren."
Since they hadn't said how he was supposed to contact them...
Then he would just wait for those people to contact him first.