Songs in the Void

ICDS Universe, Earth, Japan, Tokyo.

After finishing their sparring session and getting cleaned up, Tatsuo and Sumire made their way into the elevator. Then, Tatsuo once again punched in a code on the elevator's panel. However, this one was different than the one used to enter the dojo. After that, he pressed the button to go to the top floor.

"I guess I kind of expected it." Sumire said while not daring to make eye contact with Tatsuo. "But you live in this building, too, right, Soramoto-Kun."

"That's right." Tatsuo replied with a smile and a nod. "My parents left this place to me when they passed away in that plane crash."

"Does running a dojo really make that much money?" Sumire asked curiously. "I mean, the apartments in this building are quite expensive, are they not?"

"Yeah, they are." Tatsuo said. "But the dojo wasn't my family's only source of income."

"Really?" Sumire asked in an even more curious tone. "What else did they do?"

"Well, my dad only focused on running the dojo." Tatsuo replied. "but my mom, although she was a martial artist, too, was a stock trader. And apparently, she was really good at it. So, we had quite a bit of money."

"I see." Sumire said, a bit of awe in her tone. "There would have been so much to learn from her had she still been alive."

"Yeah…" Tatsuo said in a genuinely downcast tone.

Realizing just how insensitive what she just said was, Sumire panicked after seeing Tatsuo's expression.

"Sorry." Sumire said as she lowered her head. "I didn't mean to---"

"It's okay." Tatsuo replied while shaking his head. "Although I miss her and wish I could have learned from her, I'm not upset. It wasn't anyone's fault that my parents died. But that's why I'm gonna wipe out all these monsters one day. They're gonna pay for taking my parents away from me."

As Tatsuo spoke, he started leaking killing intent. Although he had never killed a person and only killed one real monster, the number of monsters he had killed in the Dungeon made his killing intent quite imposing.

Despite leaking so much killing intent, Tatsuo did not even notice it. Sumire, on the other hand, was dumbfounded. Because the killing intent was not aimed at her, she was not suppressed by it. Still, that did not stop her from detecting it.

'Soramoto-Kun…' Sumire muttered internally with concern etched all over her pretty face. 'I can only imagine how much you must be hurting right now. I would probably hate the monsters just as much if they had taken my father away from me, too.'

While Sumire was having that thought and looking at the expression filled with hatred on Tatsuo's face, Tatsuo heard a Dungeon Notification in his ears. On top of that, his smartphone sounded with an alert, as well.

{You obtained the passive skill, [Overwhelm].

-This skill appears with extremely low chance among people with high Magic and Charm stats.

-Just by posing this skill, you decrease the stats of all opponents by percentages, regardless of whether they are stronger or weaker than you.

-At Level 1, it decreases all opponents stats by 5%. The chance of your opponent failing to activate a skill decreases by 5%.}

'Huh?' Tatsuo exclaimed in confusion after hearing that alert. 'It says only people with high Magic and Charm Stats should be able to learn this skill. And although my Charm is pretty high, my Magic is only at a pitiful 45.'

Little did he know, Sherifina had mis diagnosed the skill he just learned. As Tatsuo thought, he had nowhere near enough mana, or rather, [Energy] to learn [Overwhelm. Instead, his anger and high [Charm] had awakened another ability. Though, until he learned the secret behind his lineage, he would not be able to see its full name. In fact, until he checked the notification on his [System], he would not even realize that he had not actually learned [Overwhelm].

However, he did not have much time to think about how he obtained the [Overwhelm] skill. And the reason for that was the warm, soft feeling that wrapped around his left hand.

Looking down at his left hand, Tatsuo saw a pair of much smaller, fair-skinned hands wrapped around his. Then, after following the arms connected to those hands upwards, he eventually caught sight of Sumire's face, which was currently showing a worried expression.

"Soramoto-Kun, everything will be okay." Sumire said in a concern, yet consoling, tone. "I promise, if you ever need my help, I'll be there to help you fight the monsters. But please, don't do anything reckless. I know your parents wouldn't want anything to happen to you because of your vengeance."

Hearing that, Tatsuo was stunned. Instinctively, he wanted to pull his hand away. However, something in his heart would not let him do so. And because of all the mental conditioning he went through with DOATECH, he did not know why.

'Why does she look like that?' Tatsuo asked himself. 'No, I know why she looks like that. She's worried about me. But why? Why does she care so much? I mean, I've only known her for about three weeks, right?'

