Chapter 228: Soulless! (Patreon)

September.

Autumn had only just arrived, and summer was still dragging its tail.

Tokyo hadn't cooled off just because high summer was ending.

If anything, the fierce lingering autumn heat made it even more sweltering.

For once, the air felt wrung dry of moisture.

The blazing sun scorched the earth.

Heat rose in waves, and looking down the asphalt slope, the air seemed blurred and warped by some invisible current.

Sitting by the door, Fujiwara Kazuma held a cigarette between his lips and drew on it deeply.

White smoke drifted upward.

The glowing red tip stood out sharply in the shade.

Fujiwara Kazuma closed his eyes.

Blood.

Gunfire.

Flashing blades.

Scene after scene from his past flickered across his vision.

When the cigarette had burned down to nothing, he finally stood, dusted off his clothes, picked up the bag beside him with one hand, and walked outside.

The Saijo Society had lost nine of every ten men, and the Tohiko Gang had been thoroughly investigated by the police for secretly selling illegal drugs.

The gangs that once split Shinjuku and Shibuya between them existed in name only.

Yet for some reason, Fujiwara Kazuma felt an emptiness he couldn't put into words.

He had finished his revenge.

And in doing so, he had lost his goal.

But a man can't live without a goal.

A man has to go looking for one.

Only after finding one could he live an ordinary life.

He lifted a leg and swung on.

Fujiwara Kazuma climbed onto his motorcycle, fastened his headband tight, and propped the bike up on one foot.

A man really did have to go looking for a goal.

But… could a wretched life like his, one whose end he could already see at a glance, really find one?

He didn't like violence, but he didn't deny it either. He had hurt a lot of people with it.

He lowered his head.

And pulled out another cigarette.

The flare of the struck match lit up his eyes.

Just as he brought the cigarette to the flame, head bowed—

"Kazuma-san!"

"Huh?!"

The cigarette in his mouth jerked, and he nearly lost his grip on it.

Fujiwara Kazuma turned around on instinct, then froze.

A short way behind him stood a mother and daughter, watching him.

One look was all it took for him to remember.

Weren't these two the family whose debt he'd once been sent to collect? (Right at the start of the film.)

Though "collect" was generous. It had been pure violence.

Because the husband of that family was scum.

He had run up a huge loan-shark debt through gambling and couldn't repay it, so he'd actually tried to hand his own wife and daughter over to the Saijo Society as collateral.

The result was that Fujiwara Kazuma beat him black and blue.

What happened after that, Kazuma never found out.

But judging by how they looked now…

Kazuma's gaze swept over the pair.

The mother had a gentle face. There was a bandage on it, but it was clear she had divorced that man and was making her own way.

He could tell from the convenience store uniform she hadn't had time to change out of after her shift.

Perhaps noticing Kazuma looking at her, the mother took the little girl's hand, lowered her head, and bowed deeply to him.

It looked like thanks.

It also looked like goodbye.

What the hell…

One corner of his mouth curled up in a wild grin.

It suddenly struck Fujiwara Kazuma.

His life… hadn't been entirely worthless after all.

His fingers flicked backward.

The cigarette and the match went flying, drifting a little in the air.

Kazuma's motorcycle roared to life.

A man really did need to go looking for a goal.

But…

He glanced sidelong at the mother and daughter behind him, waving and bowing their thanks.

It suddenly occurred to Fujiwara Kazuma that maybe there was no need to hurry.

He didn't answer. He only turned back to the road ahead and, with his back to them, held up a thumb.

Yes.

No need to hurry.

A goal was the kind of thing you could find slowly.

As for right now.

Let's head south!

As long as you head south, you'll always find the sun.

In the sunlight,

the camera drifted slowly upward.

A vault of azure sky and white clouds filled the frame.

A white bird swept across it—

And then came Nakashima Tetsuya's excited voice over the megaphone.

"Good! The final scene of Like a Dragon! That's a wrap!"

