Reincarnated Into Anime World

"It's about your smile~."

"It's about...my smile?" Chika repeated my words blankly.

"Yep. You don't just practice the piano for the sake of practicing it, you know? Take a look around you - which world-class pianists force themselves to practice every day?"

"Doesn't everyone do that? Force themselves to practice what they are not good at?"

"Sure they do, but these people are good at the piano. They are already at the top of the world, so why do they want to force themselves to practice what they are good at?"

At my logical words, Chika became speechless. Indeed, she couldn't find the reason why, but she wasn't going to give up on arguing against me, judging from the look on her face..

And as expected, I was right.

"But how would you know that?"

"Because I'm one of the top pianists in the world."

"That doesn't mean that everyone is the same as you."

"Then what can I do to make you believe me?"

"You can't." She replied with a grin.

"Well, even if you do believe it, it doesn't change the fact that you don't have a smile when you practice."

"So what? I'm the perfect model student in my school, and I will listen to anything and everything other people tell me as long as it would help me improve myself. I did stop practicing for one day, but my teacher scolded me, saying it takes three days of practice to regain what you lose from one day of slacking off. I won trophies after trophies, as you said, and I was happy!

They told me that I'd be playing at the international competition next, and look where I currently am?! Everybody called me a genius! You have no idea how happy I was to hear that!

Every day, I would think to myself that this is the right path for me! The happy way for me! Every day, I would sit down and practice without a second thought. It was so hard, so tough, so difficult! But everyone around me keeps cheering me on...they said I could do it...so I just continued.

I was happy! And then you come in here and sprout some bullshit that I have to smile to practice?!"

At some point during her speech, her words had slowly gotten louder, and she went from retorting my words to screaming out her feelings. Her bottled-up feelings and emotions, the stress she had kept to herself for a long time, all seemed to have exploded within this piano room.

It wasn't my intention to let her feelings explode, but it wasn't bad either. The longer one holds their emotions in a bottle, the more fragile one will be in the future.

"It's not bullshit. While it's not a requirement that you have to smile, you need to be at least happy or willing. You clearly aren't happy. So you are basically just forcing yourself at this point.

Perhaps you liked it when you first began - the feeling of the keys under your fingers; the melody that only you can make when you exert some force on the keys; the lingering sound of the music even after it ended.

But! Now? Even you are unsure of yourself. Your eyes are blank; you're like a robot programmed to practice for the sake of practicing. Music is a form of art, not a chore. So I'm telling you, take a break, at least until you get your love for the piano back. As a fellow Japanese pianist and a piano-loving guy, this is my advice for you."

"Y-You...how would you know whether I'm happy or not?! We've only met for a week, and you're acting as though you know everything about me! What do you know! What can you know! What..." Chika broke down into tears as she slumped over the piano and softly wept.

I went overboard, but I'm not going to apologize. It might be arrogant of me, but Chika's music isn't "correct". It was like a computer, a piece put together merely by algorithm and programs only. And I absolutely detest that.

Her on-stage performance was very different, but I believe that if one plays like a robot while she practiced, they will play like a robot on stage as she practiced. It might not be now, but it will definitely happen in the future.

The reason why I love music as time passed was that it is human-played. The emotions conveyed were genuine and touching. Whether it was regret, sadness, love, lovesickness, hatred, or happiness, a song would be able to effectively convey those messages.

But Chika's current music?

It was not music anymore. It was simply the result of an act of pressing down a key. It produces noise, but that's just what it is - noise.

"I love music with all my heart. When one of my loved ones entered my life, music was embedded even more firmly into my life with her. To me, music is irreplaceable. Just like how some martial artists can tell their opponent's character through their fists, I can tell how someone was through the music they played. I hate to say it, but yours is even worse than some elementary students' playing."

At this point, Chika couldn't hold back any further and burst into tears, wailing loudly.

"What is going on here?" A cold voice sounded as both of us turned towards the door, introducing the third person, "This is supposed to be the piano room, isn't it? So why is there only crying noise present?"

Wow...that is one cold girl. She looks like a doll - pretty, dressed up, and completely cold. Her facial expression was blank and stiff, her body stood naturally upright, and her wholly black and empty eyes accentuated her coldness and the arrogance beyond belief voice as she asked.

She was Shinomiya Kaguya, the daughter of the president of the Shinomiya group, and at this point in time, a cold and ruthless girl whose goal prioritizes her everything. I saw her during the party yesterday, accompanying a man who looked like her father with two other teenage boys, presumably the man's sons.

As for why Kaguya is present in our hotel-like dormitory now...I have no idea why.

"So? Why are you bullying the girl?"

Actually, maybe she might not be as cold as I had described her to be. Despite being almost none of her business, Kaguya still entered and interfered.

"But I'm not?"

My reply was a question, but Kaguya paid no heed to that and turned to Chika with a frown, as though she was asking Chika to clarify the whole situation.

"Well, he's not exactly bullying me, but..."

Oi, oi, oi.

"Hold up, there are not 'buts'. It's not 'not exactly bullying' you, but 'definitely not bullying' you. Fujiwara-san, don't wrong the poor, old me. I cannot bear the grudge of the minister of the right of Japan." I hurriedly corrected her words before she made me the public enemy of some sort.

