Chapter 23 Twenty-three Ghosts Behind

Although Tsuda Atsushi's identity as a fan is widely known in the school, he actually believes that the person he admires is absolutely unaware of this.

He is not so arrogant as to think that his importance is great enough to be remembered by Akae Nazuki who ignores everyone, so Tsuda Atsushi is well able to accept the fact that there is no such person as him in Akae Nazuki's eyes.

Until that happened.

That day was an ordinary day. Tsuda Atsushi went to the instrumental music club to practice as usual after school, but he was stopped by a strange schoolgirl on the way.

The other party handed him a piece of paper that seemed to have been hastily torn from a notebook. On it was a familiar five-line score, which, when put together, was part of the song that the instrumental club had rehearsed together some time ago.

At first, Tsuda Atsushi didn't take the sheet seriously until he accidentally dropped the paper while practicing the piano. He Lai Ling picked it up and took a look at it, and kindly reminded him: "Senior, this paragraph is written wrong."

Atsushi Tsuda then noticed something was wrong.

There were more than one error in the score on paper, even though they were scattered far apart and difficult to detect. But when Tsuda Atsushi found them all based on the score in his memory, he got a string of special numbers.

After all this, Tsuda Atsushi instantly developed a great interest in this string of numbers. He began to try various methods to crack them, but in the end, all his work was done and he still got nothing.

At a loss of what to do, Tsuda Atsushi saw the violin at hand. He was suddenly stunned, and then something clicked in his mind. He quickly set up the violin and tried to play the string of numbers intermittently.

It’s Amazing Grace!

He asked his junior schoolmate to pass him the music sheet and then guided him to play this song... To be honest, when thinking of someone who would convey information to him in this way, the first name that came to Tsuda Atsushi's mind was Akae Nazuki.

Before he joined the instrumental music club, he often practiced the piano in an abandoned music room on the top floor of the second teaching building. One time, he played this piece on a whim, and Chijiang Nayue, who was passing by the door, mercilessly pointed out many of its shortcomings.

Since this was the second time Tsuda Atsushi had spoken to his idol, he remembered it clearly.

Although he later found out that the student union meeting room was downstairs from the music room, Akae Natsuki, who was catching up on sleep in the meeting room with special permission from her teacher, was simply distracted by the sound of his broken piano (Akae's words), not that she was actually just passing by.

At that time, the black-haired boy who had saved him once took his violin, stood in place and raised his hand gracefully, and then a string of beautiful notes flowed out from the boy's hands.

Perhaps it was because the boy felt that his technique was really terrible, and in order to prevent him from poisoning his ears any further, the boy not only demonstrated the impeccable "Song of the Wanderer" once again, but also accompanied him on the piano in a good mood, which made Tsuda Atsushi so happy that he almost exploded.

However, even though he had a vague suspicion that the messenger was his idol, Tsuda Atsushi found it very unlikely and was flattered.

But in the end, he still went to the abandoned music room in the second teaching building with the idea of ​​trying his luck, and there he really met Chijiang Nayue who had asked for leave two days ago.

The boy, who was not wearing a school uniform, sat in front of the wiped piano, his fingers lightly raised and heavily lowered, playing a song that Tsuda Atsushi had never heard before.

At that moment, Tsuda Atsushi felt the suffocating loneliness from the boy.

He did not make a sound to disturb the other party, but stood at the door and listened stupidly until the song ended. Tsuda Atsushi sniffed, suppressed his sadness, and asked the boy hesitantly: "Akae-kun, do you want to ask me for something?"

Tsuda Atsushi did not think that he was qualified to break Akae Nazuki's loneliness, so even though he realized that he could reach out and touch the barrier in Akae Nazuki's heart, he ultimately did not reach out, but retreated cowardly without even asking the other party the name of the song.

The young man then turned to look at him, his eyes filled with emotions that Tsuda Atsushi couldn't understand. That strange feeling made him take a step back reflexively.

Tsuda Atsushi immediately realized that something had happened to Akae Nazuki that they knew nothing about.

[Atsushi, lend me your identity.] The boy who was always aloof in school suddenly smiled and called out Atsushi Tsuda's name in a gentle voice, [If it's you, would you help me?]

[Okay.] Without even asking what this meant or why it was him, Tsuda Atsushi nodded in agreement without hesitation.

He would never refuse any request from Chijiang Nayue.

【That’s great.】

The boy still sat in front of the piano, stroking the keys with his fingers, and said with a smile: "Thank you, Dun."

Two days later, Tsuda Atsushi read a report in the newspaper that the well-known entrepreneur and philanthropist Akae and his wife died in a plane crash. He was shocked to find that the time of death of the two was the day Akae came to see him that month.

Tsuda Atsushi's intuition told him that he'd better find Akae Nazuki immediately.

After the conversation about borrowing identities that day, Tsuda Atsushi went home that afternoon, found all his documents, and handed them to Akae Nazuki. He guessed that the other party needed to use his identity to do something that could not be discovered to be done by 'Akae Nazuki', so he did not ask anything at the time.

