Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:RailgunSS3 Chapter1 (section)

===Part 9===

Now.

Something about Shirai’s actions stood out even more than her disrespectful statement.

What was that bag large enough to hold a dismantled racing bike? The students had to provide their own instrument and choose their own song for this exam, but there was one required condition: a violin. They had to use a 60cm collection of wood panels and strings, so what was in that bag?

They had already seen a Stativarius which went for hundreds of millions at auction, but the music teacher gave this a skeptical look.

“Shirai-san, what is in that bag? I believe I told you this exam requires a violin. Did you bring the wrong instrument?”

“No, no. Of course not.”

The chestnut twintail girl laughed.

She pulled her instrument from a standard violin case she had in addition to the large bag.

“I will only be playing this violin here. It is a handmade one I put together based on a commercial practice model, but it meets all of the standards for a violin. If you like, you can take it apart and examine it after my performance.”

“Then what is that?”

The elderly teacher asked the question everyone there was thinking. The other bag was larger and more mysterious than the violin. Sakibasu Yuri had the indisputable greatest violin with her Stativarius Ainsel, but even that immovable aura was somewhat shaken by this. She rubbed her black kneesocked legs together.

Shirai Kuroko, meanwhile, answered the question with a question of her own.

“Sensei, just to be clear, we are to play the violin for this exam, correct?”

“Yes.”

“We have three minutes and we are free to choose our song. As long as we play a violin, everything else is for us to decide. Such as using a world-famous violin.”

“Yes, what of it?”

“Then I have one more question.”

Up on the stage, Shirai Kuroko set down the black synthetic bag which she could have fit inside if she curled up. It made a nice thud that did not sound at all like wood.

She lightly tapped on the brightly waxed floor with her foot.

“Only the violin is required and we are free to do what we like with the stage around us, aren’t we? For example, we can play in the center of the stage or on the edge if we like. The sound you all hear is not coming directly from the violin. Especially in an indoor concert hall like this. The sound waves reflect off of all the surfaces in here before finally reaching your ears.”

For one thing, this auditorium could be rearranged. The stage and audience seating could be moved around to create the optimum space for a concert, for a play, or for a debate. The reverberation could not be ignored. Even if you were playing the exact same Stativarius both times, the impressions from an audience would change drastically when playing in a dedicated opera house or in a run-down abandoned house.

“In that case.”

She breathed in and out.

And then she unzipped the bag all at once.

“If there is no rule against it, I am free to create a space around me to set up the reverberation however I like, aren’t I?”

Metal and gears could be heard fitting together.

There were steel legs with a dull shine.

Something like jointed tripods supported rectangular metal films only a little thicker than aluminum foil. They looked like metal easels or canvases that could walk on their own and four of them surrounded Shirai Kuroko on the stage.

Robot products like this were not uncommon in Academy City.

There had been a pitching arm at the batting cage and music robots in the classical instrument store. With some help from Uiharu who knew a lot about this stuff (to the point that she got a sparkle in her eye and began licking her lips), it had not been that difficult to create these autonomous walking machines. In Academy City, you did not even need to visit an electronics district to acquire some simple circuit boards. A visit to a large bookstore was enough to get some generic craft circuit boards in the how-to books for building pet robots or AI speakers.

“You may take this apart and check it over after the performance as well, but I assure you it contains no mechanical microphones, speakers, or anything capable of recording and replaying audio. They are simply sound reflection boards. They are no more than obstacles to reflect my violin’s music in the optimal direction and at the optimal angle.”

She moved her gloved fingers with practiced ease to ready a handmade violin with no tradition behind it. The sound reflection boards must have been monitoring their distance with cameras or lasers because they skillfully used their legs to adjust their position.

“No one can defeat a Stativarius. It has nothing to do with the quality of the sound. People’s ears and minds have already decided whatever sound it makes reigns supreme. Anything outside of that bull’s eye will be considered inferior.”

Sakibasu Yuri had the world’s greatest violin.

