| Banri | Ever since I was a kid, I was better than everyone at everything. |
| Tests in P. E., Japanese, Math—I’ve only ever gotten first.
Every time I came in first, my family and everyone around me praised me profusely. |
| You’re a genius, you can do anything, you have such a bright future—it’s not like I worked hard to come in first, but all that free praise didn’t feel bad. |
| But I wonder when everyone started seeing it differently.
When did it change from “Banri again” to “I know it’s going to be Banri again”? |
| The soccer club ace who I went running with, the self-proclaimed class prodigy—they all started slacking because they thought they’d never beat me. |
| My family grew less and less enthusiastic about the same old first place, and eventually I just stopped showing them my 100s and perfect report cards. |
| That was when everything around me lost its color—when everything began to feel boring and pointless. |
| |
| Every little thing was a pain. I was so bored that one day, I just decided to run away from home. |
| This pointless world suddenly felt so suffocating; I didn’t care where I was headed so long as I could get out. |
| If I keep walking along the riverbed and end up somewhere else, I’ll probably be free of this sick feeling—that’s what I thought. |
| I started walking in the afternoon. Eventually, the sun set, and the riverbed grew pitch black because there wasn’t a single light around. |
| I was a cold brat, so I didn’t panic or get scared; it just hit me that I felt like an idiot. |
| I was tired, I couldn’t even see the ground, and it’d be a pain if my parents yelled at me. So I waved a taxi and headed home on my own. |
| …I remember how I’d walked so far, but my trip home ended in an instant. |
| |
| While watching the scenery fly by from the taxi window, I thought, maybe this world I live in is actually really small. |
| Maybe, one day, someone outside of this small world will come to beat me—. |
| Excitement and anticipation, feelings that I had long forgotten, welled up out of nowhere in my chest. |
| My escape was nothing special. The only thing I obtained was hope—towards something I had yet to see, towards someone I had yet to meet in the outside world. |
| But that was enough. |
| Well, after that, nee-chan just happened to be home that day, so she paid my ridiculous taxi fare and hit me real hard—that’s also a great memory. |
| |
| Banri | If it were me, I’d create a one-man act about my boyhood from a fragment of my memory, like, here’s the story of my mini-runaway~. |
| Azami | Mini-runaway? |
| Banri | Like you right now. |
| Azami | It’s not mini. Plus, if it’s mini, there won’t be any interesting drama. |
| I can’t join the troupe unless I come in first, so the easiest way out is to create a sob story. |
| Banri | Didn’t I say this yesterday? |
| It’d be different if it were a true story, but you don’t even have the skill. A shallow bluff will mean nothing to a discerning audience. |
| If it’s a real “memory from boyhood,” just a shard or a fragment is enough. Don’t think about coming up with some grand story. |
| What the audience wants to see from your portrait is an actual human; they want your dedication and potential as an actor. Not some dramatic story. |
| Azami | …. |
| Banri | Don’t you have any childhood stories? It doesn’t matter what it is. |
| Azami | Shithead Sakyo knows most of it, so I don’t wanna perform that in front of him. |
| Banri | Were you with Sakyo-san all the time? |
| Azami | My dad was busy, so shithead Sakyo was my 24/7 caretaker. |
| Even though he’s a yakuza, he wouldn’t shut up about proper manners and etiquette, getting good grades, the importance of having a sense of economy…. |
| Banri | One-on-one with that old man… sounds rough. Well, what about your parents? |
| Azami | ...That’s even worse. |
| Banri | ...Then you’ll need to come up with something else. Try to remember. |
| Azami | …. |
| Banri | ...Now that I think about it, I ran away from home too. Not as long as you did, though. It was a short one-day thing. |
| Azami | ...I did that kinda thing once when I was little too. |
| Banri | Why don’t you go with that, then? Well, no matter what you do, Sakyo-san is probably gonna rip you to shreds, but. |
| Azami | Didn’t you say you just have to tell a real story? |
| Banri | That’s the bare minimum. We’ve suffered through that old man’s nitpicking since our debut performance, so I know how you feel. He sure is annoying. |
| Azami | Huh…. |
| Banri | During our debut performance, the old man locked me and Hyodo together with handcuffs because apparently we weren’t cooperating. He’s out of his mind. |
| Azami | Handcuffs? |
| Banri | Messed up, right? Well, I guess it’s sort of thanks to him? That the performance went well, though. |
| Azami | Huh…. |
| Banri | Omi was the lead during our second performance. Sakyo-san said it would be better for Omi to experience playing the lead. |
| Omi did break out of his shell during that play. How should I put it—he sorted out his feelings, and now it seems like he’s got more guts. |
| And Sakyo-san was the lead during our third performance. There was some big mess over whether or not he’d be leaving the dorms. |
| He never tells us enough when it matters, so it makes more trouble for us. |
| Azami | ...What is that? A history of the Autumn Troupe? |
| Banri | Yup. Thought it’d be better to tell the new guy. |
| Azami | I’m not in yet. |
| Banri | You kinda seem like you’ll get in. But that’s just my gut feeling. |
| Azami | You say that after throwing my whole portrait out three days before the presentation? |
| Banri | That’s no problem. I’d finish mine in a day. |
| Well then, I’ve got something to do, so. Do your best. |
| Azami | ...Sigh. |
| A memory from childhood… Honestly, I can’t remember too well, but I guess I’ll ask him |
