| I can't help but laugh if I think about it now, though in the past, I genuinely thought he was like a Buddha. |
| When me and my childhood friend, Kasumi, entered Nanakusa High, it was the first time for us, who were always in the same class up until junior high, to end up in different classes. |
| While Kasumi fit in with his classmates just fine due to his personality, I was treated like a delinquent due to my appearance and was avoided by my classmates. Even though Kasumi would sometimes invite me to have lunch and go to school together, I didn't make any new friends at all. |
| I know I could make friends by joining a club, but I didn't feel like joining one. I was actually considering joining the baseball club, but they decided not to recruit any new members from my year since their advisor had reached the retirement age. |
| I couldn't find anything I wanted to do besides baseball. Finding it troublesome to get involved with the people who got frightened by me, I killed my time after school by looking after the stray cats in the school building for some reason. |
| One day, that person called out to me. |
| Yukio Tachibana, who was one year above me. He invited me to join his newly-established theater club after he saw me talking with the baseball club's advisor in the staff room. |
| "I don't have any interest whatsoever in theater. 'Sides, I'm in the goin' home club now." |
| "Do you have something to do after school?" |
| "...Not really." |
| "It's a different story if you have cram school, a part-time job, or anything else you have to do. But being in the going-home club is the same as not belonging to any club, right? Even if one is merely a ghost member or already belongs to another club, I still think the sensation of being connected with someone is great! Connection is important, after all." |
| "The hell is that…" |
| In the end, I decided to lend my name because he was so persistent and annoying. |
| Yukio-san would ask me to do theater together whenever we met, but I would always decline. However, that person was never discouraged and continued telling me to stop by. Now that I think about it, he was the first person that held a conversation with me ever since I entered high school. |
| "I have a feeling Yuzo will do theater with me one day." |
| "Haah?" |
| "I can feel that connection." |
| I wasn't interested in theater at all. In the first place, with this appearance, I wasn't fitted to be doing theater. Despite that, the word "connection" that Yukio-san casually said reminded me of "The Spider's Thread[1]" that I learned in Modern Japanese class for some reason. |
| I never joined the club activities in the end. However, the fact that I belonged to the club, as well as the sensation of being connected to that person via a fine thread that seemed like the spider's thread, had always remained in a corner of my heart. |
| Perhaps it was because I was pulled in by the thread that Kasumi became obsessed with theater after inviting me to watch the cultural festival play, that we ended up helping to organize the cultural festival's play in the following year, and that I became interested in theater after watching that person's one-man show. |
| It was also because of that thread that I couldn't resist when Kasumi dragged me while saying that he wanted to help out at the theater troupe Yukio-san established. |
| I ended up participating in the audition and joining the troupe, prompting Yukio-san to say, "See?" to me while laughing. I recalled the conversation I had with Yukio-san at that time. I thought to myself, "I really am no match for him." |
| Even though the connection I have with that person seems to be breaking soon, it was the one which supported me during my high school days. It was also the one which led me to a new world called theater. |
| My life rapidly sped up ever since I joined the company and got completely absorbed in theater. No matter how much time I had to learn about theater and rehearse… it wasn't enough. |
| Together with my friends, we ran through frantically and finally reached that person's goal: the Fleur Award nomination. We were determined to win that award next year without fail. Yukio-san and Hakkaku-san did their best to prepare for that. After some time, the concepts for our new work were gathered together. |
| "A mixed play?" |
| "I've already talked about this with Yukio; If we're going with each troupe's plays, it will totally be stereotypical. The Fleur Award is an all-out war. We won't be able to win if we don't create the best plays ever. We plan to have the cast centered on the troupes' leaders." |
| "We actually wanted to do that too, right, Hakkaku-san?" |
| "I'll probably die if we do that. Maybe next time." |
| "That?" |
| "We'll tell you once the script is done." |
| Even when we were united to aim for the Fleur Award, I had one hesitation. |
| I stepped into the theater world after being invited by Yukio-san to join the theater club, being forced to enter the troupe by Kasumi and getting myself involved with other people. I was still very keen on theater and wanted to do it for the rest of my life. However, I wasn't sure whether I could stay like this. |
| During that time, I remember seeing Reni-san who left the troupe and established GOD-za. |
| My resolve towards theater might become stronger by leaving MANKAI Company. I had developed an interest in becoming a director after doing a lot of assistant work to help out Yukio-san for many years. |
| With that, I decided to leave MANKAI Company once the play that was aiming for the Fleur Awards had wrapped up. |
| "I see… Have you told Kasumi about this?" |
| "Nah… If I do, I'm sure he will stop me from leaving." |
| "I can totally see that… That means the next play will be the last play I produce with you." |
| "I appreciate everything you've done for me." |
| "You see, I feel like the thread that connects us is not a red thread. Rather, it's a strange thread. ...The baseball club and theater club just so happened to be disbanded at the same time, and we just so happened to be present at the staff room. We met through a lot of coincidences. You were also the very first member of the theater club." |
| "I was a ghost member, though." |
| "But you played an active part at MANKAI Company. I think this is a curious turn of fate. That's why, can I contact you even after you have left the troupe? I want to stay connected." |
| "Well, I'm still gonna continue doing theater. Feel free to call me if there's anything I can do to repay your kindness." |
| Even though I was sure it'd be impossible to lose a connection with Yukio-san who is always surrounded by people, I still couldn't refuse his request. |
| Then one day when we were rehearsing for the play, Yukio-san suddenly disappeared. |
| In the letter he left to us, he had asked us to continue the troupe's activities and to cancel our next play. Everyone was surprised. Especially Matsukawa, who had just joined the troupe; he was understandably shaken up. |
| I also couldn't believe that my last performance in this troupe would be canceled. Even when I wanted to ask the reason why, I couldn't contact Yukio-san. |
| After a serious discussion with the remaining troupe members, we decided to do as Yukio-san told us since we assumed there might have been some circumstances behind it. Besides, we couldn't go against the general director. Then, when we were discussing what to do next as a troupe, Kasumi suddenly brought it up. |
| "I think I'm going to quit the troupe." |
| "Hah? What are you sayin', Kasumi--" |
| "I want to support the troupe in a different way from now on." |
| "But you can't just quit at this time." |
| "Sorry. I've actually been considering it for a while." |
| While everyone was trying to hold him back, I had no choice but to also talk about leaving the troupe. |
| "...I've already talked about this with Yukio-san, but I plan to leave the troupe after this play. I'm considering being a director too, not just an actor." |
| "Eeh!? Why are you quitting, Yuzo!?" |
| "I don't want to hear that from someone who brought this up first. I've been woolly thinking about this ever since Reni-san quitted." |
| "...I didn't know about it at all." |
| "However, I will always be thankful for all the things Yukio-san did for me. I'll return the favor for sure." |
| Then, after I left the troupe and was eagerly facing theater in my own way, I received a call from an unknown number. |
| I usually ignored those kinds of calls, but for some reason, I was curious and answered. Yukio-san's voice could be heard on the other end. |
