Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:RailgunSS3 Chapter1 (section)

===Part 8===

“We will now begin the music elective exam. Are you all ready?”

In the chilly early morning air, the elderly music teacher spoke in a gentle cadence very different from the students. She did not raise her voice much, but it carried across the entire room.

And that was not just because there were so few people in such a large space.

They were gathered in an auditorium.

The building was used for plays, debates, and music. It was said diamonds had 60% of the original stone carved away so they could reflect light in the most effective manner. This auditorium was the same. It rivaled the size of a gym and the angle of every single corner was carefully adjusted so the sound of a pin dropping on the stage would reach every part of the room.

Auditoriums came in a number of different styles. Simply put, the stage and audience seating could be rearranged like a 3D puzzle. The orthodox style was to arrange the seats in tiers facing the stage from a single direction, but there was also the two-sided debate style that placed tiered seating on either side and he circular theatre style that surrounded the rectangular stage on all sides. They were all designed to reflect light and sound in the best way possible for their intended use.

This one was the most orthodox style of all.

Just think of a stereotypical move theater or orchestra hall. The stage was built alongside one wall and the tiered seating was stacked up to provide a view of that stage.

Instead of providing a negative impression, the elegant music teacher’s soft wrinkles added to the beauty of her face. She gently reached for her own instrument.

“Your assignment is to play one of these: a violin. The specific instrument and song is up to you, but you each have three minutes to play. Choosing what song and what section of that song to play is part of your assignment, but I assume you already understand that.”

In the world of classical music, three minutes was an extremely short amount of time. If you played from the beginning, your time would be up before you completed the initial prelude. There was even an unconfirmed urban legend that the CD standard was designed so that Beethoven’s 9th would fit on a single disk.

Just like with the gym exam, this exam had two consecutive class periods to work with, but three minutes per person was still barely enough time. Even just ten people meant over half an hour because there was a time loss while one performer left the stage and the next took their place.

“(Heh hehn. I hope you have been practicing, Shirai-san.)”

The girl with spiraling ends to her black twintails whispered to Shirai, who lightly rubbed the back of her hand. Shirai was wearing white gloves to protect her hands during this important exam.

“(Practicing the perfect words to praise my flawless victory, I mean. You will once more be blessed with the music of the Stativarius Ainsel.)”

“Stop talking. The teacher is glaring at us.”

Sakibasu Yuri quickly straightened up, but the elderly music teacher was apparently only focused on her to have her perform first.

After bending her black kneesocked legs to crouch down and undo the clasps on the violin case, she pulled out the instrument which shined with a deep amber light.

That was enough to gather the other girls’ attention.

Even these sheltered girls were Academy City residents first and Tokiwadai students second. They had not been taught to believe in mystical auras.

It was no more than a 60cm piece of wood with four strings, but it cost enough to buy a house. Sakibasu Yuri held the neck in one hand and spun it around like a baton in what looked like some kind of good luck charm. Then she lightly held the violin between her shoulder and neck as if checking on its position.

“This is the Stativarius Ainsel. I am sure you did your research over the past few days, Shirai-san.”

“…”

“Did you rush to the online news and video sites and cling to the sour grapes stories about the surprisingly little difference in the audio waveforms? But that is not enough. That is not the true essence of a Stativarius. Recording numerical values with sensors is not the same thing as listening to music. It is people who listen to music and it is our hearts that appreciate it. If you did not lose sight of that basic fact, then you should have realized there is no way to defeat a Stativarius.”

Yes.

It was true you could find the occasional article or paper claiming the Stativari were not all they were cracked up to be. But the dates on those things were fairly old. They would appear and be quickly forgotten.

No matter what proof was found in the sensor readings and waveforms, everyone continued to praise the Stativari as the world’s greatest violins. They continued to insist there was no more beautiful sound in the world. Everyone’s opinions reverted to normal. That was why people continued to spend hundreds of millions at auctions.

But why did that happen?

“Allow me to demonstrate the true charm found in the world-renowned Stativarius Ainsel.”