"Thank you for your hard work, Director Nakashima. Let's work together again when the chance comes."

"It won't be long."

Nakashima Tetsuya, who was always deadly serious on set, smiled at Minami Yuji standing in front of him.

That wasn't mere politeness.

As the director, he knew better than anyone just how high the quality of his Like a Dragon shoot was.

Minami Yuji's line delivery and acting were rock solid, and the actors playing opposite him were all seasoned veterans of the Japanese industry.

Even without editing or a score to boost them, some scenes had set Nakashima Tetsuya's blood racing.

And if he had to name what had left the deepest impression on him, it might be Minami Yuji's toughness.

This young actor was only sixteen this year, not yet an adult, yet he could endure hardship better than most veterans.

He did his own action scenes whenever he could and rarely used wires or other rigs.

Several times it had made him break into a cold sweat.

He'd been terrified that something would truly happen to Minami Yuji on his set.

After all, strictly speaking Minami Yuji was still a minor. If anything went wrong, the production team would be held responsible for inadequate supervision.

Of course, high risk undoubtedly brought high reward.

Every action shot Minami Yuji appeared in came out clean, crisp, and extremely difficult.

The acting.

The action.

Add Nakashima Tetsuya's own cinematography, editing, and scoring teams.

Without exaggeration, he even thought the film had a chance of setting a box office record!

But how far it would actually go… that he couldn't say.

Confidence in the film was one thing. Whether audiences would buy in, and how many would… was another matter entirely.

But whatever happened,

"This is without a doubt the most perfect work I'm able to put out right now. Don't worry, Yuji-kun. This is your first work as you step into the adult actors' side of the industry, and I will make absolutely sure it's a complete success."

Nakashima Tetsuya clapped Minami Yuji on the shoulder and spoke with a serious expression.

Seeing him like this, Minami Yuji was briefly taken aback. Then he put away the smile on his face and nodded.

"Then I'll be counting on you, Director Nakashima."

Minami Yuji said, and his gaze drifted to the monitor beside them.

Even he couldn't deny it.

He handled social niceties about as perfectly as anyone could. He'd managed to avoid offending anyone he could possibly avoid offending, keeping everything amicable for the sake of doing business.

But getting to where he stood now sometimes had nothing to do with social niceties.

Willing or not, he was going to offend plenty of people. There was no helping it.

The Japanese industry was big, yet small. Each season there were only so many lead roles to go around.

Competition between actors was only natural.

Take a role that Himekawa Taiki had lost to him. Himekawa Taiki could put on a magnanimous face, say he didn't mind, throw an arm around Minami Yuji's shoulders and have a great time with him. But what about the agency behind him?

That wasn't something simple social niceties could smooth over.

To reach the position of Japan's number-one young actor, Minami Yuji had stepped over who knew how many corpses of genius actors.

By the same token, plenty of people naturally hoped to see him take a nasty fall.

Not to mention the weekly magazines.

They had all hyped him as if he were about to ascend to heaven.

If this film's box office numbers looked even slightly ugly, that pack of fence-sitters would probably seize on his name for clickbait: [Genius Actor Minami Yuji Stumbles in His First Adult Role: Has His Talent Run Dry, or Were There Warning Signs All Along?]

And so, would Minami Yuji carry on the legend he'd built since his child actor days? Or would a three-billion-yen industry blockbuster go down the drain?

Quite a few people in the industry were waiting for the answer.

Of course, rather than stewing and agonizing over something that wouldn't even hit theaters for at least a month, with box office results to follow,

he really ought to be worrying about how to write SOUTH's songs…

Minami Yuji lifted his fingers off the keyboard and raised an eyebrow slightly.

Right.

The Like a Dragon work had indeed wrapped up for the time being, but that didn't mean everything on Minami Yuji's plate was finished.

He still had the job that needed the most attention: SOUTH.

But, well…

Looking at the score on the computer screen and the electronic tracks beneath it, Minami Yuji put his fingers to his lips, lost in thought.

Just then, a voice sounded beside his ear.

