Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:RailgunSS3 Chapter1 (section)

===Part 7===

Afterschool, Shirai left the School Garden. The usual gang of four visited a rental studio that was little more than a trunk room. While it was called a studio, it was not for TV cameras. It was an audio studio, so it was mostly frequented by pointy-headed boys carrying electric guitars.

“Wow,” said Uiharu as she stopped in the entrance of the room. “First that batting cage and now this. Saten-san, you’re familiar with a lot of places we don’t visit often in Judgment.”

“Eh? Not really, Uiharu. There are tons of places I can’t get into. You know how you have to take the long way around to get from the platform to the ticket gate at the train station we always use? There’s actually a shortcut that goes straight between them, but rumor has it you can only use it with a special card given to the railway company’s shareholders.”

The room was colored an off-white cream color. It was around 10 meters square and had a single double glazed window and door at the back. Those led to the mixer room where you could adjust the recording equipment. This was a simple space for practicing, so it did not have the best equipment. But since it was for practice, the equipment was set up so you could objectively analyze your own performance.

That was what they needed.

They had not used a normal karaoke box because they wanted to analyze the audio data recorded on the phone Shirai Kuroko pulled from her skirt pocket.

“I wonder how well I recorded the Stativarius Ainsel.”

“Wow. I wish I could have heard that live.”

Saten’s eyes widened. They did not know what Sakibasu Yuri normally did afterschool, but if she had heard that, Shirai was pretty sure the girl would have happily opened the violin case even if they were on the side of the road or in the restroom.

Then Saten frowned.

“But does a phone recording have good enough sound quality?”

“This is Judgment equipment, so it records a wider range of frequencies than normal phones. It will be enough to analyze.”

Shirai Kuroko was confident the music she had heard was of excellent quality, but she could not explain what exactly about the Stativarius had overwhelmed her so much. She could not put it to words, but something about it was different. But unless this was a bizarre placebo effect caused by the Stativarius name, there had to be something there. She wanted to pass the data through specialized equipment, analyze the waveform, and view it as numerical data.

“This is an analog waveform recorded as a digital signal, so there is some unavoidable loss. Will this cable be good enough?”

“Why not transfer it wirelessly?”

“I want to avoid as much noise as possible, so we need to do this the right way from the beginning.”

Unlike a computer or piano, the recording equipment was covered with rows of sliders and knobs that were a bit intimidating to touch, but Uiharu adjusted the settings to play the sound file without any alterations.

Air on the G String.

The unique performance was smooth and flowing but still contained some intentional distortion not found when simply pursuing the series of notes on the sheet music.

The music was reminiscent of a forbidden temptation, like touching a half-healed scab. The performance called out to your instincts instead of your mind and it directly grasped at your soul.

“Yeah, that’s classical music all right.”

Saten Ruiko’s impression was incredibly vague. She probably did not know the name of the song.

This had been recorded with the phone in Shirai’s skirt pocket, so it was a bit muffled and contained the occasional sound of rubbing cloth or blowing wind. Nevertheless, they could sense something clearly different from a practice violin kept in the school music room.

It was different from other violins, but they could not explain how.

That violin was indeed a real Stativarius.

Surpassing that would require using their own senses to reveal the secret ingredient in the three-star chef’s dish.

“Okay, let’s create a new file we can modify to cut out the noise while keeping the source file intact. And now it’s finally time to use all these faders.”

“Wait, Uiharu. You’re going to touch those knobs? I’m scared!”

Shirai was not that interested in machines, but she did occasionally analyze the audio from phone and VoIP calls for Judgment investigations. Still, she was more familiar with an ordinary mouse and keyboard. She was afraid of altering something and not knowing how to get it back to normal, so she understood why Saten was so cautious.

“Huh?”

That odd voice did not come from Uiharu who was playing with the faders; it came from Shirai Kuroko who was listening from a step away.

“What’s wrong, Shirai-san?”

“Well, um, this is from the Stativarius, right? Not the practice violin we bought?”