“Sakibasu-san, I will be judging your performance, not the violin’s.”

“Nonsense. I have nothing of my own. Not one thing. And that is perfectly fine with me. I can use an outside source to make up for what I lack. …As long as that allows me to protect my blameless parents.”

Sakibasu Yuri stepped up onto the stage with a nasal laugh.

The Stativarius Ainsel carried great charm.

But her reliance on that instrument prevented her own great skill from being recognized. Any fame she gained would be attributed to the violin. By others and by herself. It was a beautiful tool, but it stole all possibility from its owner. It was like a cursed sword in that way.

“What song will you be using?” softly asked the elderly music teacher.

“Air on the G String. I could never choose anything else.”

The spotlight shined down on the center of the stage.

She took one small step to the left of center.

Even with so many listeners – and rivals – focused on her, her core was not shaken thanks to the external confidence booster she held.

Also, she did not even bother looking back at those listeners. Nor did she prepare any sheet music. She silently shut her eyelids decorated with beautiful lashes and closed herself in her own little world.

She placed the bow on the violin and held down the four strings with her slender fingers.

A moment later, the first note was played.

It was powerful.

The burst of sound could even be called violent.

The note distorted itself to open with some bizarre noise, but that provided a forbidden thrill similar to gently touching a half-healed scab. That divine temptation hovered on the precipice dividing pleasure from displeasure. This could never be reproduced by viewing the sheet music and following the notes written there. This devil’s whisper could only be created by reading the slight idiosyncrasies of the Stativarius Ainsel. If the player was even a little bit off, the scab would tear open and everyone’s ears would be assaulted by an unpleasant noise akin to pain.

Instead of starting in the middle somewhere, Sakibasu Yuri had chosen to play from the very beginning. A mere three minutes was woefully inadequate in the world of classical music. But that did not matter to her. This was only the beginning of the beginning before the song managed to heat up, but each of her intensely distorted notes tightly grasped the souls of the listeners.

Yes.

You listened to the Stativarius Ainsel with your body, not your ears.

Maybe it had been designed that way and maybe it had gradually changed over the years. Either way, the slight distortion at the beginning and end of the notes introduced an irregularity similar to a bitter flavor, but Sakibasu Yuri managed to transform that into an “adult flavor” to use it as her weapon. When she played, the violin’s music was more powerful than a mermaid’s song. Even if you covered your ears with your hands, the pleasure might still reach you through the vibration of your spine.

However.

Shirai-san and the others already knew this from their analysis of the waveform in the rental studio.

The world’s scientists had likely discovered these same things when they worked to divulge the secrets of the Stativari.

But that had failed to change people’s opinions.

The Stativarius Ainsel was still a world-renowned instrument that went for hundreds of millions of yen at auction.

Its true power was not found in those surface level observations.

“Ahh…”

Shirai Kuroko heard a few groans and laments from the dimly-lit audience seating. Those came from the other challengers hoping to win the top spot in this exam. The ones voicing true despair may have chosen Air on the G String and worked hard practicing it.

But they knew the truth before making their attempt.

They could not defeat the series of notes they were hearing now.

Shirai slowly narrowed her eyes and observed the girls who were raising the white flag before even trying. This was the prestigious Tokiwadai Middle School, so those girls would be decently skilled themselves. Even if it was not a Stativarius, it was possible some had secured another high-quality violin like an Almati or a Guarnari.

Yet they still concluded they could not win.

Shirai Kuroko had thoroughly studied the Stativarius to fight back against it, but even she was succumbing to its magic. Yes, she only had to look back on what she had thought just now.

''Even if it was not a Stativarius.

She recalled what Misaka Mikoto had said:

“You can’t help but use the Stativarius as the baseline.”

There were no fixed answers in art. That was why an artist’s talent could be recognized for a hundred years or more after their death. When comparing two instruments, it should be impossible to determine which one was objectively superior. And yet the Stativari stood at the peak of violins and their position there remained unshaken.

It had not mattered at all when those crass researchers had analyzed the waveforms of recorded performance data and revealed that the sound was not actually all that outstanding.

