Am I being simulated by their love affair?

"Ah, it seems like I can see the sea." Jun Matsueda heard Yamami Maki say from a distance away from him.

If you look hard enough, across the urban cluster on the small plain at the foot of the mountain, you can indeed see light fluctuating in the distance, like fish scales.

Shizuoka is located on the seaside, but it’s a pity that the driver did not choose to take the coastal highway, otherwise the girls in the car would definitely be too excited to sleep.

"We can indeed see it." The boy and girl standing on both sides of Yamamiya Moki said in unison. They looked at each other in surprise, and quickly shut their mouths.

Yamami Moki suddenly laughed, her laughter was small and happy.

Listening to the minister's laughter and looking at the silver-scale lines in the distance, the two of them relaxed for a moment.

At 5:36 in the evening, the sleepy girls finally arrived in Nagoya City, Aichi Prefecture, where they would compete with 28 other schools tomorrow.

The bus stopped next to the hotel. It was sunset and the passengers got off and stood on the sidewalk next to the ramp.

The low houses turned into gray-white blocks, extending along the slope towards the sparse clouds on the horizon. Under the light blue sky, the sunlight painted the sides of the buildings a bright yellow natural paint color.

Tomatsu Tomoka followed Yamami Matsukori off the bus. The girl didn't notice that behind her was Matsueda Jun standing at the front of the bus, and Imokawa Natsumi was standing next to him holding a camera.

Yamamiya Maki stood in front of the boy and girl, looking at the quiet sunlight that enveloped the entire city, and recited softly.

"For many years, I have always loved the sunset"

"Like a girl sitting on her lover's horse"

"I just like it so madly"

Such sunlight gently falls on the shoulders of the two.

Chapter 86: Sorrowful and Desolate

Jun Matsueda walked out of the hotel lobby and looked towards the other end of the rising slope, a direction that no one had looked at in the evening.

Under the clear night sky, you can see the shadow of the Nagoya International Conference Center building not far away. That is where the national conference will be held tomorrow.

Teacher Hirouchi Aya did not let the girls run around tonight and only allowed them to walk around the hotel. One reason was for their personal safety, and the other was that it would affect their performance the next day.

It was past ten o'clock in the evening, and the girls were probably all in their rooms getting ready for bed. When I passed by their rooms, I could hear faint whispers and laughter.

Having spent most of the day on the road, Jun Matsueda had no place to release his energy. He walked to the end of the slope, which was a park.

Take a walk, go back and take a shower before going to bed. He walked in from the path with the sign "White Bird Courtyard".

This is a small garden with no walls, only cultivated trees and large stones laid in the grass to form a path.

It was late at night, and although the streetlights were on, Songzhi Jun still felt the chill of the eerie air as he walked alone through the courtyard. He crossed the stone path over the pond and the large lawn along the bank, arriving at the riverside at the edge of the courtyard.

Coming to a place like this at night was like walking in a maze, which he didn't like. Matsueda Jun walked up along the river and soon came out of the winding courtyard.

The river is called Horikawa, and it runs through the entire city of Nagoya. Jun Matsueda soon saw the back of the Nagoya International Conference Center. If he walked up the slope, he should be almost at the end.

It was another park. Jun Matsueda looked at the sign in front of him that said "Shiratori Park". Unlike the previous courtyard, the area in front of him was flat and open, planted with cherry trees. Most of them were past the flowering season, but the few by the river were still in bloom.

Medal cherry, winter cherry and eastern cherry blossoms all bloom out of season. Jun Matsueda turned his back on them while preparing for the competition. He walked closer to observe these untimely cherry blossoms. Next to him was a stone bridge across the river.

He stood on the bridge, watching the falling pink petals land in the Horikawa River and drift away with the current.

Across the stone bridge was another park, Atsuta Jingu Park. Matsueda Jun wondered if all the parks in Nagoya were built in this area. He didn't go over, but watched the girl approach from the other side of the bridge.

Tomatsu Tomoka was wearing a beige sweater, and she lifted the low branches with one hand and walked onto the bridge.

"Matsueda-san also couldn't sleep and came to see the cherry blossoms?"

“Just a walk.”

They both sighed in their hearts that they could meet like this, they always had such a tacit understanding.

"It's late, and there's a competition tomorrow. Tomatsu-kun should go home early."

Tomatsu Tomoka nodded and walked past Matsueda Jun. He glanced at the homeless people's tents and the dark paths in the park, then followed the girl.

As he walked past the cherry tree, he watched a few cherry blossoms fall onto Tomatsu Tomoka's hair, and the absent-minded girl didn't notice.

If you like the girl next to you, when the petals fall on her, you can gently brush them away. If you don’t like it, please politely remind her.

