#orbit chapter 2

He’s up next. It feels like it’s been ages since he’s done a live performance, even though it’s been more like… A week. But a week can feel like an eternity in their situation. Naomichi missed his brother. He missed his home. People died here, and his wish to see his family again was looking more and more unrealistic.

For his act, the musician… Didn’t require anything more. No microphone, other instruments… Not even a spiffy outfit to really sell it. Maybe it’s arrogance. The only audience he really has is his supposed classmates, most of whom he doesn’t really consider “friends”. Maybe he thought he was too good to ask for anything to improve his act from the AI.

“I dedicate this next performance… To my brother.”

Or maybe he just wanted to keep his music pure.

Naomichi sat at the grand piano bench and closed his eyes. Was he just going to play? There weren’t speakers or a microphone nearby to let his voice be heard over the keys. It seemed like an awfully simple performance for someone like him–someone who could sing and play an instrument without even thinking.

That is, until he actually started.

“‘rain stops, good-bye’.”

His fingers moved over the keys smoothly and gracefully. Sometimes they’d press a bit harder as the emotions in the song became passionate, and ease off to elicit gentler tones. He’d occasionally take time between notes, spaces to let the piano echo and “breathe”. There was no consistent rhythm, but there was movement. Life. Nothing like a mechanical tune that stayed the same throughout–those boring mandatory school performances that no one wanted to be there for.

His face stayed mostly the same except for the occasional furrow of the brow, or opening of his eyes–deep and melancholy. His lips would part and close in small breaths at every pause. He’d sway a bit as he played, then tense up as his volume crescendoed.

For the entire piece, Naomichi seemed like a different person. Or maybe even hardly a person. It was like he was the music. Like every fibre of his being was dedicated to making that piano sing. Like every single change in his body was decided by his playing–not the other way around.

CALIGULA FILE

Victim: Hiroko Ajibana

Place of Body: Cinema

Time of Death: 1:27 AM

Cause of Death: Sudden head trauma

A familiar tone rings throughout the station, filling you with dread and despair. You know what's coming, but you don't want to believe it until Caligula's voice calls out, loud and clear. 

"Blah blah murder blah blah investigation yada yada trial, you know the drill, you little fucks! Get on with it already."

 You race through the station, finding each room unharmed before you reach the cinema. The movie that is still playing on the projector fills the place with an eerie light, as you look over the room to see the dead body of...

With an audible beep, the doors of the ballroom unlock. The music fades away, and Caligula appears on all the screens. 

Whaaat, was he serious? This was a new low for Chockula and not in the cool limbo way where it would actually be a compliment.

A trillion billion dillion frillion ounce of yen if you killed someone? Please. Only a total two star would go for that. And she was a five star, if not higher!

Shinobu heaves a huge sigh, eating up a beef steak and a parfait with little space for pausing or breathing and seemingly with no reaction to the two foods well... not really matching. But she'd eaten enough and standing around (albeit by the buffet table) was beginning to make her a little antsy somehow so she patted down her dress, stretched a little and began trot elsewhere. She still had an apple in her hand though. Her eyes wandered as if gauging if the motive bothered others as little as it seemingly bothered her but she'd never been much of a judge of character so she didn't come away with very much.

Ah, bored, bored, bored... see, this is why parties weren't her scene! There was nothing happening! So dull! No opportunities to play either, she didn't have a ball or anything. She tosses up her apple up and down when she notices somebody nearby. The apple almost drops but she catches it just in time. Something about an athlete's reflexes.