Kanade's workshop was bathed in the pale light of a Thursday afternoon. The November sunlight streaming through the window was thin and white. A faint shadow stretched across the oak floor. Mio had both hands pressed flat against the soundboard of the grand piano, her eyes closed. The low notes Kanade played traveled from her palms up through her arms. That vibration reaching deep into her chest. (I've come again.) She'd thought it countless times these past few days. Maybe she shouldn't come. But every time, her feet carried her toward the train bound for Furkawa Town. Each time Kanade played the piano, something moved inside her body. A sensation of something that had been still for two years beginning to shift, bit by bit. Then the workshop door was pushed open forcefully. "——" Mio's hands left the soundboard. Standing in the doorway was a tall man in a dark gray suit. Burnt-brown short hair, the bangs slightly tousled. Sharp amber eyes swept quickly around the workshop. An old grand piano. Two upright pianos waiting for repair. A shelf lined with tuning tools in neat rows. And——a black-haired young man with white cloth covering his eyes. Naoto's mouth moved slightly. That expression barely concealing contempt. Mio understood it. She'd been seeing that face for two years. Kirishima Naoto——affiliated with Stella Promotion, Mio's former manager. (Why does he know this place......) The hand thrust into his coat pocket grew cold. The sender of the envelope that had arrived the other day was standing right here now. Mio immediately realized her GPS history must have been checked. Her spine went cold. She was being followed. Kanade seemed to sense something from the vibration of the door and the heavy footsteps of leather shoes that had never come to this workshop before. He lifted his hands from the keys and turned his face toward the door. Naoto looked at Mio first. "[cold]I found you, Mio" His voice was low. There was a quiet pressure, as if emotion had been wrung out of it. "[serious]......How did you know this place" "[cold]Not GPS. Since you retired, the office has been constantly checking fixed cameras around your apartment. We confirmed you heading to Furkawa Town multiple times a week, so after that, I just walked around and found it" He said it matter-of-factly. As if it were the most natural thing in the world. Mio's throat tightened. Something complex—neither quite anger nor fear—hardened in her chest. Naoto stepped further into the workshop and shifted his gaze once more. "[cold]Stella Promotion's performance has declined. About thirty percent down compared to when you debuted. Three tentative projects with television stations have stalled. If you come back, everything will move forward" "[serious]......That's not something I can——" "[cold]You understand, don't you. The contract is still valid. It's been almost two years in hiatus status. Stop indulging yourself" Those words cut through the air. Before Mio could respond, Naoto's gaze turned toward Kanade. Slowly. With calculated movement. "[cold]There's no way we can leave a former top idol in a dim workshop like this with a blind tuning technician tinkering with broken pianos. What you're doing isn't rehabilitation or anything like that. It's just escapism" Kanade didn't move the hand resting on the piano keys. But Mio could see it. The slight tremor in his fingertips. "[angry]Get out" The words came out. Clear and sharp, surprising even herself. Mio grabbed Naoto's arm and pulled him out of the workshop. The cold air of Kawasemi Street hit her cheeks. "[angry]What are you saying to Kanade? You have no right to——" "[cold]Calm down" "[angry]I can't calm down. You just said to Kanade——" "[cold]Two years of hiding away, and now you're playing music games even though you can't hear" His voice was quiet. That made it cut deeper. "[cold]There's no reason your talent should rot in a place like this. I've been waiting all this time. Waiting for you to decide on your own to come back. But——this is escapism, Mio. I can't watch it" Escapism. That word entered the softest place in her chest. (That's not true. It's not.) She couldn't say it back. Her mouth wouldn't move. Because——she'd been thinking the same thing all along. Whether she was truly moving forward by continuing to visit Kanade's workshop, or whether she was simply turning away from reality. To that question, Mio still had no answer. Naoto's eyes were fixed on her. There was a feverish, obsessive light in them. She understood it was some twisted form of something. But right now, Mio didn't have the composure to sort through it. "[serious]......Please leave" Her voice trembled. Naoto paused for a moment. Then, quietly, he turned away. "[cold]Think about it" With only those words left behind, he walked down Kawasemi Street. The sound of his leather shoes faded. Disappeared. Mio turned back toward the workshop door. Kanade was inside. She'd seen the tremor in his fingertips. He'd heard every word that man said. (I'm sorry.) That was all she thought in her chest. Before she could voice it, she went back into the workshop. ◇ The next morning, Mio's phone began ringing just after six. The number of notifications was overwhelming. The SNS app updated at a relentless pace. Mio opened the screen. The first thing that caught her eye was a headline from a gossip site. ——'Former Top Idol Shiraishi Mio's Secluded Life After Hearing Loss——Secret Meetings with a Blind Tuning Technician?' Furkawa Town was explicitly named. There were no photos. But the location had been identified. Mio's hands stopped. Below that, SNS posts continued. 