But Jun Matsueda chose not to do or say anything, just watching the petals tremble in her hair.

The only sounds on the stone path were the two people's footsteps. Matsueda Jun spoke up, "Tomatsu-san, please be careful when you go out late at night in unfamiliar places in the future."

The girl walking in front of him nodded slightly.

"Also, the nights are very cold right now, and the park is very humid and chilly. If I catch a cold or something, it will be troublesome for tomorrow's game."

The two walked out of the park, crossed the slope, and returned to the front of the hotel. The girl turned and looked at him.

"Matsueda-san, are you concerned about me?"

As soon as she finished speaking, Tomatsu Tomoka's eyes trembled and she saw the pink petals on Matsueda Jun's shoulders.

Without thinking at all, she naturally raised her hand and brushed the cherry blossoms off his shoulder.

The girl then reacted, and both of them looked at her outstretched hand.

"Sorry." Tomatsu Tomoka said this and turned away. Matsueda Jun watched her hurriedly leave, and the petals on the girl's head finally fell off.

The next day, at the Nagoya International Conference Center, the girls walked into the Century Hall on the second floor of Building 1, which is the largest concert hall in the conference center.

"It has three tiers of seats!" The chief trumpet player tugged at the sleeve of the person next to him and whispered in amazement.

The girls raised their heads and looked at the extremely large theater-like space. For most of them, it was the first time to perform in such a formal and high-level occasion.

Even for their playing career, this may be the pinnacle of their performance.

"National Conference..." They felt a heavy sense of reality in their hearts.

After finishing their preparations in the preparation room, the girls slipped back into Century Hall. This time they came on stage later, wanting to observe their opponents' performance.

"This is awesome!"

"That one is amazing too!"

They were silently exclaiming in the last row until the Tokai University affiliated Takanawadai High School came on stage and played "A Thousand Years of Darkness", and then even the exclamations stopped.

"Don't think they're that strong. We're also a team that advanced to the National Tournament, and we've improved a lot compared to the Tokyo Tournament!"

Yamami Maki encouraged the girls, and they looked at Tomatsu Touka who was sitting silently next to them and nodded in agreement.

Although they may not necessarily have an advantage in ensemble performance, when it comes to solo performance, they feel that even Takanawadai, who has been a national gold medalist for many years, cannot be said to have completely defeated the principal saxophone player Yuqiu Gao.

Half an hour later, the Hanegaoka High School Wind Band took the stage. Looking at the three rows of space in front of them and the view of the judges, they were surprised to find that they were not as nervous as they had been in Tokyo.

After the conductor came on stage, the girls stopped having wild thoughts and tried to remain calm.

The first theme song is "When the Wind Shines".

Everyone felt that this was the most perfect performance so far. Perhaps it was because of the wide space, the wind that rushed up to the sky did not dissipate for a long time.

The second free song is "Fantasy of Eternal Summer Days".

The girls became more focused, but not to better demonstrate their own abilities, but to prepare themselves to withstand the emotional impact of Tomatsu Tomoka.

The sound of flutes and cicadas echoed in the Century Hall in Nagoya, and the hot summer day of two months ago was replayed. Some audience members wiped the non-existent sweat from their foreheads.

The polyphonic timpani and trombones disappeared, and at the end of the endless day, Tomatsu Tomoka's soprano saxophone echoed alone.

When she arrived, this thought suddenly occurred to the audience.

The girl closed her eyes, and the saxophone was at a loss in the tail end of summer. In the chaotic and short notes, everyone in the hall felt like they had lost their way, surrounded only by the confused sound of the saxophone.

The people in the audience held on to the armrests of their seats to give themselves a sense of reality.

When people felt a little annoyed because of the seemingly endless melody, the saxophone quietly changed its tune.

It began to welcome the next season, and even the originally smooth melody was frozen and stagnant by the cold wind. Dead leaves began to pile up and snowflakes began to fall.

In this desolate saxophone, people who were originally trapped in the summer instead began to miss that disorderly and long summer.

But the eternal day is over, and summer is gone.

No longer filled with nostalgia for summer like in Tokyo, nor with anticipation for future possibilities, the melodious saxophone is like an icy coffin, first buried by dead leaves and then frozen by ice and snow.

The clarinet, tuba and flute gradually rose to the stage, as if attending a funeral, using clear and melodious tones to bid farewell to their friends in a sad but not sorrowful manner.

The saxophone's final melody was long and weak. All the emotions that were about to be nailed in the coffin began to overflow, and Century Hall sank into the swamp.

The sadness of messing up everything, the relentless persistence, the awakening after the dust has settled, the irreparable regret, the rotten yet real emotions, poured into everyone's mouth like black mud, leaving an indelible touch in their stomachs.

