I Was Falsely Confessed to and Exposed in Front of Everyone, so I Jumped off the Roof - Chapter 15

I hadn’t played bass in a while. I was in the basement, making music on my computer, and thinking about the old days.

“Aren’t you going to play bass?”

Kagiroi-san asked as she played the keyboard.

“I can’t play anymore.”

“That’s not true.”

Kagiroi-san brings a bass over.

“What if we play together?”

“Together?”

“Yes. I’ll help you. So…”

Kagiroi-san came around behind me and placed her hand over my weak right hand. It was warm. Then we plucked the strings together. The sound was soft. It didn’t have the strength it used to.

“See? You can do it.”

“Yeah.”

“So let’s try our best. Together.”

We played the bass together. Even if it was weak, it still made music.

♢ ♢ ♢

I was chosen to be an actor in a music video. Apparently, the director personally picked me. Manwa-san was really happy.

“The role you’ll play is a girl who gets a guitar and forms a band to make her dream come true.”

The director spoke strangely. The guitar looked expensive, a high-end brand. But…

“A guitar… um, is that okay?”

“Why are you kidding me?”

“Can I use a bass instead?”

“A bass? What?”

“Yes.”

The director thought for a moment, then immediately called someone nearby.

“You also handle basses, right? I understand the guitar is for promotion, but if we can advertise the brand, using a bass is fine too.”

Now he spoke normally. What was with that weird way of talking before…

“Yes. We do handle basses. Alright, we’ll provide one. Honestly, if it helps people notice the bass more than the guitar, that works perfectly for us.”

Soon, a bass was brought over. I slung it over my shoulder and plucked the strings with my thumb.

“Oh! You’re already skilled in slap technique, Oh… wonderful!”

That explains the way he was talking…

“Now, let’s film a lot!!!”

The shoot took the whole day. The story was about a lonely girl at school who sees a band playing her MV song in front of the station and decides to start playing bass herself. I acted my hardest. Holding the bass made everything feel closer. I hoped that feeling would reach the viewers.

♢ ♢ ♢

I was always alone. My only hobby was watching videos or Vtuber streams. My life didn’t have much going on. But one day, I happened to see a music video that a Vtuber had introduced. In it, Ruika-chan was practicing the bass really hard, and I felt a strong admiration for her.

I knew it was acting, but it didn’t feel fake. When I watch dramas or movies, most people act in an over-the-top, school-play kind of way. Especially young actors. That’s one of the bad things about Japan, where agencies have too much control. That’s why I could never get into Japanese films. But this was different. Ruika-chan felt real.

So I immediately went to a music store and bought a bass.

Then I stopped watching videos and surfing the internet, and just practiced bass all the time. Slap bass is really hard. But when I finally got it right, I cried. For the first time, I felt like I’d reached something in life.

After that, all I wanted was for someone to hear me, so I became a performer myself. And before I knew it, I had become a proper artist. There are a lot of people like that among bassists of my generation. The rise of the golden generation wasn’t some trick of fate. It’s simple. Just seeing someone work so hard, admiring them, and chasing that feeling. That’s all it takes.

(Excerpt from an interview with a later Grammy-winning solo bassist)