Tokyo: Who would still fall in love after being spoiled?

Chapter 100: A Duet of Amano's Own
On his routine train trip to the hospital, Amano sent a recording.

Unlike the previous times, this recording did not come with any introduction, and even the name of the audio file was not edited again, showing the recording code of the mobile phone recording.

He put on his headphones, clicked play, briefly shutting out other sounds around him and listening to the contents of the recording.

The recording is not long, only about twenty seconds, and as expected, it is a melody produced by orchestral instruments.

But after listening to the last note, he stared at the ceiling of the car in a daze and replayed the recording using the control button on the wired headphones.

This is a trumpet duet that has never appeared in "Tomorrow Spring", but it is not difficult to guess which section it comes from, it is even obvious.

This is the trumpet solo in the original song. The original melody has not been changed at all. The tune, rhythm, the strength of blowing the trumpet, etc. are all completely preserved.

Then a brighter and more powerful trumpet sound was added, cleverly echoing the original melody, sometimes in question and answer, sometimes in chorus.

The trumpet solo that Amano wrote when he was in junior high school was more lively and brisk (Leggero), while the newly added melody in the duet is more resolute and decisive (Risoluto).

How could Amano not understand why his father had preserved her melody so completely? He suddenly thought.

The original melody was written by Amano when he was in junior high school. No matter what the melody was written for, for a person, an event, or for the music itself, it all reflects the world as seen by Amano when he was in junior high school.

This was what she wanted to talk about, express, and record at that time.

The other newly added trumpet is undoubtedly played by the current Amano, which is not only an echo of the past, but also an expression of the present.

Even if Amano in the future has a new perspective on the world and new emotions he wants to express, it is not impossible to change this trumpet melody into a trio or quartet...

"Tomorrow Spring" originally had two solo sections, one for flute and one for trumpet. The flute section was written by Amano's father, who was probably an excellent flutist himself, while the trumpet section was written by Amano herself.

The two melodies echoed across the music, their chorus sometimes lively, sometimes gentle, like a long valley. Amano, in junior high school, played the trumpet at one end. Her father, on the other end, listened quietly, until the trumpet's sound reached his ears, until the final chorus of the trumpet solo faded in his ears, and then he played the flute, letting the answer echo from the distant other side of the valley.

And now, high school-aged Amano also stood at this end of the valley, blowing the trumpet with his junior high school self, allowing the sound of the trumpet to travel farther and reach his father more clearly.

As Tamura said, no matter whether the melody written by Amano in junior high school was rough, immature, or flawed, when Amano's father preserved it and compiled it into a complete piece of music, it already had a special meaning that only such a melody could carry.

Amano himself was naturally well aware of this, so from the beginning he had no intention of writing a better melody to replace his past self.

The trumpet solo was changed into a duet, but the music did not abandon what it originally carried. Instead, with the addition of Amano, it gained some new meaning.

[Amano: How?]
A message reminder came from the headset.

He returned his gaze to the phone screen and typed a response.

[Inoue: It was a bit unexpected.]
[Amano: Didn’t expect that?]
[Inoue: But it’s good.]
[Amano: It's really hard to get a relatively surprising response from you.]
[Inoue: If you want, I can tell you now.]
He swayed with the tram, and the dim sunset outside the window sometimes slanted into the car, and sometimes was blocked by the most ordinary and numerous buildings in the city, flickering in the corner of his vision.

[Amano: Oh, then tell me about it?]
Amano sent the message as if deliberately provoking him, making sure that he couldn't say it.

He stared at the screen of his mobile phone in a daze, thinking for a long time, but he really couldn't find any decent words.

Either they are some light-hearted and exaggerated witticisms, or they are some general adjectives with empty content.

No matter which one it was, he didn't have the energy to type it into the chat box and send it out for Amano to see.

In his eyes, the casual question and answer had a certain sense of ritual that had to be observed. Similarly, this sense of ritual was only for him.

After pondering for a long time, the tram passed another station - he used this as a timer, counting how many times the tram stopped to estimate the time it would take for him to get off - he declared surrender and admitted to Amano that he really couldn't come up with any surprising comments.