It was as if even the saxophone itself was being pulled and deformed, groaning.

With a long, mournful tremolo, the world came to an end.

Chapter 87: Belated Thing

The audience could finally breathe deeply, and the air in the entire hall seemed to be sucked dry in an instant.

Jun Matsueda sat in the audience to calm himself down. After the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, he never went to the wind band again. Tomatsu Tomoka's solo hit his heart like a hammer.

Unlike when she captured everyone's attention in Tokyo, the girl's feelings were like a rainstorm falling on a reservoir. No one knew about it, but the water level kept rising. When she decided to release it with a musical instrument, the locked gates were opened, and those emotions invaded his heart in an overwhelming and pervasive way.

He patted the shoulder of Natsumi Imokawa next to him and said, "Stop patting her. She's already left the stage."

The girl finally came back to her senses, her eyes still fixed on the stage, which was now completely dark. "It's so shocking... I love it..."

The three members of the News Department had been in the audience, and they all agreed that "Fantasy of Eternal Summer Days" was undoubtedly the best free repertoire among the schools that had performed so far. The audience also began to murmur, noting that Tomatsu Tomoka's solo had such magical power.

When the three of them walked out of Century Hall, the girls from Yugaoka were already at the entrance of the conference hall, and it was still Tadashi who greeted Natsumi Imokawa.

"Xia Shi, come and take a picture for us!"

The girl trotted over with her camera in hand, her chest beating thrillingly, shocking the girls as much as Tomatsu Tomoka's solo.

"What kind of pose should we strike?" someone asked.

"It must be the V-sign! It represents victory! We will definitely win!" said the tuba leader confidently.

So everyone made a V sign to the camera, but Natsumi Imokawa did not press the shutter.

"Um... please don't stick out your tongue or roll your eyes, it feels weird..." said the photographer girl.

"Who is it?!" the girls started to make a fuss.

Jun Matsueda remembered this girl. She was the same one who had said that she was showing a sense of openness when she performed at the summer festival.

After the group photo was taken, Natsumi Imokawa switched the camera to video mode and Jun Matsueda took out the microphone.

“How do you feel now that you’ve finished playing?”

The girls responded in unison: "I feel like the stone in my heart has finally fallen to the ground."

“Very happy! Very relaxing!”

“The feeling of reaching climax!”

Jun Matsueda remembered the appearance of this outspoken girl firmly in his mind and decided to stay away from her in the future.

"I feel like Tomatsu-san is really amazing!"

The girls quieted down and looked at Tomatsu Tomoka who had been silent in the crowd.

"Mr. Tomatsu is really amazing. I was also shocked by your solo in the audience just now. It felt like the music really turned into pictures appearing before my eyes." Jun Matsueda has entered the interview state and showed a business-like smile.

"So, what do you think, Tomatsu-san?" He handed the microphone to the girl.

"My thoughts... I'm glad I was able to express what I wanted to say through playing the instrument." Tomatsu Tomoka's smile was very calm.

"What about the minister?" Jun Matsueda turned the microphone to Yamami Miki.

"Everyone has played to their best. I think even if we lose, we won't have any regrets." The senior student smiled with satisfaction.

The girls started making noise again, shouting things like "Buyer, don't set a flag." Yamami Maki, who didn't understand, tilted her head in confusion.

The last recorded shot was of the girls playing and fighting, and Jun Matsueda ended the interview accordingly. If they didn't win the national gold medal and the school didn't intend to use the footage of failure, then it would be nice to end the wind band chapter of the recruitment promotion here.

Hirouchi Aya walked up to the front of the group and said, "The results won't be announced until 6:30 pm, after all the teams have finished performing. So we'll be staying in Nagoya for most of the day."

As soon as the counselor finished speaking, the girls looked at her eagerly.

Hirouchi Aya sighed. "You can go out and play, but you absolutely cannot leave Atsuta District. You must travel in groups of at least three people, and you must report your location to me every hour, otherwise I will call the Atsuta Police Station. Do you understand?"

The girls began to form groups. Yumi-chan pulled Imokawa to find Tomatsu Touka and Yamami Maki. Before being dragged away, Imokawa Natsumi looked at Matsueda Jun reluctantly, like a chick leaving its mother.

"Does Matsueda want to go play with them?" Hirouchi Aya walked up to Matsueda Jun, and he shook his head.

"Then follow me. You can help if there is any unexpected situation."

Jun Matsueda was recruited in this way.

There aren't many places worth visiting in Atsuta. Although there are some so-called unique retro shopping streets, the girls who go to school in Tokyo certainly have no interest in shopping in Atsuta.