How much did you hear?
Huh?
About Amelia, I mean.
They just told me she's your sister.
She had an accident five years ago and has been in a coma ever since.
I made a promise with her.
If I win this competition, she'll wake up.
She even said, "If you do, I'll get up."
I'm the only one Emilia will talk to.
You probably think that's just another lie, though.
No,
I believe that could happen.
But, Lech,
there's only one promise you can always keep,
and that's to do your best.
Is that the excuse you're telling yourself
for when Wei Pang takes it all home?
Of course not.
You don't know who will win.
The two of us haven't even played yet.
So it's your way of saying you won't hold back, then?
No way I could hold back here –
not when I'm about to play the best I ever have.
I know!
Emilia can listen to my performance, too.
Th-This isn't a joke, and it's got nothing to do with you.
Sure it does.
And I don't just mean Emilia.
I want people all over the world to hear me play.
That's why I've come this far.
Promise me this.
Deliver onto this world a sound that only you can play.
I bet you're the same way.
Must be nice to be so well-off and carefree.
I... wouldn't say that.
I wish I could have grown up to be as honest as you.
See, now that's a much better lie.
All right, it's about time for me to go.
Right.
Lech, powodzenia!
Good luck to you too, Kai.
But...
what if my piano stays silent when I try to play...?
Are you still worrying about bad karma?
Seriously? Come on, you're not a kid anymore.
I always have the same nightmare right before a competition.
The piano won't make a sound, no matter how desperately I move my fingers.
That won't happen, Lech.
If the piano won't make a sound, that just means it's broken.
You can have them replace it.
And remember, you can lie as much as you want,
but the piano is honest.
If you do your best, it will too.
You're one with it in body and soul, as I'm sure you know.
Wh-What you just said, Kai... do you promise?
Of course!
The piano is not your enemy.
And if the piano doesn't make a sound...?
Get it replaced right away.
Amamiya.
Huh?
Uh...
I'm Takako Maruyama.
I guess you don't remember me.
We played the same National Student Piano Competition in elementary school.
Huh?
Wait, are you...
...the crapper princess?
The very same!
I had no idea you were here!
I got here two days ago.
I wish I could have been here for your performance, though.
It was a wonderful performance.
You heard it?
Yeah, I watched online.
Your performance in the second stage was so moving, it made me wonder if something happened.
That was a special kind of playing –
the kind that changes a musician's life.
You could tell?
I have to go and find a seat now.
Be sure to play with all your might, Kai.
Yeah, of course.
Ever since he was a child, Kai would grab onto my clothes or my hand when he was nervous or afraid.
He may have grown taller and his hands larger, but that hasn't changed.
Don't worry.
Believe in yourself.
I think you should have this.
I told it to take care of Sosuke Ajino from now on.
I'm fine.
Now it's time for me to play and for you both to watch me from the audience.
All right.
Do your best.
Yeah.
Kai is leaving the nest and myself behind.
Go, Kai!
Seize your future.
The next participant is Mr. Kai Ichinose, from Japan, number 37.
He will be playing on the Steinway, performing Piano Concerto in E minor, Op. 11.
Allegro maestoso,
Romanze - Larghetto,
Rondo - Vivace.
Kai Ichinose, from Japan.
Also Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Maestro Antoni Kord.
So you've brought up your pupil to inherit your talent.
No, Maestro,
I'm not the one who raised Kai.
The forest did.
The forest piano raised Kai.
You mean the one that was mentioned in his profile?
I saw that it mentions him studying under Sosuke Ajino and "the forest piano,"
but I assumed that was the name of a school or the like.
Hey, Chopin.
I'm here to fulfill my promise.
So...
...stay there until the end, and listen to me play.
Reiko,
right now, Kai is facing the world as he plays.
Are you...
out there listening?
A blackout?
Everyone, keep calm.
We're fine.
Just concentrate.
Our salvation is the fact that the pianist doesn't seem bothered at all.
The orchestra has calmed down.
Now let's follow the piano's lead!
It's not just the orchestra that he calmed down.
He also wasted no time keeping the audience from panicking.
In the darkness, the passages Ichinose plays...
The glimmer of harmonics...
strongly,
powerfully pierces our hearts...
...and forces listeners to focus on the sound –
the world within the music.
He took the sudden darkness...
...and incorporated it into one grand performance!
Are you all right?
I needn't have asked.
Now, then...
Where are you planning to take us next?
Actually, it doesn't matter.
We will follow you wherever it may be!
Damn it...
Why does this feel so pleasant?
If I let my guard down, my body and soul will get fully cleansed...
