CHAPTER 11 - Forever February (3)

[MUSIC COMPETITION]

Upon coming back from the restroom, Hayami caught wind of Chiba and Nakamura inside the classroom having a debate over which music was better – American Pop or Japanese Hardcore Punk.

Since she rarely saw him become worked up about anything else besides assassination, she ended up spectating them while returning to her seat when Nakamura whipped her head in her direction.

"How about you, Rinka? What would you choose: Uptown Funk by Bruno Mars or All Generations by Hi-STANDARD?" the blonde prankster asked.

Hayami stepped closer to them – to Chiba's seat – before glancing at him, who looked eager for her answer.

"I don't even know both of those songs," she said drably with her arms across her chest.

Both music-lovers fell out of their seats. She must be joking. Those songs were popular with the present generation, so unless you lived in a cave, you would have heard them.

"You're serious," Nakamura uttered in disbelief after taking a good look at Hayami's deadpan face. She turned to Chiba with an outstretched hand and told him, "Chiba-kun, let me borrow your headphones."

Then she fiddled on her phone before handing the plugged-in headphones to the orange-haired sniper. "This is Uptown Funk," she said.

While Hayami was listening to the song being played, both Nakamura and Chiba were gawking at her.

A few moments later, Nakamura started playing the second song. "Now this is All Generations. Both of these songs are trending now."

"Nurufufufufu..."

Their heads turned when Korosensei had suddenly appeared, garbed in an Elvis Presley outfit.

"Even though both of you love music, you have different preferences, which is understandable," he told the two of them. "But the problem is which one is better? We can find that out with a –" with a microphone in one tentacle, he did the iconic pose of Elvis "– music show!"

Before any of the three could react, Korosensei dashed to the front, now back in his teaching attire. The attention of the whole class whipped towards him as he began to say, "Everyone, let us have a music competition between Nakamura-san and Chiba-kun to determine which of the music genre they like is better."

SUGAYA: That's so random...

OKANO: He is doing anything that he wants again.

ISOGAI: Why not? It could be fun. The exam's over anyway.

The yellow octopus lifted one tentacle as he said further, "Although school and assassination are your top priorities, it doesn't mean that you should not flourish on your interests. Music is not only an outlet for your talent and skills. It is also a great way of expressing your emotions.

Now, I will give you five days to prepare, so you only have until the weekend. The others can join Nakamura or Chiba, whoever you want, while we three teachers will be the judges. Chiba-kun and Nakamura-san, you have fifteen minutes to organize your group before we start our next class."

***

So far, Chiba had gathered Hayami for the drums and Yada for the keyboard but still short of two members – a vocalist and an electric guitar player. He would be playing the bass guitar himself.

Nakamura, as expected, was already done with her recruitment. Her group, consisting of Isogai, Maehara, Nagisa, Kayano, Okano, and Kataoka, was flocked together in one corner, already brainstorming ideas.

"It is hard to imagine that a muscle-head like you would appreciate music."

When Chiba had heard the red head prodigy started throwing insults at the agitated Terasaka, his head turned over his shoulder.

TERASAKA: Huh? Waddya mean? Of course, I like music. I listen and sing to it every time I shower.

KARMA: That's impossible. Not with a pea brain like yours.

TERASAKA: Hey, do you want me to prove it to you? I can sing right here, right now!

KARMA: Oh please, no. My eardrums will explode.

An insane thought crossed Chiba's mind. He approached the red head, whose back was facing him. "Karma, do you know how to play the electric guitar?" he asked.

Karma was holding an electric guitar as he whirled around. Strumming a complicated melody, he replied, "Not really~", dragging out the last syllable with a tune.

'Where did he get that?' Chiba thought, his gaze fixed on the instrument in Karma's hand.

"Would you like to join my band?" he asked as he moved on from the peculiarity of the electric guitar.

"If you insist," said Karma with a cock of his head. "I can also do the vocals."

Then Sugaya walked up beside them. "Hey, Chiba. Even though I do not have the talent for music, I'll be willing to give you a hand in other stuff," he said.

A smile hovered on Chiba's lips. "Thanks," he told the two boys before turning towards Sugaya. "I do need your help with something. I will ask Okuda-san and Takebayashi's help for it too."

"Cool," Sugaya uttered. "Now I want you to take a look at this." On top of his splayed-out hand was a sketch portrait of Chiba, revealing a pair of eyes with its bangs clipped up.

"So?" He looked at him with bated breath.

When Chiba had shaken his head, Sugaya withdrew his hand as his shoulders drooped with a defeated look.

***

On the actual day of the competition, Korosensei set up a stage in the open space in front of the building. He placed before the stage a long table covered in white cloth with three wooden chairs for the judges. Seats were also provided for the students not participating.

The first one to perform was Nakamura's group named Pop is Life. Their performance was a mashup of the hit pop songs (inspired by KHS's pop medley video).

Isogai and Maehara were the singers with the other members as dancers. Burning up in embarrassment while dressed in tight women's clothes was Nagisa, who was dancing provocative steps on the center of the stage. The music was edited by Mimura, and Hara and Okajima were in charge of costumes and props.

