Ceramics Piano (The Sorrow of a Genius Girl)
セラミックス・ピアノ(ある天才少女の悲しみ)(A Strange Story from Everyday Life)
There is someone who is called a genius. Her very existence is like a fantasy.
Manami and Reiko are first-year middle school students. Manami is a piano prodigy, but lately she has been absorbed in painting oil portraits of nude figures.
On the very first day of middle school, at the entrance ceremony, she encountered the Ceramics Piano. That piano multiplied Manami’s ability many times over.
Then came summer vacation. Together with her first friend in class, Masami, she went to help out at Masami’s relative’s inn. There, she met Kana, a fourth-grade elementary school girl. Kana devoted herself to playing the piano her late father had given her as a present. Manami also played the piano there. Her performance touched the hearts of the inn’s guests.
Autumn arrived, bringing the second semester, the sports festival, and the chorus competition. For the first time, Manami performed on the piano for her classmates. That performance changed the way her class saw her. Needless to say, the chorus competition was a great success.
Soon winter vacation was approaching. Manami said she wanted to go to the inn again, but for various reasons, she couldn’t. Masami spoke of the winter sea.
Then spring came. Emi departed to study abroad in Germany. Manami lost her model for painting, and the loneliness left her feeling restless and irritable.