“You recorded the data yourself, didn’t you?”

“Hmm, but…”

She must have had trouble gathering her thoughts because she opened the violin case, pulled out the cheap practice model, and used the bow to play a quick song. It was a nursery rhyme commonly used for tuning.

They recorded the quick, 30-second performance and analyzed it in the same way.

“You’re kidding,” said a dazed Uiharu.

Since she started weakly slapping the mixer console with her soft hand, she may have thought it was malfunctioning.

Shirai Kuroko had apparently found proof of her earlier question.

But she still sounded puzzled.

“When you look at the actual readings, the Stativarius Ainsel and the practice violin are even more similar than I expected. The waveforms are nearly identical, aren’t they? They felt so different when listening to them, so was my perception influenced by the brand name?”

“N-no, no. No, no, no, no!! We’re talking about a Stativarius, Shirai-san. A world-renowned legend! There must be some subtle differences that this studio can’t detect!”

Saten’s voice was cracking.

And at this point, it was Mikoto who sounded impressed.

She let out a sigh before speaking.

“The sound of a Stativarius isn’t actually different from a normal violin. Those results made a splash on the online news sites a while back. Although their value didn’t really take a hit though because so many people insisted a crude computer analysis can’t detect the true quality of music.”

“B-but…”

“This tells us what there is to know based on the actual audible sound, so let’s widen the scope of our investigation. Let’s take this and go like this.”

Mikoto leaned over seated Uiharu to operate the equipment and then pointed at a spot on the screen.

She made a point of not looking at Shirai Kuroko as the girl bit her handkerchief.

“Look, there’s a weird waveform here. And only with the Stativarius.”

“Wh-what?”

Uiharu had a somewhat ticklish response to Mikoto whispering in her ear, but Mikoto was quick to explain further.

They were not interested in the sound of tearing cloth. That was just Shirai Kuroko ripping her handkerchief with her teeth.

“There’s a slight distortion at the start and end of the notes. It was just hidden by the way Sakibasu-san plays.”

“Hm? What does that matter?”

“It doesn’t really. There’s just a slight lag before it gets up to speed or slows down, just like a train leaving or arriving in the station. You might be able to produce the note you want more easily with a normal violin.” Mikoto smiled bitterly. “That said, I’m betting Sakibasu-san intentionally distorts the sound. Just like bitterness can be considered an adult flavor in cooking, it’s all in how you use it.”

“In music or any sensory information, a numerical representation is not enough to know whether something will be considered pleasant or unpleasant.”

Shirai brought a hand to her skinny jaw and Mikoto nodded in agreement.

Sakibasu Yuri had appeared to enjoy the vibrations in her body in addition to listening to the music with her ears. There were countless ways to enjoy and experience things.

“I don’t know if it was made this way to begin with or if it ended up this way after the varnish was reapplied time and again over the years, but the Stativarius Ainsel has some inaudible magic in its music. We should be able to replicate it now that we know how it works, but I bet it’s going to require a delicate touch. Transforming bitterness into an adult flavor is much easier said than done. Get it just a little wrong and the dish is ruined.”

“But we don’t have to force ourselves to pursue the Stativarius, do we?”

Saten sounded cheerful.

She was probably hoping to motivate the others.

“Our goal is to defeat the Stativarius, not perfectly reproduce its sound. What does that adult flavor matter? Sound is just a vibration of the air. Whether it’s from a car’s engine or the shaking of a train, we just have to produce an even more pleasing vibration, right? We can search the internet for best possible vibration and analyze that wavelength.”

She was not wrong.

The Stativarius had been made centuries ago, so it had been gradually left behind by the changing times.

In the most general sense, they could take inspiration from electric guitars and keyboards, add in some new parts, and produce a sound the Stativarius could never hope to match.

However…

“Saten-san. And the rest of you too. Listen up.”

“What is it?”

“There is one more major hurdle to clear before we can surpass the Stativarius.”