Over the next two weeks, Akira's life suddenly became very regular.
The manuscripts for Chapters 4 and 5 of Fate/Stay Night had already been submitted, and Hisashi had explicitly forbidden him from drawing any further. Thus, he didn't need to draw manga for these two weeks.
Naturally, he devoted his free time to Kara no Kyoukai.
In reality, he didn't invest too much effort; writing for three or four hours a day was about enough. There was no need to make it feel like a grueling office job.
He would wake up every morning to exercise, write his novel, or surf the internet in the afternoon after lunch, and watch TV in the evening, living a life as leisurely as if he had entered early retirement.
In addition to that, he found something else to occupy his remaining time—
"...Hmm, done!"
Sitting before an electronic keyboard, he played the insert song from the animated film Castle in the Sky—Joe Hisaishi's "Carrying You"—in its entirety, then with a satisfied look.
However, beside him, Rin wore a slightly disgusted expression and couldn't help but complain:
"...That was so ugly."
Hearing this, a question mark popped up over his head as he asked in confusion:
"What do you mean?"
Playing well is pleasant to the ear, and playing poorly is unpleasant. What on earth did 'ugly' mean?
Rin said:
"Your movements while playing aren't graceful, and the sound isn't pleasant either."
"..."
While there was nothing technically wrong with what she said, wasn't she being a bit too blunt?
It wasn't just his imagination, right?
At the same time, seeing his defeated expression, the corners of Rin's mouth curled up slightly, looking like she had successfully pulled off a prank, yet that cute and playful expression made it hard to stay angry.
Yeah, it definitely wasn't his imagination.
Seeing the look on Rin's face, he didn't know whether to laugh or cry.
When they first met, he probably never would have imagined she had such a side to her. Was this the price of becoming close?
Thinking this, he spread his hands helplessly and said:
"I'm just a beginner who has just started learning. Considering that, don't set your expectations too high, okay?"
"Hmm, true."
Rin nodded, stopped joking, and praised him sincerely:
"If we consider it from a beginner's level, Mochizuki-kun is learning very quickly. It's impressive."
"Thanks for the compliment."
He finally smiled as well, then teased:
"Or should I say it's because Teacher Shimizu teaches so well?"
However, hearing how he addressed her, Rin suddenly became a bit shy and protested:
"I told you, don't call me that..."
"Alright."
He wore a smile identical to the one Rin had just shown and said:
"Then I'll stick with Miss Shimizu."
Seeing this, Rin gave him a playful glare, but seeing the smile on his face, she couldn't help but let the corners of her own mouth curl up too.
What should she do?
For some reason, she felt like she was easily influenced by him lately. Was she under some kind of spell?
Speaking of which, Akira's learning speed really did surprise her.
Whether it was recognizing the keys or some basic techniques, he could remember them after being taught once.
Even the sheet music used for practice—he only needed to look at it once to memorize it.
She suddenly recalled that he had told her before that his memory was quite good, but she hadn't expected it to be this incredible.
Was this what they called a genius with photographic memory?
To this, Akira would say:
Yes.
It had to be said, Absolute Memory was truly useful.
Especially at the beginner stage, when most knowledge just required rote memorization, the results were practically instantaneous.
Of course, Absolute Memory wasn't omnipotent.
For example, when he played "Carrying You" just now, it felt in his mind like he had completely mastered the piece, but when it came to actually playing, he found his hands couldn't keep up with his brain.
Although he eventually stumbled through to the end, he received Rin's evaluation of 'playing very ugly.'
To improve this part of his ability, he could only honestly practice over and over again.
Right, he seemed to have forgotten to explain why he was at Rin's house learning the electronic keyboard from her.
Firstly, it was because he had been quite free lately; secondly, it was to prepare for 'copying' songs in the future.
However, he didn't want to change careers and become a singer; he was thinking about the future anime soundtrack for Fate/Stay Night.
The importance of a soundtrack to a work went without saying.
While he couldn't achieve absolute perfection, for a work like Fate/stay night, he still hoped to make everything—including the anime—the best it could be, including the soundtrack.
At the very least, when Emiya Shirou summons Saber and when Emiya Shirou duels Archer, he hopes the music could be Glory of the Knight King and Last Stardust.
And there were actually many more things he wanted...
In short, considering these circumstances, he had proposed the idea of wanting to learn music to Rin.
Actually, he had initially wanted to learn the guitar; after all, he had over a month of foundation in it, so relearning it would definitely be faster.
But that plan was vetoed by Rin.
"Playing the guitar causes damage to the fingertips. As a mangaka, you must protect your hands."
That's what she said.
As an alternative, she recommended the electronic keyboard and invited him to her house to learn.
That led to the scene above.
Speaking of which, she hadn't charged him any tuition yet.
What else could he say? Should he just bow down and call her his benefactor?
...Just kidding.
In any case, he would keep this kindness in his heart for now and return the favor when he had the chance.
Come to think of it, she really had helped him a lot during this period.
Hmm...
At this moment, he suddenly thought of something and asked Rin:
"By the way, how are things going on your end?"
"My end..."
Rin snapped back to reality and said:
"Actually, I've already sent the demo of the revised version of Unfinished Dream to several record companies. There might be some results soon."
Speaking of this, she felt a mix of anticipation and nervousness in her heart.
Setting aside whether she could debut as a singer-songwriter, she had poured a lot of effort into this song, so she naturally hoped to get validation from a record company.
However, she also vaguely felt that her song might not be that good.
"Is that so? Then I wish you success this time."
Hearing this, Akira offered his blessings with a smile.
His blessing was, of course, sincere; if her dream could come true because of this, nothing could be better.
But if it didn't work out...
He seemed to remember Rin saying that her original intention for wanting to become a singer-songwriter was just to avoid being overly restricted, like other singer-songwriters.
Other than that, she didn't seem to have the idea of 'insisting on only singing songs she wrote herself,' right?
If that was the case...