"Then why was she crying?"

"Well...I didn't expect that reaction either. I just told her the truth - the cruel truth, and I guess she couldn't take it and broke down."

"Hey! Stop conversing about me as though I'm not here with the both of you!" Chika wiped her tears and complained.

"The truth?"

Oh my, would you look at that? The Kaguya is feeling curious? I guess even my presence won't stop the plot from making Chika and Kaguya friends.

"She wouldn't be able to make it as a professional, much less improve and become a pianist. She has lost her way, for reasons only she can tell you."

"Like I said! Don't have a conversation about me as though I'm not in the room!" Chika interrupted once more, and Kaguya finally looked at her.

"Can you tell me the reason?" While she might be curious, Kaguya was definitely unfriendly. Even when asking why Chika cannot be a pianist in the future, her tone was cold and unfeeling. It was as though she saw everything logically, where the world was only black and white and no grey. Everything exists to benefit or harm people and things, and Kaguya acted as though it was her family motto to use those who benefit them and discard those who are useless.

Well, technically, it was her family creed, come to think of it.

"Well...I..."

"In summary, she's not being happy while practicing her supposed 'hobby', and when I pointed out that she should stop practicing for some time to regain her love for the piano, she didn't like that."

"Hey! I thought you said it was my right to tell her?!"

"No? I only said that your reasons are for you to tell her, not your 'rights'. Now that I can summarise the entire situation, why should I drag this out any longer?"

"Y-You...what kind of beast uses logic to beat a girl?!"

So you want me to beat you physically instead? How else am I supposed to convince you? I may be gentle to girls, but I don't plan to needlessly take beatings and unreasonable demands to my body and heart.

"Fujiwara-san? Your music yesterday was beautiful. Can you show me once more?"

"That's a great idea! That way, Shinomiya-san would be able to judge as well."

Kaguya merely stared at me for a while before shifting her gaze back to Fujiwara. She probably wondered why I knew her surname, but that shouldn't be a surprise, and she realized that. She was from a famous family, after all.

"Fine..." Fujiwara paused for a while before eventually agreeing. While Kaguya remained by the door, I took my seat on the chairs, waiting for the noise to be produced once more.

"I do not have enough experience to judge your piece, but I agree with...this boy here."

"This 'boy here' is Uesugi Fuutarou. Though, you can just call me Fuutarou~."

"Uesugi-san over here is right. Why don't you just quit?"

Wow, it was just a few minutes since we talked, but this girl never fails to shock us with her coldness.

"Your music is certainly nice, but my advice still stands."

Kaguya's ruthless words were left behind as she immediately left, not bothering to say another word.

Chika's reaction to her words was far greater than her reaction to mine. Her hands paused above the keyboard as she stared blankly.

"H-How could anyone be so cruel?" Chika turned to face me and asked. Strangely enough, there weren't any tears flowing down.

Although she cried because of my words, why didn't she cry to Kaguya's words as well?! Am I really that harsh? I'm pretty sure what Kaguya said was harsher...

Still, I didn't say anything. I also don't know what to say to Kaguya's question, and it also isn't my life to answer her question.

"How would anyone say something so horrible?"

"I've been working so hard my whole life for this, so why?"

"Why...?"

Chika asked several questions back to back. Whether they were meant for me or not, I didn't know. I just remained silent and waited patiently for Chika to be done and over with her confusion.

Honestly, at this point, I don't even know what I'm doing here anymore. Maybe I shouldn't have started this conversation about Chika being unhappy in the first place...

"Uesugi-kun...what should I do?"

"Even if you ask me, I can't tell you what you should do. You can take Shinomiya's advice, you can take my advice, or you could just continue doing what you're doing. Each would bring you about a different set of consequences, so it would be all up to you and you only."

Well, I guess my job here is done. It was never my job to help Chika choose; I was only here to help Chika realize her current problem and give her some choices on how to go about from here on. Should she decide to ignore my advice, then that wouldn't be my problem anymore.

Walking out of the room, I decided to return back to my room. This is enough drama to keep me entertained for the rest of the day.

"Hey, Uesugi-kun. You should join Shuchiin Academy when you enter high school. I'm currently studying there."

"Oh? Let's see what the future holds. It's a pretty tough school to enter for my girlfriends after all, and I don't want to leave them alone." Waving my hands and walking away with my back facing her, I felt like some sort of main character walking away from some epic or tear-jerking scene.

I'm really looking forward to the decision Chika would make.

*****************

A/N: Forgive me, I don't really know how to end this chapter, and this turned up. Some of you may ask, but Kaguya will NOT be in the harem. Unfortunately, I quite like the original pair, plus, Kaguya doesn't really fit in this story anywhere.

By the way, no one managed to guess our dear MC's lineage yet~. Someone managed to guess the first part (but still wasn't very specific), but no one managed to guess the second part~. For the first part, what species will our dear MC be?

Hint: I had brought up the second part of MC's lineage before in a question format, asking you guys for your opinion. Go and look back at the chapters at the A/N part and see if you can figure out~. Have fun.

If you want to support me or/and want chapters in advance, link:

patréon.com/spirits_everywhere. We are currently 5 chapters ahead~