| Chikage | ......About here, huh. |
| Itaru | Seeenpai? You're not trying to make some sort of game-like plot development happen, are you? |
| Chikage | What are you on about. |
| Itaru | Using your cheat skills to make something happen. You're trying to do something a normal businessman wouldn't be able to do again, right? |
| Chikage | No reality checks allowed......Say, I said that back then, too.[1] |
| Itaru | So, what were you actually trying to do? |
| Chikage | I was looking up information on Director Hoshii. |
| Itaru | There's no way you're talking about stuff on the level of what you could read on summary sites. |
| Chikage | Well, if I had to say whether I got a hold of any information that could be a weakness of his, I did. |
| But even if I used that information to resolve things by blackmailing him, none of you would be happy, right? |
| The Director and you guys in the Spring Troupe are all good-hearted, after all. |
| Itaru | Of course. I wouldn't let harm come to my god. |
| Chikage | Well, I'll store it away as a trump card for some time or other. |
| Itaru | Also, if "KniRoun X" wasn't released because of you, I'd begrudge you all my life. |
| Chikage | Yeah, yeah. |
| Itaru | Say, if we're talking about good-hearted people, I think the person who's secretly searching for ways to resolve the matter by themselves is good-hearted too. |
| Chikage | ......I am technically the co-lead, after all. |
| The thing is, everyone was looking worried. If this carries over to the main performance, it'll have an effect on the play as well, won't it. |
| Itaru | That's true...... |
| Chikage | ......So what on earth do you plan to do? Let it slip that you're 《taruchi》? |
| Itaru | ......No, when I think more carefully about it, just knowing it's a point he came up with seriously pisses me off. |
| I'll make Hoshii-san acknowledge me through means other than his suggestion. |
| Chikage | Huh. |
| Itaru | What. |
| Chikage | No, I just thought that it was rather optimistic, in spite of the dark motive. |
| Itaru | I'm dark at heart, see. |
| But I can't think of a concrete way to express the charm of "KniRoun" in our own style. There's no more time until the performance. |
| Honestly, commoners can't understand what a god is thinking...... |
| Chikage | Both you and that person don't seem that different, though. |
| Itaru | Eh? |
| Chikage | I mean that from my perspective, you're both giving your lives to "KniRoun" and getting passionate about it. |
| Itaru | Even if you put me together with God...... |
| Chikage | The only real difference is that you're doing a play. |
| In the first place, when the offer for the stage adaption came, why did you say immediately that you wanted to accept? |
| You're a gamer from the heart, so if you say it's a title you have a strong attachment to it's not like I don't understand, but it was unexpected of you to volunteer as lead. |
| You seem the type to say it's impossible for you to reproduce a god-tier game. |
| Itaru | I do think that even now, though...... |
| Of course, there's also my fanboy heart, but "KniRoun" is important to me, so as you'd expect I do want to connect with it after all, or like....... |
| It might be that I wanted to repay it. |
| I guess I wanted to share the excitement and entertainment of the "KniRoun" adventure with the people who still don't know. |
| That's why I preach about it to everyone in the Spring Troupe too. |
| Chikage | You even tried to push it on me, huh. |
| Itaru | That's it. Maybe. |
| Chikage | Maybe? |
| Itaru | Well, it's thanks to talking to everyone about my time in high school that I remembered my feelings from back then, and I finally understood it, just then. |
| Chikage | ...... |
| ......Yoichi Hoshii, 58. From his time in primary school he was a computer game nerd; when he was in university he developed a game with his friend and started a business. |
| The following year, "KniRoun" was released, which leads us to the present. |
| Itaru | What is it all of a sudden? |
| Chikage | He's been opposed to mixed media expansions for a long time; around V's era he fought with the company about it and there was a big fuss over whether or not he was going to leave the company. |