Despite that thought, Tatsuo began to calm down. On top of that, his killing intent was retracted while his [Energy] settled, as well.

"Don't worry, Minami-San." Tatsuo said softly. "I won't do anything like that. The last thing I want is to worry them in the afterlife."

As he spoke, Tatsuo's purple eyes were making eye contact with Sumire's green ones. And they held that eye contact for quite a while. In fact, the door to the elevator had already opened. However, neither of them seemed to notice.

A moment later, the elevator doors began to close on their own. And that was enough to finally snap Tatsuo out of his daze. Then, he reached out with his righthand, using it to stop the doors from closing, and possibly descending with the two of them inside.

Meanwhile, as Tatsuo moved to stop the elevator doors, Sumire realized just what situation she was in. So, she began blushing fiercely as she let go of Tatsuo's hand and took a step backwards to put some distance between them.

*Bang!*

"Ow!" Sumire yelped in pain.

Unfortunately, with that step backwards, Sumire backed into the wall of the elevator and she bumped the back of her head. However, as her hands flew up to start rubbing her head, she did not really even register the impact, it was not nearly enough to hurt her, after all. But the yelp and the rubbing of her head were subconscious reactions from living as a normal person for a long time.

"Are you okay?" Tatsuo asked in a concerned tone. "You don't have a bump on your head, do you? Do you need some ice?"

"Huh? Oh! No, I'm okay." Sumire replied while waving her hands frantically. "Don't worry about me, I was just surprised."

"Are you sure?' Tatsuo asked.

Instead of replying verbally, Sumire nodded her head vigorously. As a result, Tatsuo stared at her for a moment longer. Then, he gestured towards the elevator doors he was holding open with his free hand.

"Well, as long as you're okay." Tatsuo said with a smile. "Anyway, let's go inside. Unless you don't wanna hear me play the piano anymore."

In response, Sumire smiled bashfully, remembering that she was going to Tatsuo's home, Then, she nodded her head timidly before stepping out of the elevator. After her, Tatsuo also stepped out of the elevator, letting it close behind him.

"So, would you like something to drink?" Tatsuo asked. "I have juice, iced tea, and water. If you're into soda, though, I don't really buy any of that. Not really my favorite thing to drink, you know."

"Um… Iced tea is fine." Sumire replied quietly. "Thank you."

"No problem." Tatsuo replied with a smile. "I'll show you to my room first. Then, I'll get you a glass of tea. Okay?"

Although Sumire nodded in response, her mind was in turmoil.

'Wait! We're gonna be in his room?' Sumire shouted internally. "We're gonna be in his room…. Alone? Oh my God! I don't know if I'm ready for this.'

While that thought continued to replay in Sumire's head, she silently followed Tatsuo down the hallway leading to his bedroom. And when they finally arrived at the door and Tatsuo opened it, her nerves were even more high strung when he gestured for her to enter.

However, when she did finally enter, she was amazed. Tatsuo had an amazing computer and gaming set up, a luxurious king-sized bed, a walk-in closet, and the highlight of the room, a grand piano placed in the center of a section of the room.

"Alright, you can take a seat anywhere you want." Tatsuo said with a smile. "I'll be right back with our drinks."

Nodding in response, Sumire gingerly stepped deeper into the room. Then, after Tatsuo turned around to make his way towards the kitchen, she could not help but continue to look around in wonder. Eventually, she took a seat on the chair in front of his computer.

"He said his mother was a stock trader." Sumire muttered to herself while looking at all the high end items in the bedroom. "It looks like he really wasn't kidding when he said she was good at it. All this stuff is so expensive looking"

A few minutes later, Tatsuo came back into the bedroom. When he did, he quickly made his way over to Sumire while carrying two glasses. In one hand was a glass of iced tea for Sumire while he had a glass of apple juice for himself.

"Here you go." Tatsuo said as he handed the drink to Sumire.

"Thank you." Sumire said as she accepted the glass. "So, what are you gonna play? I don't know much classical music."

"Well… You don't have to know the song to enjoy it, do you?" Tatsuo asked with a smile. "but I was thinking about playing something I wrote myself. What do you think of that?"

As Tatsuo's words fell, he reached the piano bench. Then, he took a sip of the apple juice in his glass before setting it down on a small table to the right of the piano. After that, he took a seat and flipped the key lid.

Meanwhile, Sumire's eyes were opened wide, not expecting to hear that Tatsuo had written his own songs. Then, after finally registering the words she heard, she vigorously nodded her head.

