Blues on the Canvas

2.3

May 15th of 2016

The grand opening of Madarame's exhibit. Yusuke dreaded every sight of the paintings that were clearly not drawn by Madarame himself. He narrowed his eyebrows, glancing at the waves of people flocking in to see the artworks. Though it was not their fault, he couldn't help but feel frustrated at the sight of flocking guests, blindly enjoying plagiarised art.

Yusuke stood in front of the entrance, silently waiting for Ann to arrive. He immersed himself in his thoughts, only for his eye to catch out a certain blonde, and the two lingering behind her.

"Ah! You came!" the artist exclaimed, when he noticed the two behind her he frowned. "You both, don't get in the way of guests who truly enjoy art. As for you miss, I'll show you around. I'd like to speak more about the picture I'd like to draw too."

Ann, hesitated a bit, only to nod her head and follow after him.

A certain cat emerged from Akira's bag, frantically slapping his paws against his shoulders, worried about his lady. Ryuji on the other hand, was not having any of it, already annoyed with having to behave himself as he scolded the cat, Akira stuck in the crossfire in their daily dispute. 

"Hey man, why don't we just walk around?" Ryuji grumbled, scratching his hair out of boredom.

"Sure." Akira replied, scouting the area for Madarame. "It just so happens our potential target stands there."

The boys looked at the direction pointed out, the frail man standing in a crowd of reporters as they bombarded him with questions. Somehow Ryuji did feel a sense of empathy for the poor guy as he got showered with interviews, only to snap back to reality as Morgana, the cat, placed his paw on Ryuji's shoulder firmly.

"You have such expansive styles, its a mystery how it all stems from one person... where does all your inspiration come from?" the interviewer asked, her face gleaming with delight to meet the artist face to face. Morgana groaned, wanting to regroup with Ann faster.

"Well it is difficult to put into words..." Madarame started. "They just occur like bubbles rising one after another in the spring. What's important is to distance oneself from money and fame. Though I stay in a modest shack, it is more than enough to pursue true beauty."

"A shack eh?" Ryuji whispered into Akira's ears. "Didn't that appear somewhere?"

Suddenly, a wave of guests poured into the small space around Madarame, Akira pulled on Ryuji's sleeves as they made their escape.

"Morgana- don't die on us, all right?!"

The 3 pushed their way out, the only ones who just wasn't having any of the fun the guests were having.

⋆⁺₊⋆ ☾⋆⁺₊⋆

On the other hand, Yusuke gave a detailed tour for Ann as she admired the different works of art.

"I didn't know there were so many types of Japanese art-" Ann said, taking in the sights of paintings all around her.

"Usually one has their own style, but sensei creates all this by himself..." he replied, biting his tongue not to slip out anything that could damage his reputation. "He's...special."

He stayed conflicted as Ann continued to look around, only for Madarame himself to break his thoughts.

"Ah the girl from yesterday, are you enjoying the exhibit?" he started, smiling at Ann.

"I don't know how to put this but it's really amazing!"

Madarame laughed and turned to Yusuke.

"I hope your piece turns out excellent."

Madarame leaves and the two continued on the tour.

"Ooh this one! I really wanted to see it in person...you know I'm getting like frustration from the painter, strong anger...to think such a cheerful person could paint such a piece..." 

Yusuke bit his lips, his heart suddenly heavy with a million sighs clouding over it. This artwork, clearly was not drawn by Madarame.

"Something wrong?" Ann asked, glancing at his sudden weakened state.

"Don't mind me, lets continue on to look at better pieces."

Yusuke turned his back on the painting, unable to look at it any longer. Ann, realising his sudden departure, followed quickly behind after glancing just a little while more on the painting.

⋆⁺₊⋆ ☾⋆⁺₊⋆

Akira and Ryuji retreated to the Shibuya Accessway, with the blonde gripping his shoulders from accidental elbow hits from Madarame's guests. Morgana, laughing at Ryuji's weakness, jumped from Akira's bag to check on the seated boy. Reminded of something, Ryuji rummaged through his bag to find his phone.

"Hey! Why'd you leave without me?!" a voice echoed from across the bridge, causing the cat to jump. Ryuji, upon finding his phone paid more attention on finding the post he was about to show the others. Ignoring the girl's voice he thrusted his phone upwards for the two others to see, leaving Morgana annoyed that he couldn't read it too.

"A master of the Japanese arts is plagiarising his pupil's work. Only his public face is shown on TV." he read, "I didn't think much of it until the words 'shack' and 'Madarame' triggered the app. "His treatment of the pupils who live with him is awful. He teaches nothing and bosses them around. He treats them inhumanely, as if discipling a dog...""

The phantom thieves looked at each other with concern dripping from their frowns.

Coincidentally, a certain pianist had just walked past them, hearing each word muttered from the blonde's mouth.