"Yuji, you're composing in here… Our practicing won't disturb you, will it?"

Minami Yuji looked up and followed the voice.

Toyokawa Sakiko and the rest of SOUTH were watching him with curiosity, even the usually aloof Yahata Umiri.

No wonder they were asking.

This past month, apart from the Like a Dragon shoot, Minami Yuji had basically been holed up in SOUTH's practice room, handling the composition work.

The practice room was, naturally, where the band practiced.

Of course they worried that their noise might disturb his composing.

Guitar or drum kit, neither was exactly quiet.

"Ah… No. On the contrary, writing here helps me settle down."

Minami Yuji smiled and waved a hand.

That wasn't a pleasantry. It was the truth.

Since he was writing for SOUTH, the closer he could stay to them, the better.

As for a bit of noise… it did no real harm.

He did his track mixing and test listening at night. During the day he just sketched out scores and thought about which parts of the songs could be reworked, so it hardly counted as a disturbance.

"I see…"

Hearing him say so, the SOUTH members undoubtedly breathed a sigh of relief.

But before long, someone spoke again.

"Then, Minami-san, how has the composing gone this past month? Could I hear it?"

Those words alone surprised everyone in the room.

Because the speaker was none other than Yahata Umiri, who seemed indifferent to everything.

As a loyal fan of Idle S-san, Yahata Umiri was clearly very curious about the songs Minami Yuji had written.

The same went for the others.

It wasn't only her.

Toyokawa Sakiko, Wakaba Mutsumi, Misumi Hatsune, and even Yutenji Nyamu quietly perked up their ears.

Because those were songs written by Minami Yuji.

Quality aside, that identity alone was enough to stir up their curiosity.

But then—

"Ah… a listen… no, no."

Faced with the curious expressions of all the assorted beauties, Minami Yuji turned into a block of wood and waved a hand without hesitation.

"Eh—?"

Now it wasn't only Yahata Umiri. Every girl in the room let out a groan of protest.

Yutenji Nyamu couldn't help speaking up.

"What's the harm, Master Yuji? You're going to hand us the scores to practice in the end anyway. Listening ahead of time just counts as preparing for practice, right?"

She put it flawlessly.

She swept her purely selfish curiosity aside and put on a look that said, "I only want to listen for the sake of practice."

But Minami Yuji met even this reasonable request with another wave of his hand.

"No, no. I've finished four songs, but it's not enough… Something feels like it's missing. I can't let you listen to something that still has flaws. More importantly, it's lunch break. I'm going to grab something to eat, and you should rest too."

"…Fine."

Since Minami Yuji had put it that way, the girls couldn't very well say anything more.

They could only watch him take off his headphones and close the laptop.

They saw him off like that, as if they'd fully accepted his explanation.

And then—

"Quick, quick, quick! I want to hear what Master Yuji wrote!"

As Minami Yuji's footsteps faded down the hall, Yutenji Nyamu didn't hesitate for a second. She plopped straight down on the sofa where he'd just been sitting, her curiosity no longer containable.

"Huh?"

Frozen in place by the sudden turn of events, Toyokawa Sakiko watched several of the girls drift toward the laptop in near-instant tacit agreement, and her mouth fell open.

"Miss Yutenji… Miss Yahata… Hatsune… even Mutsumi… are you sure this is really okay? If Yuji finds out we touched his computer, he might get angry, you know."

"We just don't let Master find out, right?"

Her pink-violet eyes reflected the laptop's plain desktop. Yutenji Nyamu took hold of the mouse and went on, "And Sakiko, aren't you curious what kind of songs Master Yuji wrote?"

"Uh."

Toyokawa Sakiko's mouth fell open again.

Saying she wasn't curious would be a lie.

After all, she'd been exposed to composing since she was small, and to a large extent the person who had led her through that door was Minami Yuji.

Of course she wanted to know what kind of songs he'd written.

But…

"Didn't Yuji himself say they were unfinished?"

