‘Well, aren’t you the star pupil?’ Mr Akino’s voice was dripping with sarcasm. ‘You’re way too simplistic about things. That’s not the essence of Mr Itadori’s tuning, not at all. Were you half asleep or something? You’re too spoiled. And Mr Itadori treats you with kid gloves. He shows you every tiny thing he does, doesn’t he? By doing that isn’t he in fact looking down on you?’

‘Of course not. I’m still learning,’ I said and ended the conversation.

Make Your Craft Invisible

The following day I accompanied Mr Yanagi on a tuning job and brought up what Mr Akino had said.

‘Ah, Mr Akino … Don’t let it bother you.’

As he paced along, pulling his tuning bag behind him on wheels for a change, I saw that he was smiling. I knew then that he didn’t think badly of Mr Akino.

‘He annoyed me at first, too,’ he continued. ‘Not to mention his claims that your average client is happy so long as you adjust things so they’re boom-snap.’

‘What?’ I asked, and Mr Yanagi grinned.

‘That sort of sound was popular with stereos for a time. A really booming bass at the lower end with a snappy, crisp sound in the higher registers. Tweak a piano so it sounded like that and people thought it was good.’

I imagined Mr Akino was teasing him to an extent. Popularity was a factor we had to consider, and part of the tuner’s job was, after all, to adjust it to a tone the clients found pleasing.

‘I thought he shouldn’t say such stupid things.’ He spoke quickly as we walked through the car park. ‘I thought he was making fun of tuning and of our clients. I thought he’d just not come across any discerning clients and I felt sorry for him. Nonetheless …’ He glanced over at me as though an interesting new idea had just come to him. ‘Tomura, why don’t you try to ask Mr Akino to take you out on a job sometime?’ He didn’t miss the wry look on my face. ‘That boom-snap talk is just that – talk. Actually, he does a really good job. Despite the spiky attitude and the things he says.’

‘Seriously?’

Mr Yanagi nodded. ‘I don’t know if he’s conscious of it or not, but he never cuts corners. He looks like he doesn’t care, but he does a good job. He loves and respects the piano. Though I bet he’d deny it if you asked him.’

Even if I were to ask Mr Akino to let me tag along, I doubted he’d agree. And I couldn’t say I wanted to, either. I felt as though I was drowning in things I didn’t understand and wasn’t ready for, desperate to get purchase on the cliff face.