| Itaru | Eh? That's the first I've heard of it. |
| Chikage | It's not widely-known in society. |
| Itaru | Cheat skills again...... |
| Chikage | Incidentally, the issue that time was apparently an anime...... |
| It seems they finally gained his assent showing him the actual scene of the voice actors' after-recording at the anime recording studio. |
| It was the result of lining up voice actors and veterans and spending an unprecedented amount of time on the production and supervision. |
| Director Hoshii said he understood what was good about anime and has willingly supported anime adaptions of the series since then. |
| Itaru | That's the first I've heard of that, too. |
| Chikage | It's not widely-etcetera etcetera. |
| Anyway, that's how stubborn the person we're trying to deal with is. |
| Itaru | Wowee. |
| Chikage | But to put it differently, it means he has the flexibility to pay his respects to people involved in other media types. |
| If we can make him understand the goodness of "KniRoun", the play that's not "KniRoun" the game, we have a chance of winning. |
| Itaru | That's quite the impossible game. |
| Chikage | ......I first stood on stage for Oz. |
| By becoming a different person on stage, I was able to confront the feelings of mine that I'd always averted my eyes from for the first time. |
| It was a strange sensation, like being connected to your hearts as you stood together on stage with me. |
| In the blink of an eye, I'm about to stand on stage again like this; that's how rare and precious I think that moment was for me. |
| Aren't you the same? There's something about theatre that sets you aflame more than games do. |
| Itaru | ―. |
| Chikage | If so, then you can just tell that directly to Director Hoshii. |
| It's something only you, both actor and masochistic nerd who plays the same game countless times over and over again, can do, isn't it? |
| Itaru | ......That's it; a rerun with conditionals. |
| Chikage | ? |
| Itaru | ......Even though I should have known the best, I overlooked something important. Senpai, you saved me. |
| Chikage | ......Gross. |
| Itaru | I'm making a point of being grateful and that's what you say? |
| Chikage | Well, it's good if you've cleared your thoughts. |
| |
| Izumi | Then we're carry on our conversation from yesterday in today's meeting ―. |
| Itaru | Could I have a moment? |
| Izumi | Yes? |
| Itaru | About Day One the day after tomorrow......I wonder if you'd let me speak to the audience for just five minutes before the start of the play. |
| Izumi | Eh, to the audience? |
| Tsuzuru | Surely you don't plan on coming out on the first day ― ? |
| Sakuya | Ehh!? |
| Citron | Itaru, don't rush. |
| Itaru | No, it's not that. |
| I'm not going to reveal 《taruchi》's identity. It'd be tough to delete all the videos I took the time to create, and I have tens of thousands of followers. |
| Sakuya | Then......? |
| Itaru | There's something I want to say in advance to Hoshii-san and the audience members who come to watch on the first day. |
| ......Will you believe in me and trust me with it? |
| Izumi | (I suppose he has something in mind.) |
| You're the leader. We'll leave it to you. |
| Sakuya | ― Yes! |
| Citron | You can do what you like! |
| Masumi | It's not like we have any other plans. |
| Tsuzuru | We're in your hands. |
| Chikage | Well, we'll just have to try it. |
| Itaru | Then that's that. |
| Izumi | I'll tell Tonooka-san next time that we're rejecting the proposal related to 《taruchi》, too. |
| Itaru | Ahh, incidentally, when's Tonooka coming to watch? |
| Izumi | He said he's busy so he wasn't sure, but he'd come just for the final performance. |
| Itaru | ― I see. |
| Then let's work hard at practice until the day itself. |
| If we believe and express that we want to do this play in our own way, I'm sure it'll be okay. |
| After all, we know well what's good about plays. We can just think about communicating that, same as we've always done. |
| Sakuya | Yes! |
| Masumi | And the actual plan? |
| Itaru | Leave that to me on the day as well. Practice is fine as is. |
| Izumi | (I don't know what Itaru-san is thinking, but it seems like his hesitation has cleared somehow.) |
| (He feels reliable as a leader. Let's believe in him here!) |