So Shirai Kuroko had constructed the world’s greatest concert hall.

There were of course music halls considered to be “holy ground”, but none that had a legend on the level of the Stativari. People would want to play there, but their souls had not been stained by the idea that there was a quality of music they could only play there. The best sound quality was not achieved through the work of ancient craftsmen. That title belonged to the cutting-edge event halls mathematically designed using CAD.

“I will not be challenging the Stativarius with the quality of my violin. The final judgment is made on the sound that reaches your ears, not the sound that leaves my instrument. I will modify the concert hall around me to produce a sound greater than that world-famous instrument. No matter how great an instrument is, the audience’s impression will change depending on where you play it. The Stativarius might be considered the baseline, but I will not be bound by that!!”

Shirai Kuroko grinned.

“Sakibasu-san, you must know how crucial the stage is. Before playing, you took a step to the left of center, didn’t you? But you were still using the existing stage, so you cannot hope to match the stage I have built for myself!!”

Sakibasu’s eyes widened.

Her method was to cling to the weight of the accumulated past, so she turned back toward the music teacher.

“Can…can she do that!? Really!?”

“Shirai-san.” The elderly teacher sighed softly. “My judgment of your music will be provisional. It will take time to dismantle and examine that, but if I do find any mechanical means of recording and replaying audio, your score will be withdrawn. Is that acceptable?”

She was effectively giving approval.

Shirai Kuroko smiled boldly.

“Of course.”

The Stativarius had a legend behind it.

Everyone viewed it as the baseline for the best possible sound, so they succumbed to its name without even checking how it actually sounded. That was the weight it had gained over several centuries. Several researchers and musicians had challenged that legend over the years. They had claimed it was not all it was cracked up to be and provided data as proof, but they had failed to tear down the walls of that impregnable fortress.

The masses had pathetically accused them of being crass or jealous.

Overwhelmed by those cries, the challengers had all sunk into the swamp of humiliation and defeat.

However.

Why had they wanted to challenge the Stativari in the first place? They were world-famous instruments from a historical creator. They had to have known what would happen if they spat on that yet were defeated, so why had they suppressed the fear of universal hatred and done it anyway?

The answer was simple.

They knew the Stativari were the greatest. They carried a legend powered by so many people’s wishes that they remained the greatest. An individual’s efforts could never change an entire country or the world. Those instruments had the same absolute weight of a group behind them.

But at the same time, if that legend could be shattered, people would want to see that great feat achieved during their lifetime. They wanted to be charmed by that great upset. The many challengers who had continued to fall defeated over the centuries had built up a legend separate from the Stativari themselves.

It was a paradox.

Just like the Kuchisake Onna and pomade, the rise of one legend would naturally lead to the rise of a counter legend attempting to destroy the first. Humans were indulgent creatures and there was no rule saying they could only carry one wish in their hearts. It was the same as being in the mood for both Chinese and French food at the same time. They were contradictory and cursed creatures who would unwaveringly believe in the Stativari’s status at the top while also hoping to see the moment those instruments were thrown down to earth.

Shirai Kuroko was not making this challenge with only a few days of work.

If Sakibasu Yuri was carrying the legend of the Stativarius Ainsel, then she would wield the paradox that had plagued those instruments for centuries!!

“Now, Shirai-san. What song will you be playing?”

When the music teacher asked that question, everyone there awaited Shirai’s answer while the technological music hall surrounded her. Would it be Bach, Beethoven, or Mozart? Everyone must have assumed she would choose some famous song to challenge Sakibasu’s Air on the G String.

But they assumed wrong.

“This exam is meant to test our skill with the violin, so we are free to choose whatever song we want, correct?”

“Yes.”

Then.

This was where Shirai Kuroko could best make her stance clear. She lightly held the glove between her teeth to remove it.

The hand below had bandages covering the fingertips.

She had made her preparations.

She had put together a plan.

But who said she had not practiced hard as well?

“''Then I will play an original song''. It might not be on the level of the classical composers, but please enjoy.”