Everyone gave a round of applause, with impressed whistles and cheers, when the music had ended. They enjoyed their performance particularly Karma, who had recorded Nagisa's spectacle on his phone.

"Thank you, Pop is Life, for the impressive number! The next group is No Eyes Punk, led by Chiba-kun!" Ritsu announced from the side of the stage, clad in a dark red dress with long white gloves. "Will their Japanese Hard Punk outshine the first performance?"

The whole audience fell silent when Chiba had climbed the stage along with his band. His fringe, which was fixed above his head with a clip, was nowhere to be seen on his face although was replaced with a pair of sunglasses – much to everybody's disappointment except for Hayami.

The sunglasses were modified by Okuda so that Chiba could have a transparent view while the outer side of the lens was tinted to prevent anyone else from seeing what was behind it. Sugaya did the paint and tint of the glasses and decorated their musical instruments with his 'art'.

Chiba, then, began strumming the bass guitar while Yada played the keyboard in a slow tempo. As soon as Hayami hit the cymbals, Karma set off a loud and accelerated rhythm from his guitar before singing in a yell-like rough tone,

"Wise men say, only fools rush in. But I can't help falling in love with you..."

After the last tune, howls, cheers, and inconsistent clapping surrounded the wide-open field. The sniper duo shared a look, accomplished smiles on their faces, as they told each other in their minds,

'Well done.'

With a ragged breath, Karma's eyes roamed around the audience until they landed on a certain purple-haired bespectacled girl.

Ritsu's voice resonated through the speakers over their racket. "What an explosion! Thank you, No Eyes Punk, for bringing more destruction to everyone's energy. I'm sure both performances today landed a kill-hit on our target in terms of music."

"After computing the judges' scores that were sent to my data, I will now announce the winner of this competition," she added.

She opened the white card in her hand, the anticipation sending each and every one of them into a fever pitch. "And the winner is –" she trailed off as a drum rolled in the background.

"– it's a tie!"

They were all thrown into a whammy at the outcome, which they expected to be only one winner.

After their reactions settled, Ritsu continued, "Both groups got the same score of 98.5, which was computed by getting the average of the three judges' scores."

"Although I'm not familiar with music –" Karasuma said with a proud smirk, arms crossed "– I commend the students for being able to pull off such performances."

"I admit that I was entertained by your talents especially Nagisa's, but in the end, I still prefer piano music," said Irina.

Korosensei stood on the stage with a grin morphed on his features. "It should occur to you now that it doesn't matter who wins in this competition and which genre is better. What is important is how music has impacted our lives, and how it has connected us to other people."

He turned to the two music enthusiasts. "Chiba-kun and Nakamura-san, you two both share a love for music but what type you like to listen to is different. While you argue over which one is better, don't you notice your perspectives about music widen? And you also get to know and understand the other person better with their preferences. Of course, this also applies to other things like sports and movies," he preached.

Nakamura's mouth formed into a beam as she drew near her music rival. Her hand extended, she said to him, "It was awesome battling you and your band. Let's exchange playlists after this and, then, we can criticize each other's music more. What do you say?"

With a consenting hum and nod, Chiba shook her hand.

***

The peace and quiet inside the music room – as well as the overstretched shadows – when they returned to the main building the last of the equipment they had used for the music competition, denoted that school has ended a while ago.

"As always, Korosensei has turned the competition into one of his 'lessons'," Hayami pointed out after finishing placing the drum set back in its place.

"I didn't know that you can play the drums," said Chiba as he sat on a stool and positioned his bass guitar on his lap.

Knowing that he wanted to jam a little more, she perched herself on the chair by the drums. "Fujiwara taught me," she replied. "He is good at it."

As far as Chiba knew, Fujiwara was the guy that they had run into in the first semester and the same one that had come to eat in their class at the school festival. Hayami once explained her past with him – how they had been friends until he confessed to her, and how he treated her badly when she had rejected him.

Although Chiba was aggravated for what Fujiwara had done, he simmered down upon hearing that he already apologized to her.

He began strumming the chords when she stated, "I saw your band's performance two years ago."

He stopped, "I see", and then resumed his strumming.

Being reminded of those days when he could play his music freely without worries has made him downhearted since he missed playing in a band. That was why he was grateful to Korosensei for launching today's music competition.

"You must have wanted to play again," she said.

"Mm."

The relaxing tune reverberated around the room, and Hayami listened to it in comfortable silence. Then she thought of something, which she shared with him by, "Can you play jazz?"

The corners of his mouth turned up, as though he was treating her simple inquiry as a challenge, when in fact he has been practicing how to do jazz using bass after knowing her related interest.

She wore a gentle smile as he started playing. Somehow, she felt like dancing but instead, she picked up the drumsticks and followed the beat.

A few minutes later, it was silent once again.

"That was fun," she uttered as that would be her first time playing jazz with an instrument. Even so, she preferred to move her body to the music.

"We make a pretty good band even with just the two of us," he claimed before getting up from his seat to put his guitar back in its case.

In turn, she covered the drum set with a white sheet before glancing at him playfully. "We better start composing our first song then," she quipped.