She still hesitated.

Opening someone's unfinished songs and listening without permission was rude no matter how she looked at it, wasn't it?

"That slightly raw feel is exactly what makes it good… Oh, forget it. Sakiko, are you listening or not? If not, get out."

Mm-mm-mm…

Toyokawa Sakiko made a cute sound that meant nothing in particular, and looked at the SOUTH members all turning their eyes on her.

After silently apologizing to Minami Yuji,

she gritted her teeth and decided to let herself indulge her desire, just for a moment.

"I'll listen!"

"That's more like it…"

Hearing Toyokawa Sakiko say it, Yutenji Nyamu smiled with satisfaction. She picked up the mouse, opened the track-editing software on the desktop, and then used it to open the folder of track files.

Everyone in the room played music, so all of this was second nature to them.

What appeared before their eyes were four edited audio files.

Perhaps because Minami Yuji had called them flawed, the four files hadn't been formally named.

Yutenji Nyamu pulled out the headphones and plugged the pro-grade speaker cable into Minami Yuji's laptop.

"Then… here we go, okay?"

"Mm!"

Under everyone's curious gazes, Yutenji Nyamu pressed play.

And then…

They all fell silent.

Not because the unfinished work sounded terrible, and not because of the flaws Minami Yuji had mentioned.

But because…

wasn't this way too good?!

The moment the melody began, the girls' chests tightened.

A soft, gentle melody rippled through the practice room.

It was like the last touch of stillness a painter adds when finishing a night scene.

Guitar, bass, even the rhythm of the drum kit eased off slightly, giving off a charm they couldn't put into words and couldn't resist.

So did the music have flaws…?

Of course it did.

But only because it had been synthesized with software, so naturally there were flaws.

Purely electronic music through speakers was always going to be mediocre, never as clean as the timbre of real instruments played by hand.

Even so, with its superb quality, the piece conquered the hearts of every girl present.

The song ended.

Every girl in the room stood frozen in place.

After a good while, Misumi Hatsune murmured in a small, disbelieving voice, "Is this… really what Yuji called… a flawed song?"

But by then, not one girl had the presence of mind to answer her.

They only turned their eyes on Yutenji Nyamu.

The look was simple, and it conveyed their thoughts directly.

Hurry! Next one!

Yutenji Nyamu didn't hesitate. She raised her hand and played the next track.

The melody rang out again.

But this time, what the girls felt wasn't the earlier warmth and gentleness.

It was an extremely intense emotion, like a roar torn straight out of someone's throat!

The synthesized guitar boomed out hollow, ringing tones!

The drumbeats pounded urgently, as if they meant to hammer right onto the listener's heart!

The hallucinatory, frenzied wall of sound built by bass and keyboard was like the lonely howl of a suffocating world!

Two songs, two completely different styles!

What was going on?!

What on earth was this?

The SOUTH members felt goosebumps rising all over their bodies.

If at the start they had only been curious what kind of songs Minami Yuji could write,

now they were completely captivated by his gorgeous, ever-shifting compositional style!

And what surprised them even more was…

that a rhythm they considered already perfect was still flawed in Minami Yuji's eyes?

They had assumed his songs might truly not be done yet.

But now it seemed…

"Isn't this just Master's standards being way too high?"

Yutenji Nyamu swallowed and spoke.

Her usual teasing tone now carried a faint trace of astonishment.

Right… the only explanation was that Minami Yuji's standards were too high.

Never mind the two songs they hadn't heard yet.

These two alone, with such completely different styles, would count as top-tier songs anywhere in the outside world.

After all, pop music didn't require much of an appreciation barrier.

Good was good and bad was bad.

A person could tell with their own ears.

"…So this is the real power of Idle S-san…"

Yahata Umiri let out a heavy breath.

On that androgynous face that never changed, admiration surfaced for the first time.

She had first heard Idle S-san's music back in middle school.

After only the opening bars, she and her friend Shiina Taki had become loyal followers of his work.

