I explore the mansion, trying to find a way out, when I arrive in a large room. It has a piano.
Curious, I touch one key, then another.
The piano is well tuned.
<Do you play it, Ho…ta…ru?> Suddenly says a cold male voice in my mind. Ruvik.
<No.> I answered him at once, although I didn't want to talk to him. <But I know the violin.>
Suddenly, memories flash through my mind. My memories.
I, with Michiru, practicing the violin.
I, sitting on Haruka's lap.
I, watching Setsuna working on her computer.
I was still a 9-year-old girl wearing a white dress, not a 30-year-old woman in a red dress like now.
I've had this look since I came into STEM.
<ENOUGH!> I yelled at Ruvik. <These are my memories, not yours!>
Rather than get angry or give me an excuse, he asks me to look to the piano's right.
Since he didn't ask me something obscene, I look to the piano's right.
I am surprised to discover a violin. I'm sure it wasn't there before.
I take it and Ruvik orders me to play it.
<No, you can't order me around!>
Although he claims to be in my body, to be one with me.
I plan to put down the violin when an intense pain comes to my head.
Ruvik is the cause. I know this.
I cry out in pain.
<STOP, STOP, I'll do it!>
The pain disappears and anger wants to fill my heart again.
<You've got some nerve... Ruben.> I said without hesitation.
Despite everything, I manage to control my anger. Once again.
I closed my eyes and started to play the melody I was practicing with Michiru. It was a sad, melancholic tune.
The violin melody fills the mansion. When it repeats, I hear piano.
I'm planning to open my eyes to see who's playing when Ruvik's cold voice tells me to keep my eyes closed.
<But...>
<Don't look at me. Keep playing.>
<Is that you playing the piano? How? Aren't you in my body?>
<I can project my body, Ho…ta…ru. Don't look at me!>
Even though I have a great desire to open my eyes, I keep them closed.
Ruvik is an enemy, a monster.
Yet I don't want to make him angry. I don't want him to hurt me.
Especially since I can't transform into Sailor Saturn.
I am defenseless against him.
Yet I listen to the piano and I blush.
Ruvik has a great talent.
He must be a prodigy.
We stop playing at the same time.
<Open your eyes, Ho…ta…ru.>
I open them. There is no one at the piano.
I put the violin on the floor.
<Did you know that melody, Ruvik?>
<No. I learned it by ear.>
I can't believe it. Ruvik is a prodigy.
Even Michiru had to read a musical sheet and learn the melody by heart before she could play it during her concerts.
Without saying anything else mentally, I am too much in shock, I continue my exploration of the mansion to find an exit.
Ruvik remains silent for a while, then he says that it was beautiful, what we had played together.
I blush at his words.