Bab 10: Talentless?
Angelo Salieri, he was a famous instrument tutor, it was said about him that each of his disciples would at least win a tournament, just as long as it was regional. And these were the worst of his disciples, the best won international gold cups. That was Angelo Salieri in his prime, but nowadays the youths would rely on their quirks when they make music, never appreciating the sound of the old classical instruments, never relaxing with the sound of these.
The era of music was changing, and Angelo didn't like it. How old Angelo was? He was as old as the existence of quirks, he was one of the first persons that awakened one, and lived since then. What his quirk was? Nothing special, his cells just duplicate themselves perfectly, not changing in the slightest, resulting in absolute no cellular level damage, but that was it, he can't get cancer, he can't age and he can't die of old age.
Scientists all over the world researched on him for several decades, more than a century already. They tried to find the formula for immortality with him, but with no results, the moments the cells leave his body, they die, making it impossible to research them. This didn't prevent the old fools to do research on him for several years though.
He just recently got released again, for about two or three decades he was free again, but the music world completely changed already as he was released, making it difficult for him to find employment as music tutor. Angelo hated his fate, he would have rather died in a young age where he taught youths the intricates of an instrument, rather than potentially living forever, living around people that didn't appreciate his craft.
He hated the world for what it did to him. He truly resented it, but what could he do? He might be basically immortal, but he would still die with a bullet in his head and his heart ripped out. His ability wasn't faster regeneration after all.
Today was one of the rare days where he is teaching someone an instrument, and he hated it, thank you for the question.
~Flashback start
"Did you do the practices I gave you as homework?"
"No! You know I am so talented that I am going to learn it in seconds in your lessons!"
"Can you already play 'von Elise'?"
*Plays it very crappily*
"Now press 'a'."
"What is an 'a' on the piano again?"
"Did you repair your piano already?"
"No, but I have a keyboard now!"
"Write the notes of this piece on this note sheet please."
"How do you draw a note again?"
~Flashback end
It was visible pain for him, of course the boy really had talent in the piano, but he was a lazy piece of shit and Angelo hated him.
But for today that wasn't it for Angelo Salieri, turns out he has another session for today, he hoped that it wouldn't turn out as bad as that stupid kid that overestimated himself, he just had to see and hope.
Angelo was in front of the house where he will teach a girl the piano, he looked at a piece of paper again, he remembered again, it was the Seigi family and he will be teaching the 3-year-old Akane. Basically, a toddler, this couldn't turn out good.
He rings the doorbell and a beautiful young lady came out of it.
"Ah! Mister Salieri, that must be you, are you here for the piano lessons with my daughter Akane?"
He nodded in confirmation.
"Good, but could you wait a minute, my daughters' Japanese tutor is still here and didn't end her lesson yet, of course you can wait inside the living room!"
Angelo nodded again, he was here purely for business and his student probably isn't going to appreciate his lessons like the rest, so he saw no need to act polite.
He entered the house and the woman brought him a cup of black coffee, he of course accepted it out of politeness.
"Oh! I still didn't introduce myself. My name is Seigi Fumio, Akanes' adoptive mother, nice to meet you."
"Ah, of course, my name is Angelo Salieri, your future daughters piano tutor, your appreciation is welcome."
The woman nodded, then suddenly a little girl came running down.
"Mommy is the piano tutor already here? I was excited to learn the piano since the early morning. I can't wait anymore."
"Yes, he is the gentleman that is sitting at the living room table, but did your Japanese tutor already leave?"
"Yeah he did. You know what his quirk is."
After saying her words the girl ran towards Angelo, grabbing his hand. Already pulling his arm.
"You must be mister Salieri, right? I've waited the entire day to learn the piano, I can't wait anymore, please hurry, hurry, I want to learn!"
"Akane!"
The woman, Fumio, ran towards her daughter and pulled her hand away from Angelo's' arm.
"I am terribly sorry for the behavior of my daughter mister Salieri, I..."
Angelo cut between the woman words.
"No, you mustn't apologize for eagerness of you daughter to learn, it has been a very long time since I had a student like her Ms. Seigi, so I would instead would like to thank you for hiring me as her tutor, I am going to promise you that your daughter will be a piano angel in the next month, I swear this upon my family name, Ms. Seigi."
The woman nodded.
"Then there is no reason anymore to delay the lessons, right? Akane, lead mister Salieri to your instrument room upstairs.
The girl nodded in eager, grabbed Angelo's' hand and lead him upstairs to the room with the piano. Angelo was excited for the first time in a long time, when was his last student that wanted to learn an instrument that eagerly?
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Angelo must retract his earlier statements, playing the piano with this girl was a nightmare and he just couldn't understand, why.
For whatever reason the theoretical lessons ran smoothly, he was finished with that in a quarter of the planned time, but the practical was one absolute nightmare, she missed buttons, mistook them with one another, pushed too hard, pushed too soft, was too fast, was too slow, it was just one big nightmare.
Angelo was angry, it has been such a long time since a student was this eager as her and at the end it turns out that she had absolutely no talent for the piano, even less talent than the worst of the worst of his student.
