Vol 1 Chapter 40 – Physical Limits【Vol 1 – Turning Point】

Ryu’s house is nearby and easy to get to—just two stations away. Today, I came alone because Michiru would surely be bored.

Michiru worried until I completely disappeared from view. Even though I’m probably older than her…

So, I finally arrived at Ryu’s house. Or should I say, Tachibana-chan’s house? In my mind, I always split them into two because their attitudes are so different that they could never be the same person.

“W-welcome… P-please come in…”

Tachibana-chan, still stuttering as usual, spoke. But even with that manner, there’s no doubt she’s a specialist in music.

“Thanks for having me.”

I said as I entered Tachibana-chan’s house.

The purpose of today was clear: the soundproof room on the first floor and, in its center, the grand piano.

“Fi-first of all…”

As I settled into the soundproof room, Tachibana-chan suddenly grabbed my hand.

“What’s the matter?”

I asked, with no reason to brush her off. Yet, I felt that she wanted to tell me something.

“Uh, well… You shouldn’t go to a man’s house alone… You might get attacked!”

In that moment, it all clicked in my head—I really couldn’t shake her grip. Tachibana-chan probably wanted me to feel a sense of danger. But then…

“A man?”

I countered, wondering what a man would want if he grabbed me—after all, I am a man too.

“Because, Rinn-kun, you look like a girl… I, I get all excited… But, but Sadakuni is, uh, fine. I just, I thought I should warn you…”

A little later, my brain exploded with steam. Two men? Such a thing… It sounded unthinkable, yet I recalled those leering, entangled looks—especially ever since I started wearing Gothic Lolita clothes.

Those predatory, all-consuming stares usually come from other men.

“Okay, I’m definitely not going!”

I declare, and at that moment I feel grateful to Tachibana-chan for giving me this sense of caution.

“Y-yeah. So… it’s about music, right? Wh-what do you want to do?”

I ask.

“Piano!”

She exclaims.

I answer without hesitation. I want to practice the piano and shock the viewers. I don’t think I can practice as much as with the guitar or violin, but maybe in half a year I’ll get there.

“That’s fine, but I think it’s difficult… Rinn-kun, your hands are, so so, so small.”

Tachibana-chan said as she opened the piano lid.

Everyone keeps saying my hands are small. They could show a little more restraint. Sure, my hands are small—my whole body is small.

“Mmph…”

And that made me a bit angry—not at Tachibana-chan, but at this all-out attack on my smallness.

“F-for now… um, please check if any tuning is off.”

Tachibana-chan placed something like a doorstop made of crank and felt on the low table and played every note, teaching me each frequency in Hertz. There was one note that was slightly off—a D♯6, a very high D♯. She said it should be 1244.5 Hertz, but one string was at 1244.3 Hertz. I felt something was off, and after having her play it several times, I finally realized it.

When all the tuning was finished, Tachibana-chan said,

“Amazing, Rinn-kun. I would normally overlook such a deviation. But come by every month—I want to do the tuning for you.”

It was just a 0.3 Hertz difference; everything else was perfectly tuned. Considering that, Tachibana-chan’s sense of pitch must be incredibly sharp.

“Not at all!” I replied.

After a brief back-and-forth—each of us complimenting the other—the piano lesson began. The assigned piece was the piano part from MalumDiva. I already knew which key produced which sound because she had just played it for me. So I started playing immediately.

But my hands couldn’t reach the keys.

“Ha, ha, ha. It’s hard, isn’t it? With those hands, I don’t think you can reach it.”

She said.

Then I realized it—I really can’t play the piano. My hands would need to be bigger. At the very least, I’d have to be able to span an entire octave from end to end…

“Yeah, I guess it’s impossible for me.”

I said, hanging my head in despair.

“Don’t worry about it! More importantly, let’s go over the basics of the guitar!”

I remembered how Osio had been harping on about mastering guitar basics.

“Yes!” I replied eagerly.

That’s when I thought maybe my guitar skills could reach the next stage.

“Well, first, let’s start with some knowledge that’ll be useful for Rinn-kun!”

Saying that, Tachibana-chan picked up the classical guitar and produced a gentle sound you wouldn’t expect from a guitar.

“Eh!?”

I was astonished—I had never heard such a sound before.

“It’s harmonics. They’re used sometimes when tuning, but also in performance.”

“How do you do that?”

I asked, now completely intrigued and eager for an explanation.

“Um, well… You press lightly and, as you pluck the string, you quickly release your finger.”

While saying that, Tachibana-chan handed me a folk guitar—after all, the guitar at Michiru’s house is a folk guitar. She must be able to do it on either type; otherwise, there’d be no point in teaching.

I did as Tachibana-chan instructed, and a soft sound—not really a ‘poon’ or a ‘peen’—resonated.

“Amazing! I did it!”

Excited, ideas for using this sound kept popping into my head.

“You can get it at the 5th, 7th, 12th, and 19th frets. Try experimenting with different things.”

After that, she taught me a lot more about the guitar. There were so many things I didn’t know. Even the way I played arpeggios was unique to me. I learned about techniques such as:

• • • • Playing with three fingers—thumb, index, and middle.

• • • • Producing harmonics by tapping the harmonics fret, which works well with a brighter tone.

• • • • Using tremolo techniques to sustain the same note by repeating it in very short, delicate bursts.

There were many techniques I had never known before.