'Disabled people licking each other's wounds' 'An idol who can't hear can't do music' 'They're probably just together out of pity anyway' She read all of it. Read every single one. She couldn't stop. She set her phone face-down. But the words remained burned on the back of her eyelids. Some time later, that night, she learned that someone had looked up the workshop's phone number and started making silent calls. The next afternoon, she confirmed directly that graffiti had been written on the workshop's outer wall. Walking down Kawasemi Street, Mio looked at the exterior of the workshop. On the darkened surface of the cedar board, there were marks from an oil-based pen. The words weren't anything significant. But the fact that they were there tightened her chest. If she hadn't come here, this wouldn't have happened. ◇ She pushed open the workshop door. Kanade was in the back. He lifted his face immediately upon hearing her footsteps. He must have known it was Mio. His hand reached out as it always did——the gesture of trying to speak through tactile reading. Mio stopped. Kanade's hand swam through the air. Searching for her lips. (Kanade......) Her chest ached. But because of that—— Mio took Kanade's hand herself. She brought it to her own lips. Moving her mouth clearly so he could read it. "[crying]I won't come anymore. I'm sorry for the trouble I've caused" Kanade's expression changed. The moment he read the movement of her lips, his hand gripped Mio's wrist. Not forcefully. But the intention not to let go transmitted through the warmth of his fingertips. "[serious]——Wait" Kanade's voice was low, carrying a strength different from his usual gentle politeness. "[serious]It's not escapism. What you were feeling had to be real" (I know.) She knew. But——there was a door with graffiti on it. Silent calls coming in. Words overflowing on SNS. All of it was Mio's fault. "[crying]It has nothing to do with you, but because I came, you——" "[serious]It has everything to do with me" Short. Definitive. Mio pulled her hand away from Kanade's. Without looking back, she opened the door. The cold air of Kawasemi Street rushed in. Mio ran. The soles of her feet struck the stone pavement. She ran deeper into the shopping street. Past Nishida's butcher shop. Maruyoshi's vegetable stand flowed past the edge of her vision. She didn't look back. She felt, on her back, the sensation of the workshop door left standing open. But she didn't stop running. ◇ Kanade was left alone in the workshop. He reached his hand toward the door. It grasped only empty air. Mio's footsteps had already disappeared into the depths of Kawasemi Street. For a while, he couldn't move. Eventually, he slowly returned to the grand piano and placed his hand on the soundboard where Mio had last touched it. (I can still feel the warmth.) He knew it was only an illusion. But he didn't move his hand. He was powerless. He couldn't even talk back to that man's words. He couldn't chase after Mio. He couldn't run through a world without light. There were far too many things he simply couldn't do. He could sense that silent calls were still coming outside today. Each time the phone vibrated with an incoming call, each time he answered, there was only silence. (Was I the cause of her escapism?) That thought circled endlessly in his mind. From the oak floor, the faint vibration of a distant car transmitted through. On the day he first met Mio, he'd felt this vibration while tuning an upright piano. That was only a few weeks ago. Yet it felt distant. Kanade quietly placed his fingers on the keys. Not to play anything. Just to touch them. ◇ When Mio returned to Maison Claris in the Tamachi ward, she sat down in the entryway without even removing her shoes. She closed the door. All outside sounds were shut out. But Mio's ears had never heard anything to begin with. There was nothing to shut out. From her coat pocket, she took out her mother's ear cuff. Small, cold, and hard. Holding it always calmed her a little. But today it didn't seem to warm anything. She placed her phone face-down. Notifications were still coming. The edge of the screen glowed faintly. Naoto's words repeated. ——It's escapism. Playing music games. There's no reason your talent should rot in a place like this. And those words overlapped with the question that had always existed inside Mio herself. (Was the time with Kanade really about music?) She remembered the sensation from that day, when the vibration first reached her chest. Something had definitely arrived. Not through her ears, but it had entered her body. The temperature of Kanade's fingers tracing her tears. The time they sat together at Komadori—— Now all of it was being painted over by the dark thought that it might have been nothing but an excuse to indulge herself. The world that had opened for the first time in two years closed completely again. The room was quiet and dark. With the curtains drawn shut, it felt like night even in the afternoon. Mio couldn't move, the ear cuff alone held in her hand. ——But the next morning, a message arrived on Mio's phone from an unknown number. The sender identified themselves as "Voix Silent," and the message contained only a single line: 'I heard about you from Tachibana.'