Every morning, you show up right on time.
Man...
I finally got to see him the other day.
The real-life Sosuke Ajino.
After all these years...
I finally got to see you.
I wonder if he'll be there for my performance today.
Like the first stage, there are four morning players
and five in the afternoon.
Each person must play a sonata, polonaise, and mazurka
and again finish in 40 to 45 minutes.
Wei Pang is playing on the first day,
so I'm sure standing room will be full.
He does seem rather popular.
He won the last Long-Thibaud competition,
and I was really astonished when I heard him play.
He was really that similar to my past self?
Positively!
Down to the tiniest idiosyncrasy.
It will knock your socks off, I'm sure.
Amamiya.
Hm?
I'm...
happy we both made it this far.
Just so glad.
Sophie Ormesson's first piece was the most tragic, even among the polonaises.
Sophie Ormesson.
I believe she came third in the recent Long-Thibaud competition which Wei Pang won.
It seems she wants to avoid being judged on flair
and instead compete with her musicianship, I gather.
Look at that, she shares two pieces with Wei Pang.
This should be fun.
Now that was fantastic.
And we're still on the first player.
Next is Pang from China, right?
I bet she came here just to take down Wei Pang.
Sophie, you can do it this time!
You'll put Pang to shame!
Stop it.
That's not why I'm here.
Wei Pang.
Still, I should expect being compared to him given that we play back to back.
I-I'm sorry!
Hey, are you two okay?
Wei Pang's running a bit late.
Yeah.
Your hand... Is it all right?
It's fine.
More to the point, please hurry and move.
Are you really not hurt?
I'm perfectly fine.
I really am sorry.
Be more careful in the future.
The second participant of this morning session is Mr. Wei Pang, from China, number 48.
He will be playing on the Steinway, performing the following program.
Dammit. I still smell of woman.
That may just have saved me, though.
My mind was completely preoccupied with Sosuke Ajino.
Wei Pang, from China.
But now I'm back.
Is Sosuke Ajino among these spectators?
No, it doesn't matter either way.
Now I need only...
deliver my song!
Kai, what's going through your head as you hear this?
Is this not Mr. Ajino's playing?
This is...
What in the world is this?
I knew it.
He does know Ajino's playing.
And this is deeper than just copying something he enjoys.
What is this performance?
The audience is probably envisioning Poland's tragic history as they listen,
but this ferocity is...
I couldn't care less about the tragedies of Poland.
Everywhere you go, there are more tragedies than you could possibly count.
If I claimed any tragedy as my own, it was being born into this world.
The woman who birthed me had been working for someone in some city.
She was pregnant with me, a bastard child,
so she was forced to leave her job and return to her own village.
Since she was beautiful and worked to entertain foreigners,
they said a foreigner had wired her up with a bomb.
The truth is lost to history
since she was already out of her mind by that point.
And so, even before I was born, I was known as the "bomb,"
a name that burdened me until I left the village.
I was born to a hanging corpse burned beyond recognition.
Mom, I'm scared.
Yes, this is terrifying.
Terrifying, yet beautiful.
And profoundly somber.
It does seem that Wei Pang has heard me play.
That said...
This undercurrent of sorrow and anger...
This is not my music.
The despair I once felt for the loss of my ability to play piano...
Does this man possess something to rival or even surpass it?
I remember...
The first time I heard the sound of a piano
was when Hao Pang donated a piano to some kindergarten.
Hao Pang was not satisfied by any amount of wealth.
He constructed schools, donated pianos...
He wanted to be revered.
I snuck into the kindergarten, and when I first heard it,
it sounded like heaven itself.
I was purchased by Hao Pang for 100 yuan.
Being new money, Hao Pang had more wealth than he could hope to spend,
but he desired a level of status that money couldn't buy.
As such, he wished to associate with high culture.
To him, one avenue was the piano.
I was bought to play piano,
but it became pure agony the moment it stopped being a choice.
You are a reject of a child!
Even your own mother didn't want you.
Rejects have no right to live!
Play the piano or die!
He was serious.
Hao Pang had already bet his entire fortune on my potential.
In the cacophony of pianists all playing at once,
my ears picked up only the sounds made by Sosuke Ajino.
Sosuke Ajino's playing was like the spider's thread of salvation dropped to me in my own personal hell.
As if the world would end if I lost sight of him,
I devoted myself to chasing after his sound.
And so, I chose to live and breathe Ajino's playing.
The first of Ajino's pieces I played –
the piece I imitated, a child possessed –
was this Polonaise No. 5, Op. 44 by Chopin.
I'm pleased I didn't have to kill you, Wei Pang.
You're no longer the "bomb."
Starting today, your name will be Wei Pang!
Welcome to the Pang family.
I can feel a silent excitement spreading throughout the hall.
I can't stop trembling.
Are you okay?
Don't worry.
This mazurka is even closer to Ajino's playing than the last piece.
His playing style and gestures...
It really is just like Ajino.
He changed the order.
I feel like I kinda get him.
If I'd chosen these same pieces,
I think I'd have played them in the same order.
Wow.
That's amazing, Wei Pang!
I've never heard a Funeral March this fierce or this beautiful!
That day, Hao Pang told me.
He said that Sosuke Ajino is Japanese
and that he already retired as a pianist.
The original is dead.
He lost his career as a pianist in a traffic accident.
Can you believe such a grand twist of fate?
Don't give me that shit, Hao Pang!
I don't need you to know that my playing is unique.
My playing isn't meant to erase Ajino.
My playing is the one and only
to succeed Sosuke Ajino's playing!
The only playing in the world to succeed yours.
Ajino...
Mr. Ajino was smiling.
Yeah.
Amamiya, tomorrow is the day!
Shuhei and Ichinose...
A proxy war, huh...
Here's to Junior passing the first stage.
Cheers.
I'm excited to see what the future holds for your brilliant son.
His performance in the first stage was excellent.
By the way, Christina, what did you think of Kai Ichinose?
What?
Well, you know...
He was in a class of his own among the Japanese contestants.
Yes, that's true.
His performance was fresh and impactful.
It seems Amamiya Jr. has a proper rival now.
Do you think Shuhei can win against him?
Can he win against Ajino's pupil?
Yoichiro, I rather hope you're not trying to use your son to fight a proxy war.
Of course not.
Are you sure?
Absolutely, Christina.
It's true there was a time when I made Sosuke Ajino into my one-sided rival
and suffered for it.
Relentless admiration and despair at my inability to win.
I remember making you listen to these unseemly issues of mine quite a bit.
At the time, you would never take my word for it,
but I really do prefer your playing to his.
Christina...
If his playing is a stimulant, your playing is a sedative.
You could well say that the two of you are polar opposites.
It would be wrong to even compare you two.
Shuhei...
Don't you think his dad is the person from whom he most wants approval?
What?
Shuhei isn't scared of what the examiners or the audience think.
He's fearful you won't approve.
Me?
Surely not.
I dearly hope I'm wrong, then.
So, Kai,
what were you thinking as you listened to Pang's performance?
I could barely keep calm!
It made me want to also stand on that stage right away!
Correct!
Full points for that answer!
Dad, the enemy was as calm as ever.
Enemy...?
You mean Ichinose?
Of course.
Well, it's a wonderful thing to have a rival.
You can spend your lifetimes competing.
What are you saying, Dad?
Sorry, but I'm not that naïve anymore.
This is a predestined showdown.
Hm?
Ever since I met Kai at that elementary school, I've known
that we're fated to battle here.
Shuhei...
I won't lose!
So I can move forward.