Things About the Music Cultivator Matsuda Jinpei

Cultivating music is supposed to be an elegant pursuit, but somehow things turned out differently in Matsuda Jinpei’s year.

Maybe it’s because Matsuda Jinpei is tone-deaf?

That’s right. Matsuda Jinpei’s instruments are the suona and the flute.

Matsuda Jinpei had just finished his studies in China. His senior disciples and master tearfully saw him off onto the ship. As soon as he was gone, they embraced and wept with joy. But his fellow disciples, juniors, and younger sisters, who had studied alongside him, were genuinely reluctant to see him go.

“Thank goodness he’s finally gone! We don’t have to listen to funeral music anymore!”

“Yeah! How did he manage to make such a lovely song as ‘Summer in the Little Town’ sound so sinister?”

“How did he turn such ethereal, innocent music into something that sounds like a whole horde of ghosts emerging from the forest to get revenge on you, and then harass you along the way?”

“Fine, we accepted the suona, but how on earth did he make the bamboo flute sound like that too?”

“Senior brothers and sisters, Master, I don’t think Matsuda is that bad. I think he plays pretty well!”

“Exactly! When we went to play at funerals together, his music could’ve earned us a whole lot of pocket money!”

Matsuda Jinpei, of course, had no idea what his fellow disciples and master thought of him. When he set foot in his homeland once more...

“Jinpei, you’re finally back!”

“High!”

“Come on, let’s go. You have to report to the police academy in a month. I don’t get why you had to go abroad to study at a time like this. Is Kenji not charming enough?”

“It’s a secret!”

----- Police Academy -----

Matsuda Jinpei reached the roof of the teaching building, but suddenly received a message by paper kite. He took it out and saw that his senior sister had gotten married. Since he was far across the sea and couldn’t do anything for her, Matsuda took his suona from his space pendant and played “The Final Bow” across the Sea of Japan to celebrate her wedding.

The moment the music started, Rei Furuya, who had just been preparing to climb over the police academy wall to buy something, blacked out and fell from the wall. Kenji Hagiwara, on his way to meet his childhood friend, collapsed against the wall, one hand covering his ears and the other clutching the bricks so tightly that he left five deep marks. Hiromitsu, who had been about to go to bed, fell onto his mattress and fell asleep instantly without even changing out of his uniform. The dorm supervisor, on his way to check on them, crashed to the floor with a thud. According to those present:

“It felt like dying and coming back to life, then living and dying all over again. In a daze, I thought I saw the gates of hell!”

After that, Matsuda Jinpei was strictly forbidden from playing the suona.

But Matsuda Jinpei said, “Just because you forbid me from playing the suona doesn’t mean you’ve forbidden me from playing the bamboo flute.”

Everyone at the police academy: Don’t come any closer!

----- The Organization -----

Matsuda Jinpei learned that his fellow music cultivators were coming to Japan for a visit, so he brought his suona to meet them.

Matsuda Jinpei and his fellow cultivators walked to a small hill and had a picnic. Before they knew it, it was late. Stars glittered across the sky, and the bright moon was half hidden behind wisps of cloud, cloaking everything in a veil. Shadows flickered among the trees, swaying in the wind. Everything was so peaceful and beautiful.

Perhaps the drinks had gone to their heads. Someone suggested, “Brothers, how about we play ‘Parade of a Hundred Ghosts’? The mood is perfect. How can we call ourselves music cultivators if we don’t play it?”

What Matsuda Jinpei didn’t know was that his police academy classmates, Scotch and Bourbon, were worried about him. He and his friends had no idea that a few dozen meters behind the hill was an abandoned warehouse where members of the Organization were holding a meeting. Bourbon and Scotch were trying to figure out how to warn Matsuda Jinpei to stay away. But then they saw him take out an instrument, and it was the suona. They exchanged a glance and were about to run, but just then...

The suona began “Parade of a Hundred Ghosts,” followed by the chimes, the xiao, the erhu, and other instruments.

As the song played, Scotch and Bourbon looked around. The moonlight, which had been silvery white as snow, now seemed steeped in blood. The forest shadows, so quiet and mysterious, now writhed with ghostly shapes. The dreamy mountain mist became an entrance to the underworld, while the little pool shimmering in the moonlight turned into a sea of blood and flesh, sending up waves of stench. In short, even the two men, accustomed to living in darkness, felt sick. The Organization members in the distance were affected too. Then, as the music reached its climax, boom, boom, boom! The Organization members were wiped out. Bourbon and Scotch collapsed along with them, of course.

Theme: If you can’t be ethereal, then be terrifying