She'd thought that S-san, who hadn't composed for a year or two, might have slipped in arranging skill.

But now…

that wasn't the case at all.

Minami Yuji's arranging ability wasn't merely free of rust. It was clearly stronger than before.

"Forget that for now. What about the next one? The next one?"

This time the voice belonged to Toyokawa Sakiko, who had been so reluctant a moment ago.

But unlike her earlier hesitant expression,

her eyes now sparkled brilliantly.

An excellent composer grows from excellent works.

And she was unquestionably an excellent composer.

After hearing just those two songs, she felt a completely different door swing open in front of her.

So it could be handled like this here, and this part could modulate there…

Novel ideas like these kept surfacing in her mind, one after another.

"…Okay, playing the next one. But I'm telling you now, if Master finds out, you can't leave me to take the fall alone, and none of you can secretly tell Master either."

Yutenji Nyamu held up one finger and stressed the point earnestly to the girls in front of her.

But halfway through, a hand landed on her smooth shoulder from behind.

"Secretly tell who what?"

The person asked, curious.

Ugh!

She'd already said it, and now the person wanted it repeated? A flash of impatience crossed Yutenji Nyamu's eyes.

She slapped the hand away and turned around without hesitation.

"So didn't I just say it? Don't tell Master Yu… huh?!"

Her voice grew smaller and fainter toward the end, until it vanished altogether.

Because right in front of her,

holding a convenience store sandwich and a bottle of oolong tea,

stood Minami Yuji.

His eyes were smiling…

as he stared at her.

……

"I'm so sorry for touching your computer, Master Yuji!"

If Yutenji Nyamu was a poised, bold "naughty cat" in front of other people,

then in front of Minami Yuji she was surely the most perfect kitty in the world.

The reason was simple.

Minami Yuji wasn't just her boss. He was also the absolute source of traffic on her channel.

Any video she uploaded with the "Minami Yuji" tag instantly pulled in tens of thousands of views.

So now, like the other girls, she sat properly on the sofa with her head lowered, not daring to breathe too loudly.

"All right, all right." Looking at the girls who couldn't lift their heads, Minami Yuji was both annoyed and amused. "I'm not actually angry. It's just a few songs. You listened, so you listened. They're for you to perform anyway."

That was true.

These were all songs SOUTH would eventually perform.

Letting them hear the songs early did no real harm.

"Really…?"

Hearing Minami Yuji say this, the girls breathed a sigh of relief.

And right then,

"But listening to the songs is one thing. You opened my laptop without asking, and I can't just let that slide."

Minami Yuji paused, then continued.

"Uh…"

The girls' expressions stiffened.

Sure, if they'd only listened to the new songs, there would have been no problem, but going through his laptop without permission was a bit of a problem.

Though it was only a computer for composing, with no confidential files on it,

you could at least respect my privacy.

So—

"Just this once. Don't let it happen again."

Minami Yuji held up one finger.

"…We understand."

"Good."

Watching them nod and admit their fault like frost-bitten eggplants, Minami Yuji finally lowered his finger, satisfied, and turned his eyes to the desktop.

"Hm… so you listened to "Archipelago" and "Psychedelic Sickness"?"

""Archipelago"? "Psychedelic Sickness"?"

The kneeling girls blinked, then realized he was talking about the titles of the two songs they'd just heard.

Their expressions changed.

Yutenji Nyamu in particular lifted her head.

"Master Yuji, you were lying to us earlier, weren't you? The quality of these two songs is this high, so what's this about them being unfinished?"

She had a point.

Whether it was the first piece, the gentle "Archipelago," or the second, "Psychedelic Sickness," brimming with suppressed howling, both were without a doubt highly polished.

Where did "unfinished" even come from?

As for Yutenji Nyamu's words, Minami Yuji didn't deny them.

"True. If you only look at completion, those two songs really are finished products."

"Only completion?"

The girls in the room weren't fools, and they immediately caught the meaning behind his words.