Angelo wasn't just angry, he was outright furious, and the girl could feel it. The moment Angelo's' pulse reached a dangerous number the girl started to cry.
"Sob, sob, I - I am sorry, so - sorry for being such a bad student, sorry for dis - disappoint you to - to such a de - degree."
Hearing the honest apology calmed Angelo down for a considerable amount, but that didn't change the fact that he is very disappointed.
"It's fine, not everybody has talent for the piano, but turning my back to student, just because she was bad doesn't sit well with me. You know what, I am going to teach you to the best of my ability as long as your family has me hired, it won't be much, but I am sure we can get to a level where you can play a piece or two without sounding absolutely terrific, that is as long as you want me to be your tutor."
The girl wiped her tears away with her sleeve and nodded and his words.
"I know that the lesson is already over, but can you lead a piece for me? I want to at least know how it feels to play a piece professionally."
The man chuckled. He really had no such eager student since a very long time.
"Then I am going to play twinkle, twinkle little star, the piece that you should have learned in today's lesson."
The girl looked ashamed, as if she knew that she failed in learning such an easy peace.
Angelo sat down at the piano chair, tapping on his lab, telling the girl to sit on it, how else can he lead the girls' hand?
He grabbed the girl's hands and slowly guided them on the notes of twinkle, twinkle star, from beginning to end, after he played the piece the girl looked very happy.
Angelo stood up and prepared to leave the Seigi mansion.
He stood at the entrance of the house, smiling, then he suddenly heard a voice shouting at him.
"Thank you, Mister Salieri, for the lesson today! I promise that next week I improved a considerable amount, so just wait and see my improvement!"
He chuckled again, he was really glad that they hired him, else he would have never been able to teach a good student as her.
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Angelo was at the mansion again. He was kind of eager for the lesson. Of course, the girl played very bad, but at least she was eager, wanting to improve. He would prefer her any day over that arrogant prick. You know what they say, a diligent turtle is better than a lazy rabbit.
He entered the house and greeted Ms. Seigi and talked for a moment, today her Russian teacher extended her lessons, but he could wait, it isn't as if the girl would lose out on that.
And then the lesson finally started.
"Hello, again Akane, I hope you fulfilled your promise and improved, just as you promised me, Now, play twinkle, twinkle little star."
The girl nodded, sitting on her chair, preparing to play the piece. Angelo prepared himself to her Ragnarök, but it never came, instead he heard Akane playing twinkle, twinkle little star, of course it doesn't sound good, it was at best at beginner level, but it was still a big visible improvement than last week.
Angelo was excited this girl was diligent as it could get, he was sure she could surpass his best student, yes, she had a lower starting point, but he was sure she could do it and as such started his lessons with burning vigor.
Which ended with disappointment, note sheets lay on the ground and both of them slumped back, leaning against the back of the chair, exhausted.
"Little Akane, what is wrong, you had such a big improvement since last week, but you barely improved today, if you want to surpass my best student you need much more than diligence. The only reason I could think of why you are improving so badly, is because you are blind, but that would be ridiculous, right?"
The girl looked at him.
"I AM blind!"
Hearing this astounded Angelo to a big degree.
"No way!"
Akane sighed, she started to explain Angelo what echolocation is and mentioned a couple of examples to make it easier to understand, Angelo who could be called a sound expert understood the concept very fast and so barely any time passed after the explanation.
"I see! So that's why you still could do these things so accurately, but the problems are the fast movements you need to play! Why didn't you say so sooner! If you did, I could have adjusted the lesson according to you. Anyways let's play again."
(Twinkle twinkle little star Fate Grand/Order Remix, from the first lostbelt. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NuQWQy4A0M8)
Angelo was impressed with the improvements the little girl had in such a short time window, she managed to learn to play a second row of notes, learned how to use the pedals under the piano, and learned how to pace each note and sync her hands, so that the notes played a perfect piece.
She even managed to create her own iteration of twinkle, twinkle little star, it had a certain sadness in it, a sadness that was pushed back, trying to cheer the ones around them up, it was a piece that showed an end, but it shows that an end didn't has to be ugly, sad, beautiful of happy. It described a bitter sweet end, an end that wasn't necessarily what someone wanted, but an end that you wouldn't throw away once you experienced it, an end that you wouldn't exchange for another end if you had the choice.
That was Angelo's' interpretation of Akanes' twinkle, twinkle little star and he was proud of her improving so much.
He was the happiest he was since multiple centuries.
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At a certain other pianists' house:
"Teacher Salieri! Listen to the awesome piece I wrote!
"Ok, play."
*plays sounds that shouldn't be possible with a piano*
"And how did you find it, it was pretty good, right?"
Angelo smiled at the boy peacefully.
"Yeah, of course it was good, you are so impressed that you can't find the right words, right? Man am I awesome!"
"I resign."
"What?"
"I resign."
He then gave the boy an envelope with his termination papers in it and wordlessly left through the front door.
"Good riddance, lazy rabbit."
PERTIMBANGAN PENCIPTA 
HopelessHikikomori
HopelessHikikomori A chapter from another point of view, I hope you like Salieri, because I find him cool.
Here we go! 10 Chapters!
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