Songs in the Void

ICDS Universe, Earth, Japan, Tokyo.

After leaving the Dungeon, Tatsuo got cleaned up, took a little time to play the piano, and went to sleep. The next day, Tatsuo spent some time doing some exercise, circulating his [energy], and practicing imbuing his [Energy] onto his weapons. Then, around noon, after eating an early lunch, he returned to the Dungeon.

Two days later, Tatsuo exited the Dungeon once again. However, before leaving he spent some time learning from Lin. And right now, he was in the process of disassembling the parts of the [Orc Lord Set]. And if he was lucky, he would be able to reconstruct it by the time he reached the 10th Floor.

"*Sigh* Doing all this work after finishing a floor of the Dungeon is tiring." Tatsuo muttered to himself as he flopped onto his bed. "Still, that Lin really is good at what he does. He's even a decent… No, way more than decent teacher. But why is he even helping me in the first place?"

Reaching that point, Tatsuo peaked into his inventory that had expanded to a ten by twelve grid thanks to his increases in [Energy] and the floors he cleared in the Dungeon. In those slots, there were a number of parts made from the [Orc Lord Set] that he would be trying to combine into a single bodysuit.

"But I get the feeling that when I can finish the remodeling of the [Orc Lord Set], I'll be able to raise the rank of my [Blacksmithing Skill] from E+ to D-." Tatsuo muttered to himself as he put his original defensive gear into his [Inventory]. Then, he picked up his smartphone to see if he missed anything before continuing. "Hmm? No missed texts from Sumire? I guess she must be in the Dungeon. I wonder how she's doing."

Just as Tatsuo thought, Sumire had been in the Dungeon for the past few days. And because of the training she had done with Tatsuo, her climbing speed had increased. Unfortunately, Tatsuo had no idea by how much exactly. But he was looking forward to finding out.

"Whatever, I can think about that later." Tatsuo thought aloud. "For now, I need to think of a few ways to get some attack skills. Maybe doing like Asuma did in Naruto could work. I wonder how adding the space attribute instead of wind will affect things."

With that, Tatsuo sat down on his bedroom floor in a cross-legged position. Then, with his knuckle dusters on his hands, he began flowing his [Energy] into them. And once he had a solid coating on the blades, he did his best to start grinding the [Energy] on either side of the blades together at their edge.

Unfortunately, things were not as simple as he had hoped. Gaining proper control of his [Energy] was much harder than he expected. Even so, he continued to try, hoping he could make some kind of spatial rend type skill.

Like that, the rest of the day passed. Then, the night passed swiftly, as well. Eventually, the dawn heralded the beginning of a new day. Yet, Tatsuo was still seated on his bedroom floor while flowing [Energy] around his weapons.

"Damn it!" Tatsuo growled as his [Energy] just about bottomed out. "The [Energy] is only smashing into itself instead of grinding against itself! That's definitely not gonna make the cutting edge any sharper. It's only gonna be like hitting people with a damn club."

As Tatsuo said, although he was able to get the [Energy] surrounding his blade moving, it was not to his liking. Though, he was just being impatient at this point. The fact that he was able to coat his weapons and get the [Energy] moving in two directions simultaneously after only about eighteen hours of practice was an achievement in and of itself.

But since everything had always come relatively easy to Tatsuo, he was not used to the feeling of prolonged failure.

*Growl!*

At that moment, Tatsuo's stomach growled loudly. At the same time he started feeling a bit weak now that his mind was aware that his body was in need of food.

"*Sigh* I guess I should take a break." Tatsuo said in a dejected tone as he put his bladed knuckle dusters into his [Inventory]. "I know better than to get completely lost in training. I didn't even really rest after coming back from the Dungeon yesterday."

With that, Tatsuo unequipped his defensive gear, as well. Then, he took off the clothes he was wearing underneath before heading into his bathroom for a long, hot shower. Then, after getting cleaned up, he went into the kitchen to cook himself a meal before heading back into his bedroom to get some sleep.

Waking up in the evening, Tatsuo decided he would not head back into the Dungeon. So, he sat in front of his piano and began to play.

{BGM: "Faith (Piano Arrangement)" – The Theorist

'*Sigh* I never thought I'd say this, but I miss Mom.' Tatsuo thought to himself as his fingers danced across the keys of the piano. 'Not just her, but I miss Kasumi-Neesan and Mai-Nee, too. You'd think I'd be used to being alone after the eight years of hell I went through, not having anyone to talk to outside of training. Hahaha.'

With that desolate laughter in his head, Tatsuo closed his eyes as he continued to play the piano.

'Yeah right, like any of that could be called talking with someone.' Tatsuo thought. 'Just taking orders without question isn't what I'd call a conversation. Hell, if I even asked questions to clarify, there was a good chance I'd end up going through conditioning training after the training session ended. *Sigh* I don't even understand how I still have any human nature left. I mean, they were trying to make me into a killing machine, after all.'

*Beep!* *Beep!* *Beep!*

Tatsuo continued to think while playing the piano. However, his thoughts were interrupted when the smartphone he placed on top of the piano began to beep and vibrate.

'Well, it looks like Minami isn't busy anymore.' Tatsuo thought to himself, knowing there was only one person in this world that had his phone number. 'I'll get back to her after I finish playing.'

With that thought, Tatsuo let himself get lost in his music. And after nearly an hour of playing, something about his music began to change. The sound of his music started sounding even clearer than the piano should be able to produce. On top of that, Tatsuo was completely unaware of the passage of time.

{BGM: "Like You" – Chilled Almond

{[Skills]

[Pianist Skill] has ranked up to D}

"Huh?" Tatsuo exclaimed, the [Notification] from the [System] breaking him out of his, for lack of a better term, state of enlightenment. "Well, that's the first time my [Pianist Skill] has increased in almost two years. But how did I do it?"