Hm?
A wind?
Kai...
This is the forest, isn't it?
Our beloved forest of the piano.
Kai,
this is a sound only you can produce.
It's a timbre that the forest taught you, and you alone.
For everything I've given Kai, he has given me so much more.
Ever since I first saw him playing the piano in that moonlit forest,
I've believed that I, and perhaps I alone,
could develop him into the real deal.
Ever since I picked up this belief,
I have had a new purpose in life.
We've been through so much, Kai.
Before I met you, I was living as if I were already dead,
so imagine the bewilderment I felt each time I felt my emotions flooding back.
I felt such anger and sadness about the injustice of your situation
and such frustration about being unsure of how to help you.
But what surprised me most...
was how much happiness remained even after all the anger, sadness, and frustration.
The joy of watching Kai grow –
of seeing him learn one thing after another –
grew and became irreplaceable to me before I knew it.
Might I be experiencing how near and dear children grow to their parents' hearts?
Reiko...
Mr. Ajino...
Ever since back then, you have supported the two of us more than I can put into words.
I can never thank you enough.
You know, Rei, no amount of thanking him will make Ajino happy.
Then what should we do?
I've thought a lot about what would make him happy,
and I think there's only one thing.
Huh? What's that?
What?
Shouldn't you know that much?
You're the one who asked him.
Hm?
Ajino wants nothing more than to make me into a fully-fledged pianist.
So...
So I just have to become one!
That's all Ajino wanted all these years.
He devoted his life to getting me here.
So, in return...
We need to think of a way to get you out of that place, so this is no time to lose hope.
You've made it this far on your own.
Just a bit more!
I didn't do it on my own.
Hm?
Without you, someone like me probably wouldn't even get into middle school!
Oh, come on. Middle school is compulsory education.
I heard that you had to get on your knees and beg to get me into that school.
I heard the teachers talking.
I have done no such thing.
I'm not so desperate to go to school that I want you begging for me like that!
In that case,
if you think you've put me through a lot, make sure to attend.
Study more than anyone, and make sure you graduate.
If you didn't have so much potential,
I might not have helped you this way.
In any case, you mustn't lay your playing to rest.
Understand, Kai?
I'm merely trying to give momentum to the talent that's already inside you.
Yeah...
So stop putting yourself down like that.
Did you forget?
You're the one who was chosen by the forest piano.
Chosen?
That's not...
Believe in yourself.
I can't believe in myself!
Then believe in me.
Ajino...
Yes,
this is definitely the forest of the piano.
Kord...
and the orchestra...
We're all in the forest.
That's what it felt like.
Finally, the third movement.
In this moment...
I...
believe in myself!
Now, Kai,
it's time for the third movement.
Show me the full extent of your abilities.
It's time to get out of that forest.
Kai Ichinose.
Ajino said this ability of his to communicate was nurtured by the forest.
I didn't quite believe it at first, but...
What was that clear sound just now?
I've never heard anything like it.
Oh...
The landlady opened the window for me.
She said the noise is okay around this time of day.
But I heard you from too far away for the sound to carry just because you opened a window.
Huh?
Oh...
The wind was blowing, so I let the music go with it.
Kai, what is this playing?
Oh, you noticed?
I was hoping you wouldn't.
Huh?
Well, you seemed like you were in a bad mood, so I wanted to send you some gentle notes.
Just like how you calm down a snake!
But it didn't work if you noticed.
The forest piano steadily nurtured Kai far beyond what I imagined possible.
Kai,
you're probably in the forest right now.
But...
you shouldn't need to go to the forest to play your own way anymore.
Kai,
why don't you try leaving that place?
Playing with the Warsaw Philharmonic like this,
maybe you'll finally be able to leave that forest.
You have the orchestra at your side.
You're not alone!
I grew up in the forest.
Chopin grew up on a flatland.
His playing is trying to evolve.
Poland is a never-ending flatland.
Chopin grew up on that flatland –
one that continues on and on forever.
A majestic flatland.
Always watching...
...the huge sky!
I'm out of the forest!
This sound...
is the first that is truly Kai's.
I see...
The forest piano will always exist in my heart.
Which means, I can go anywhere!
I can be even freer!
I'll go much, much further away!
That's more like it!
Let's see how far we can take this!
The forest piano evolves,
growing and growing,
unhindered by anything.
Boundless...
...and unfettered.
This...
This is exactly...
the playing I wanted to hear from Kai.
Now I know what it sounds like – the playing that I've always longed to hear.
Freely...
So freely...
...it dances across the skies all over the world.
To think music could be this free!