The legend had remained intact.

“A Stativarius is the ideal form of a violin,” Mikoto had said. “It plays the finest music and performances are judged by how close they come to matching it. People aren’t focused on whether a performance is ‘better’ or ‘worse’ than a Stativarius. It’s more like target shooting. The best score is for hitting the Stativarius in the very center. You can approach that, but there is no way of surpassing it. There’s a mental block there.”

Sakibasu Yuri silently removed the bow from the violin.

She had used up the three minutes allotted for her exam.

Had silence ever been so oppressive? It seemed to draw out a desire to listen to that music forever because Shirai and the others felt a powerful craving for what they had lost.

There was no applause.

Applauding would have accepted that the performance really was over. The girls so wanted to hear more that they could not bring themselves to move.

The girl with black twintails had kept her eyes closed this whole time, so she could not have been watching the clock. Even her internal clock was impressive. Her own talents simply paled in comparison to the Stativarius Ainsel she held.

She softly opened her eyes.

A tremor ran down her spine as she enjoyed the lingering silence.

“Thank you for listening.”

She gave an elegant bow and descended the stairs as casually as passing the baton in a relay race. She had gone first, but she was clearly confident that her position at the top was guaranteed no matter who came after her.

And in fact, this was quite cruel to the girl who had to go immediately after her. She shook her head like a puppy wet from the rain and, even when the music teacher grabbed her arm, she only protested that she could not possibly perform after that. She was so worked up and the pressure was so great that she finally passed out.

But maybe it could have been worse.

Everyone felt bad for the girl after that.

“#3: Inori-san. You are amplifying the impression of your music using outside emotions, aren’t you? You are disqualified for using your psychological esper power.”

She collapsed on the spot and began bawling.

Her emotion-manipulating power filled her crying as well, so the music teacher snapped her fingers. The women in charge of security grabbed the disqualified girl by the arms and quickly removed her from the auditorium. The music teacher had not been monitoring the music with any kind of device, so she must have decided the music she was hearing should not have been able to move her to emotion like that.

Normal methods had no hope of reaching the Stativarius Ainsel’s level.

So it was understandable the girl had wanted to use her power.

But this was not that kind of exam.

So after learning not to make the same mistakes as the others, the other students stepped up onto the stage like normal.

However, their performances were all very safe.

They did not have to win. They only had to follow the series of notes on their sheet music without making any catastrophic mistakes. Their bland music was a lot like watching someone drive around a racetrack at a safe 40km/h. They were a lot like the robot arms that mechanically played sample songs on the instruments. They were defanging themselves and offering up their broken fangs without bothering to fight.

It was the music teacher who asked Sakibasu Yuri to go first.

If she could judge all the students fairly after hearing that, then her ears and soul were the real deal.

“Shirai-san.”

Sakibasu Yuri whispered to Shirai in the auditorium full of vanquished foes.

Her confidence could be seen in how she stretched her black kneesocked legs to stand tall.

“The true power of the Stativarius Ainsel is the legend it carries. People are powerless against such things. Bags, clocks, dresses, and high-class girls like us all carry similar legends, don’t they? No matter what the scientists say and no matter what results their machines spit out, these legends will never die. That is why the Stativari are immovable. Nothing is judged ‘better’ or ‘worse’ than them. They are the bull’s eye all other violins aim for.”

“Oh? Are you sure about that?”

“?”

“Did you think I was challenging you with nothing prepared? I will admit the legend of the Stativari is powerful. After 300 years, it is impossible to ignore. But that passage of time also introduces openings I can take advantage of.”

The old music teacher called a certain name.

It was Shirai Kuroko’s turn.

“Now, it is time for my counterattack.”

“There is no flaw in my Stativarius. Or do you doubt its legitimacy? Unfortunately, my Carbon Search power means there is not even the slightest chance it is a fake.”

“I never suggested it was.”

Shirai used her gloved hands to hoist a large bag onto her shoulder as she casually whispered to the other girl.

“I am saying I will take your Stativarius Ainsel head on and I will crush it along with its legend.”