With that, Tatsuo started thinking back on his time spent playing the piano. Then, he realized that he had subconsciously been coating the piano with his [Energy]. As a result, he was adding a little extra to his music.

"Hmm… I wonder if I can make mental illusions with my music if I add [Energy] to my music in a certain way." Tatsuo muttered to himself as he removed his fingers from the keys.

A moment later, Tatsuo noticed that the sun was shining into his bedroom. And based on the angle, it was not just a little past dawn. Instead, it was closer to mid-afternoon.

"*sigh* That's another all nighter." Tatsuo said to himself. "What time is it, anyway?"

With that, Tatsuo picked up his smartphone. And when he looked at the time on the lock screen, he noticed that he had a few notifications.

"Oh, that's right, Minami messaged me earlier." Tatsuo muttered before reading the texts from Sumire.

Minami Sumire: Hello, Soramoto-Kun.

Minami Sumire: How are you this evening? Did you have a good day today?

Minami Sumire: I was wondering, do you think you'll have some free time to help me train tomorrow?

That was the last text from last night.

"Hmm… I guess I can spar with her today." Tatsuo muttered to himself. "But it will be the first time she's ever come over here later than 11 o'clock."

Not knowing why he thought about that, Tatsuo replied to Sumire's text.

Soramoto Tatsuo: Sorry I didn't get back to you sooner, I was playing the piano last night and forgot to check my phone after I finished.

Soramoto Tatsuo: But I don't mind sparring with you today. Just come on over whenever you're ready.

After sending his reply, Tatsuo stood up and left his room. Then, he went into the kitchen to make himself something for lunch. Just as he sat down to eat he received another series of beeps, signifying that he had received a test. So, he took his smartphone out of his pocket to check.

Minami Sumire: Huh? You play the piano?

Minami Sumire: Why didn't you tell me before?

Minami Sumire; Can I hear you play some time?

Soramoto Tatsuo: Sure.

Soramoto Tatsuo: The next time you come over to train, I'll let you hear it.

Minami Sumire: Really? 😊Thank you!!!

Minami Sumire: I'll be over in an hour.

Soramoto Tatsuo: Okay, see you when you get downstairs.

With that, Tatsuo put down his smartphone and started eating with a smile.

"Well, I guess I'm not completely alone in this world." Tatsuo thought aloud. "At least I got to know someone like Minami."

After that, Tatsuo focused on eating. Then, after his plate was clean, he put it in the dishwasher and returned to his room to get cleaned up. After that, he simply waited for Sumire while circulating his [Energy].

Exactly one hour after she said she would be at his apartment, Tatsuo received a text message saying that Sumire was downstairs. So, he went to pick her up from the lobby. After that, they made their way up to the dojo, got changed into their training clothes, and started training.

About two hours later, while Tatsuo and Sumire were both covered in sweat, they ended their training.

"You've really gotten a lot better, Minami-San." Tatsuo said while wiping his face with a towel. "It's almost like you've gotten a lot of fighting experience with the stuff we've worked on."

Hearing that, Sumire froze for an instant, something that Tatsuo noticed, causing him to giggle on the inside. However, she did not remain stunned for long.

"How is that possible, Soramoto-Kun?" Sumire asked while waving her hands a little more frantically than she meant to. "It's not like there's anyone to fight. Plus, with the monsters running around outside, it's just too dangerous go anywhere."

"Yeah, I guess you're right." Tatsuo replied with a shrug. "Then, you really must be some kind of genius."

"Not at all." Sumire replied while shaking her head. "It's all because of what you've taught me, Soramoto-Kun. Otherwise, I would have never improved so much on my own."

Although what Sumire said was true, Tatsuo had no doubt that Sumire was a genius. Because it did not take her very long under Kang Shin's tutelage to raise her Spear Mastery to the high-rank in the novel. Tatsuo was only giving her a little push.

'I can only imagine what kind of heights she'll reach if she actually trains with Kang Shin in this time line.' Tatsuo thought to himself while watching Sumire be overly humble. 'She's gonna be kinda scary, I think.'

"Anyway, let's get cleaned up." Tatsuo said with a smile. "After that, I'll take you upstairs and I'll play a few songs for you."

"Okay." Sumire replied with a nod. "Then, I'll see you in a few minutes."

With that, Sumire turned around and headed towards the locker room to take a shower and get changed. Meanwhile, Tatsuo only shook his head with a light smile. Then, he turned around to head to the men's locker room and do the same.

"Oh my God! Oh my God! Oh my God!" Sumire exclaimed to herself while taking a shower. "I'm going to his house. I'm actually going to his house. This is the first time I've ever been to a boy's house. And he lives alone. Oh my God!"

With her hands covered in the lather from body wash and rubbing it up and down her short, yet voluptuous, body, Sumire was having a full-on panic attack. Just the thought of being alone with Tatsuo in his house was making her quite nervous, as she did not do well with men in general. Though, once they started sparring and speaking to each other through texts, that issue seemed to get a bit lighter when dealing with Tatsuo.

"I know I was the one who asked to hear him play the piano…" Sumire said quietly, in almost a whisper. "But I really didn't think this through. What if something happens? I mean, I'm a woman and he's a man. And we'll be alone."

With her words reaching that point, Sumire's face reddened at an astonishing pace. On top of that, her eyes began spinning in their sockets, showing that she was clearly not in the best state of mind. Despite that, the thought of simply going home never crossed her mind. Instead, she just continued getting cleaned up and more flustered as time went by.

Eventually, after nearly forty-five minutes, Sumire came out of the locker room, having made her resolve. But when she saw Tatsuo sitting in the middle of the dojo meditating, her face flushed once again, realizing that she had made Tatsuo wait for quite a while.