"Yes, that sounds great." Sumire replied with a little more enthusiasm.

Luckily, like his original world, or rather the Hub World this incarnation was born in, the ICDS Universe was lacking many of the music artists he was accustomed to in his last life. So, he had scores of music he had arranged for a piano in his head that he could claim as his own.

"Alright, then I'll get started." Tatsuo said as he closed his eyes to stir his emotions before he started playing.

While remembering all the undoubtedly false promises of freedom if he were to complete the torture that they called training at DOATECH, Tatsuo also recalled the lyrics to a certain Taylor Swift song from his last life as he let his fingers start dancing across the keyboard.

{BGM: "Look What You Made Me Do – Piano Arrangement" – Niko Kotoulas}

While stirring his emotions for this performance, Tatsuo's play was exceptionally vigorous, the powerful notes filling the bedroom in an instant. At the same time, Sumire, who, although he was looking forward to Tatsuo's piano play, was not expecting too much from someone who clearly spent so much time on martial arts. However, when she heard the song, her eyes and mouth involuntarily opened wide in surprise.

"Incredible." Sumire murmured quietly.

That was the only word she could think of to describe the feeling Tatsuo's music gave her. Though she could not fathom the feelings Tatsuo felt during his forced training with DOATECH, she could tell that he was harboring resentment when he wrote this song. And the fact that he could display his emotions so straightforwardly through his music amazed her.

A few minutes later, Tatsuo finally stopped playing as the last note rang out. Then, just as he took his hands off the keyboard, he took a deep breath to settle his emotions. A moment later, he turned to look in the direction where Sumire should have been sitting. But when he did, he was surprised. And the reason was that he found himself staring directly into Sumire's bosom, his nose less than an inch away from touching her breasts.

"Uh… Um… Minami-San…" Tatsuo stammered out as his face reddened. "Why are you so close?"

In fact, Sumire had unconsciously stood up while listening to Tatsuo play. Then, while in a daze, she walked until she was standing right behind him. And when she heard Tatsuo's question, she finally snapped out of her daze.

"Huh?" Sumire exclaimed in confusion. Then, she looked down, noticing just how close she was to Tatsuo. "Kya! When did I get here? I'm sorry, Soramoto-Kun. I don't know what came over me."

As she spoke, Sumire leapt back while covering her rather ample chest with her hands and arms. Then, she repeatedly bowed her head in embarrassment.

'His music completely captivated me.' Sumire thought to herself while her head was bowing over and over again. 'I don't even know when I stood up, let alone walked over to stand behind him. But something about his aura when he was playing completely attracted me to him.'

Meanwhile, Tatsuo after seeing Sumire's reaction, could only smile awkwardly. Other than his mother and Mai, no other girl or woman had ever gotten that close to him. Not even Kasumi, his adoptive older sister got that close to him regularly, if not counting the hug she gave him on his birthday.

'But if she had been a little closer, my face would have been pressed into her boobs when I turned around.' Tatsuo thought to himself, his face reddening a little more. 'And I wouldn't have complained if that happened.'

A moment later, a somewhat lecherous smile made its way onto Tatsuo's face. However, he quickly shook his head, driving out the indecent thoughts. Then, he turned back towards the piano.

"*cough* Anyway, don't worry about it." Tatsuo said in the calmest tone he could muster. "Do you wanna hear another song?"

That was enough to snap Sumire back to her senses. Then, she quickly nodded her head.

"Well then, sit here." Tatsuo said while patting the piano bench. "If you're sitting here, you won't be able to startle me by sneaking up on me again."

Seeing the teasing smile on Tatsuo's face as he patted the spot right next to him, Sumire could not help but blush. Despite her embarrassment, she nodded her head shyly before hesitantly taking a seat next to Tatsuo.

Once Sumire was seated, Tatsuo once again closed his eyes. Then, he started playing again, hoping to convey an apology for his indecent thoughts through his next song.

{BGM: "Sorry – Piano Arrangement" – The Theorist}

This time, while Tatsuo played, Sumire was also sucked into the music. However, instead of standing up and trying to draw even nearer, she found herself staring at his face intently.

'He really is handsome.' Sumire thought to herself. 'Probably the most handsome boy I've ever seen. But when he's focused like he is now, I can't even describe it.'

Like that, Tatsuo continued to play the piano for Sumire. All the while, Sumire wore an astonished, yet enamored, expression. And were she not conscious that she may disturb his performance, she might have already leaned her entire being onto Tatsuo unconsciously.