"Right." Minami Yuji nodded, then sighed. "Something is missing from these songs."

Over these eight years, his skill at writing lyrics and music had undoubtedly risen to a new level.

Writing lyrics and music came to him so easily that "effortless" wouldn't be an exaggeration.

But even so… these songs, though highly complete and of excellent quality,

still left Minami Yuji feeling that something was missing.

That key missing element kept the songs stuck at "excellent." You couldn't say they had "soul."

"Soul?"

Hearing this, Yutenji Nyamu's first reaction was to wonder whether her master had gone obsessive from all the lyric and song writing.

What did "soul" even mean?

A song just had to sound good, didn't it?

Minami Yuji's songs already sounded good enough.

There was no need to chase after some mystical, hard-to-grasp thing like that.

But before she could say a word,

Toyokawa Sakiko and the others on the other side had already lifted their eyes, sparkling.

"As expected of Yuji! You noticed a problem none of us had noticed at all!"

Well, great…

With just that one line, Yutenji Nyamu knew it was over. She couldn't speak up now.

After all, apart from her, nearly everyone in the room was a Yuji stan.

Even the delicate-featured Yahata Umiri was nodding right now, agreeing with Minami Yuji's words.

That left her even more speechless.

Seriously…

Did any of you even know what "soul" meant? Yuji's right, just like that?

A song just has to sound good, doesn't it?!

She truly had no options left.

Because the Japanese have a phrase: "read the air."

And Yutenji Nyamu, as an online content creator, was naturally very sensitive to things like air and atmosphere.

Noticing the shift in the expressions around her, she could only sigh helplessly and join the "Yuji is right" wave.

And so, Minami Yuji spent the afternoon in the practice room, still composing.

By night, he was sitting on the sofa in his own apartment, staring at the computer screen in front of him, deep in thought.

Unlike Yutenji Nyamu, who thought a thing like "soul" was far too mystical,

Minami Yuji could clearly feel that the songs he'd written were missing one especially critical thing.

It was like reading a web novel.

A passage you'd thought was perfectly simple, but under certain authors' pens, the words just fail to carry the meaning, and it leaves you feeling oddly twisted up.

Minami Yuji felt exactly that way right now.

"Wha-at are yo-ou do-oing?"

A soft sensation settled against the back of his head.

Minami Yuji instinctively tilted his head up slightly, and saw a wine-red-haired girl standing behind the sofa, one hand propping up her face, biting into an ice pop.

"Oh, Kana. Mm… I'm writing songs."

Minami Yuji shifted aside a little, mainly to move his head away from her soft chest, and at the same time turned the computer screen toward Kana Arima.

"Oh? Those little girls' songs?"

Kana Arima held the ice pop, her adorable red cat slippers flopping loosely, and walked from behind the sofa around to the front.

Then she kicked off the slippers, sat sideways on Minami Yuji's lap as if it were the most natural thing in the world, hooked one arm around his neck, and held out the other end of the ice pop. "Want some?"

"Yeah."

Minami Yuji slipped an arm around her slender waist and took a bite of the ice pop.

Feeling the cold spread through his mouth, he nodded and answered, "It is for Sakiko and the others. I've already finished four songs, but I keep feeling like something's missing."

"Is that so?"

Kana Arima pulled the ice pop back and crunched down on another bite. Her cherry-pink lips had turned a vivid red in the cold.

She looked at Minami Yuji's computer screen for a little while, then at Minami Yuji, then scratched her head with her free hand and said, "I don't know anything about arranging or lyrics or that kind of stuff… but I think you're just overthinking it, Yuji."

"Overthinking it?"

Minami Yuji blinked, not quite understanding what she meant.

"If it's a song for those little girls… Yuji, just pour everything you understand about them into it. Wouldn't that be enough?"

She held up one finger and said it plainly.

"Pour everything I understand about them into it…?"

It might have been something Kana Arima said offhand.

But it made Minami Yuji freeze for a moment.

Because in that instant…

he could clearly feel that he had grasped something.