Because he remembered this incident, Tsuda Atsushi unexpectedly found a reservation by checking his student ID.

Akae Nayue used his identity to book a cruise ticket, which was scheduled to depart in the evening of that day at the international passenger terminal of Yokohama Port.

It was already afternoon when Atsushi Tsuda arrived at Yokohama following the address on the official website. He wandered around the dock for a long time before being pulled into the shadow behind a container by a hand.

The boy who borrowed his identity stood in the shadows and greeted him: [Good afternoon, Dun.]

In the following eight years, Tsuda Atsushi slowly understood why he was able to find out so easily that Akae Nazuki used his identity to board the cruise ship. It was because the other party knew that he would catch up, so they deliberately let him find out so that they could more accurately erase the connection between Akae Nazuki and the cruise ship in the eyes of the police.

However, even though he knew he was being used from beginning to end, Tsuda Atsushi was happy to do so.

Akae Nazuki did not tell Tsuda Atsushi why he boarded the cruise ship. He just said to Tsuda Atsushi again before leaving: "Thank you, Atsushi."

【It will be over soon.】

Then, without looking back, he boarded the magnificent Linorea docked at the pier.

—

"After that, I investigated for a long time but still didn't know what happened on the ship that night. I only know that due to some 'accidents', the ship, which was originally scheduled to sail for three days, returned to the port that night. I was worried that if I left, I would expose Chijiang Jun's disguise, so I hid behind the container and saw everything."

When Tsuda Atsushi said this, he glanced at Amuro Toru intentionally or unintentionally: "A group of men in black clothes rushed onto the ship at the last minute before the cruise ship set sail, but the crew turned a blind eye. After the cruise ship returned early, only one man with long hair got off the ship among the group of men in black, and the others never got off again."

"Including, Akae-kun."

Kuki Riko was so shocked by the unexpected truth that she was speechless. Her eyes widened and she took a long time to react before she asked in disbelief: "If that's the case, why did you hide it for so many years and secretly learn to imitate Akae-kun? Isn't it because you feel guilty about killing him?" Amuro Toru on the opposite side suddenly realized: Now they make sense, it turns out that Kuki Riko and the others thought that Tsuda Atsushi killed Akae Nazuki, so they planned all these things.

Tsuda Atsushi didn't look at Kuki Riko, but lowered his head and said, "Because I don't believe that Akae-kun is really dead."

"Not long after that day, a woman with her face covered found me." He stared at his palm and said, "She handed me a box of videotapes and told me that someone also didn't believe that Chi Jiangjun was dead and was secretly looking for his existence."

Tsuda Atsushi clenched his fists and said firmly, "Whether Akae-kun is alive or not, we must not let those people find him again, so I made a decision."

"You decided to spend eight years imitating Chijiang Nayue, and then slowly revealed the fact that you knew the secret of that year through friends who once knew and admired Chijiang Nayue like you, trying to mislead other people who were looking for Chijiang Nayue and make them think that you were Chijiang Nayue in disguise."

Amuro Toru glanced at Tsuda Atsushi and finally understood where the doubts about him came from. Even his tone became complicated: "Even not mentioning Akae Nayue anymore and moving the hotel to the mountains... these are also precautions you took to avoid being exposed before the role-playing is successful."

He seriously asked the question that lingered in his mind: "Why do you want to do this?"

Even though Akae Nayue had never asked Tsuda Atsushi to do this, she had even forgotten about Tsuda Atsushi long ago.

"Although it was not Akae-kun's subjective wish, I was able to make it through the three years of high school when we were in the same class by looking at his light," said Tsuda Atsushi. "Even if it can only have a small effect, I promised him that I would help him, so I won't give up halfway."

He sat there in a daze, his pale lips trembling slightly. When he spoke, his throat felt dry and his stomach was churning, as if he was going to vomit in the next second.

Tsuda Atsushi seemed to want to laugh, but the corners of his mouth fell back after he raised them several times. In the end, no tears could flow from his eyes and his back was hunched, so that people could see at a glance the collapse and despair that had almost solidified into his body.

When you are extremely sad, you can't even cry - Toru Amuro once again realized the meaning of this sentence, and the last person to confirm this sentence was himself after he received the news of Scotland's death.

Tsuda Atsushi crossed his arms and murmured, "But... I really want to see him again."

He didn't know why he persisted for eight years.

Perhaps it was because he really felt guilty about the step he took back in the music room; he felt guilty about being weak and incompetent and watching Chi Jiang Na Yue die; and he felt even more guilty that he was not the one who could hold her back.

Pain and self-blame had been gnawing at his heart, tormenting him every moment for the past eight years. Until now, when he finally spoke out this secret that had never seen the light of day, Tsuda Atsushi felt a sense of relief, but then he felt even more pain.

He couldn't keep his lighthouse.

Toru Amuro finally shifted his gaze back to the spirit behind him, and he heard a faint laugh from the other party.

"Thank you, Dun." The young man floated beside the man who could no longer see him and said softly, "I'm back."