[Amano: Are we still going to the hospital tonight?]
Amano was not unreasonable and did not continue to dwell on the previous topic. He did not expect to receive superficial compliments from him such as "a rare beauty" or "a talented rich girl".

If she really wanted to hear this, he actually didn't mind praising her a few more times.

Maybe you can even trigger a points task like Takeda's lunch, which can cover your food expenses for several days at a time.

[Inoue: On the way.]
He continued, recalling the number of times the tram had stopped at the station.

[Inoue: There are two more stops.]
[Amano: After this is over, do you have time?]
[Inoue: Around 8 to 10 o'clock. My original plan was to read. Nothing important.]
[Amano: I heard you moved out of the boarding house and are now living somewhere else.]
[Inoue: The old residential area near the school.]
[Amano: I want to go and see it.]
Amano stated his request briefly.

He stared at those few short characters for a long time, wondering what her purpose was and what the hidden meaning was.

But it was just a visit, not a complicated request. Maybe I just wanted to find a place where I would be less likely to be disturbed to meet him and have a face-to-face chat.

Naturally, he had no reason to refuse this, so he sent the address of the rental house to Amano via Line.

[Inoue: This is actually a haunted house. Amano-san, are you afraid of ghosts?]
[Amano: A haunted house?]
[Inoue: The owner of the house committed suicide on the balcony of the Japanese-style room. The first tenant, who we finally welcomed, also wrote a suicide note and committed suicide in the same location.]
[Amano: What about the second term?]
[Inoue: I'm alive and kicking right now, chatting with you on Line.]
[Amano: It’s rare.]
I don't know whether she was lamenting that he lived in a haunted house without any harm, or lamenting that the haunted house where two people died could actually welcome a second tenant.

No matter which one it was, after he took care of Takeda's mother and helped her wash up, and waited for the results of the daily routine check-up to confirm that her lungs were damaged, he took the tram back to the rental house.

Amano rang the doorbell of the rental house at 8 o'clock in the evening.

He opened the door to greet him, but Amano didn't come in. Instead, he asked him to come out with him.

He changed into canvas shoes, and the two of them strolled side by side on the dimly lit, quiet streets of the old residential area, chatting quietly.

"Afraid of ghosts?" Such behavior inevitably made him think of something.

"It's better to be afraid of Inoue-san." Amano responded calmly.

That was it, he was sure of it.

Amano was wearing a light blue, short-sleeved dress today. Ribbons were crisscrossed behind her like a corset, and tied with a bow at the end.

The shoes were white canvas shoes like his, and on top of them were slightly transparent white calf socks.

"How does it feel?" Amano suddenly asked as he observed the shoes from top to bottom, followed the curve of the legs to see the part covered by the skirt, and compared it with the thickness of Takeda's legs.

"Not bad...what?" he blurted out subconsciously.

"Not bad again..." Amano only just noticed his gaze and quickly understood what he was saying. He murmured, "I'm asking how you felt about living in the haunted house during this time."

"Not bad." He suddenly felt like a tape recorder, like the cactus doll that Takeda bought.

The pot of dolls is still placed on the coffee table in the living room. He has never figured out what to do with it, so he has left it there again and again.

"Is that all you can say..." Amano couldn't help but shake his head and sigh. "How is that possible?" He just changed the subject.

"How's the environment?" she asked.

"As you can see." He looked at the houses on both sides of the street.

"Is it always like this?"

"Well, it's remote, quiet, there's no noise from trams or trains passing by, and even cars and motorcycles don't often pass by here," he said.

"Wouldn't it be inconvenient?"

"If you're talking about commuting, it's just walking a little further." He thought for a moment and said, "When I lived in the boarding house, I also walked to and from school."

"Is there a convenience store nearby?"

"No." He shook his head. "There's no cafe that serves breakfast. The nearest place that serves breakfast is McDonald's, which is a ten-minute walk away."

"The others?"

"There's no barber shop or pharmacy... but there are flower shops and bookstores," he answered thoughtfully. After all, he had lived here for a while and was familiar with the layout of the area. "But these don't affect daily life."

Even the convenience store problem had no impact on his and Takeda's lives.

Not to mention that he has a universal store where he can buy all kinds of goods anytime and anywhere, Takeda himself works part-time in a grocery store.

