Chapter 21: Prologue

Prologue: “Please Please Me”

Ah, Yoshi? You doing okay? You must have been lonely after Nelina left, right? But it’s okay, you can now listen to her voice to cheer you up, okay? Nelina will supply you with lots of Nelina with her voice. Ah. Aaaah. How’s that? If you want more, I’ll give you more. You should ask for some more specific lines, Yoshi. Nelina’ll say whatever you want. You don’t need it? Geez, you’re so boring. You’ll only regret not asking for anything when you’re agonizing in your own bed.

Why Nelina contacted you? It’s because she was lonely, too! Can’t you at least phone in once in a while? Nelina doesn’t like how you’re just keeping quiet on your front. That’s not good, you know? And if you properly did that, this whole year abroad wouldn’t have been—

—Well, that’s not why Nelina called today. Yoshi, you have to come back to Japan. Huh? Why? Seriously, why does Nelina have to look at you from one to ten? You’re such a spoiled child. A long, long time ago, there was a guitarist who ran away from his band that was so close to snacking a debut. The lonely vocalist then went out of her way to fly after the guitarist to meet him. And then, she found the guitarist getting along a bit too well with a certain stray cat! At first, the vocalist couldn’t stand it at all, but eventually decided to support you too, so after a lot of back and forth, she went back to Japan to negotiate with the label and stretch out the recording.

But, that has reached its limit now. We finished signing all the contracts, so we have to get to recording and filming the music video. Even the super kind and understanding vocalist is slowly reaching her limits, okay? The tickets Nelina bought, so it’s time to come home. This time, you have no right to decline, got it?

*

Nelina suddenly called to give me that lecture in July. It’s almost been a year since I came to Bristol. The new year in England begins around September, but my university classes were done in June. I managed to survive through all my harsh assignments and exams, finally allowed to breathe in relief. I haven’t gotten my grades back, but from my feeling and other results, it’s safe to assume I nailed my year overseas.

That being said, my visa still lasted until December, and since the new school year in Japan begins in April, I decided to stay in Bristol for a while. In fact, I could return to Japan whenever I wanted, so it wasn’t a huge issue to keep being in Bristol. But then, Nelina’s phone call completely threw me off-concept. And the second she was done stating her business, she hung up on me. When she speaks with her charming voice, you rarely get a chance to disagree or interrupt her. Then again, I have no more leeway to disagree, to begin with.

The reason I started my year abroad was that Nelina said my music has no soul. However, this was just a row of misunderstandings lined up, and yet, I’m still staying in Bristol. Her methods are still as forceful as always, but what she’s saying is correct. In fact, I’m just causing more trouble for her. Nelina made it sound like a fairy tale, but my story is different:

I played the guitar. In Tokyo, I met a genius vocalist, who allowed me to play the guitar next to her, and as I ended up in a slump, I ran away overseas under the pretense of a year abroad. And that’s when…I met her—The Ghost of Bristol. The Hurting Genius. The Golden Lion…Or, maybe even a stray cat. Being stabbed by a knife in the art museum, running through a sea of flames…We survived these adventures together. And after not being able to write graffiti for the longest time, she finally began to face it again. At the same time, I was able to play music again. What happens from now on…is something written in the stars, but the way I see it…

Through the power of graffiti, I found my motivation for music, so the guitarist will return to Japan, and continue working in the band while causing more trouble for the vocalist. He’ll stick with the vocalist who would easily blow up all on her own, and with a stroke of luck or maybe even hard work, he might be blessed and find popularity. The events in Bristol were unexpected, but they were just a brief change of actions, nothing more. It’s like you’re doing a side quest in a game to get that special item. The general scenario does not change. And ten years into the future, I will look back on this time and think “Oh yeah, that happened.”

When that happens, will everyone be happy? What will my life be like? I’ll probably look at a picture of the girl’s graffiti. Sometimes, you encounter something abrupt that completely changes how what you believe in and how you look at things. But this new scenery won’t ever be the same. No matter how you wish for it, the next wall comes, and your fate will be overwritten. That’s why I have no reason to not return home to Japan.

…Except one: The fact that there lives a Ghost who has possessed my heart and won’t let me leave.

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