Takeda would regularly make a list of daily necessities and tools and bring them back when he came back from the grocery store.

"I don't go to these places often." Amano nodded in agreement.

"The countryside in Tottori is even more remote than this, but it doesn't affect our lives either," he said nonchalantly. "Residents of remote areas have their own way of life, and residents of bustling areas have their own way of life. They coexist and there's no conflict."

"Is that the only haunted house for rent?" Passing by the stray cattery, Amano heard intermittent cat meows. He stopped and asked him while looking curiously into the yard.

"There are a lot of houses for rent." He also stopped and turned on the flash of his phone, shining it towards the cattery with the word "Orange Cat" engraved on it. Curled up inside was the same fat cat with snow-white fur. "This one is right in front of us."

The fat white cat squinted its eyes because of the light and looked towards him. Seeing that there was another human beside him whom it had never seen before, it stared at Amano with curiosity and a bit of vigilance.

"Is it……"

"After all, in Tokyo, even in the not-too-remote suburbs, close to the central area, how many people are willing to live in old residential areas with many inconveniences..." He had just said that residents in remote areas have their own lifestyles, but now he has to state the cruel reality that is very different from his ideal.

In fact, the Tottori countryside he described was much more miserable than the current situation of this residential area.

Almost all the people left in the village are elderly, and nearly half of the houses are uninhabited, having been abandoned due to long-term neglect.

Weeds grew rampantly in the yard, and the neatly stacked wood for the winter was either taken away by people still living in the village, or grew various fungi under the long-term wind and rain, and slowly rotted over time.

"Then why don't you live here?" Amano looked at the fat white cat and asked him logically.

It was as if no matter whether the place he lived in now was a haunted house or not, this place must be a better choice.

"The owner of this house is an elderly grandmother who hopes the tenants who move in can help her take care of the cats in the yard."

"How many of these... are there?" Amano asked him back, not knowing what he was thinking.

"There are at least more than ten, and there may be more in the future." After all, it is impossible that these more than ten cats are all male cats or all female cats.

“…” Amano was silent for a while.

He thought that after saying this, Amano would understand why he didn't live here, so he didn't continue to explain.

"Are there any other houses for rent?" After leaving the Stray Cattery, Amano suddenly turned into a tenant looking for a place to live. He looked around and asked him questions.

He became a rental agent who knew the neighborhood like the back of his hand, and patiently introduced the houses he and Takeda had viewed together.

"Interesting." After a tour, the agent Inoue only received this comment from the tenant Amano.

"interesting?"

"Each one has its own interesting features." Amano tilted his head slightly and smiled at him. "There's a haunted house, a house with more than ten cats, and a whole wall of lush green creeper grass..."

"Don't you think it's troublesome?" He interrupted Amano.

"Trouble means the rent will be slightly lower." She accurately stated the benefits, unlike someone born into a musical family. "As long as you don't see them as trouble, they're a double blessing."

"That's true." He had to nod, and at the same time thought of Takeda and the night they just moved into the rental house.

Perhaps for Takeda, living in a haunted house with a monthly rent of only 25,000 yen is not a problem at all, just as Amano said.

She chose the balcony where two former residents had committed suicide, prepared gifts for the neighbors, and chatted and sang with him...as if she was greeting them who were already dead.

"Hey! We're moving in! Thanks to you, we were able to rent a house like this for such a low rent! Thank you so much! I should have prepared two more gifts for you."

"What are you thinking about?" Amano's voice suddenly sounded in his ears.

When he came to his senses, Amano was looking at his face from a very close distance.

"Thinking about my first night here."

"See you smiling? Did you have a good time that night?" Amano withdrew his gaze, drooped his eyelids slightly, and continued walking forward along the street.

"At least it's unforgettable."

The night was dark, with only the indoor lights of the residents shining through the windows bringing a faint glow to the dark streets.

He walked slowly, watching Amano walk further and further away from him, from the darkness into the even darker twilight.

The moment he raised his foot to follow, the indoor light of the house next to Amano suddenly turned on with a click, once again illuminating Amano's position in the long and dark street and clearly marking it.

(End of this chapter)