Kumon Hyodo/Brilliance of Blooming

MANKAI Livestream! ~LIVE: Kumon~

Backstage Stories

Part 1Part 2

Izumi	Kazunari-kun is also joining in on today’s leader’s meeting.
Kazunari	Let’s do this piko~!
Banri	Have you come up with somethin’ again?
Kazunari	That’s right, Setzer!
	There’s a lil something I wanted to try.
	So you see… we held a project survey for the fans to find out what they’d like us to do!
Sakuya	A project survey?
Izumi	Yep. We did it for our fans as per Kazunari-kun’s suggestion.
Kazunari	Thankfully, MANKAI Company’s popularity is soaring through the roof right now!
Tenma	That’s true. We got a lot of new fans too.
Kazunari	‘Cept some of the folks who have been supporting us for a while also voiced that they’re a bit lonely since it feels like there’s been more distance between us.
	But, like, we wanna be a Theatre troupe that’s close to our fans no matter how much our popularity rises, right?
Banri	I see.
	So that explains the project survey, eh?
Tsumugi	How were the results?
Kazunari	The most common answer was, “I wanna see more InsteLives and selfies from all the troupe members!”
Tenma	Well, the frequency of InsteLive streams varies from person to person.
Tsumugi	It’s the same for our selfies.
	We basically leave it to the members who are good at SNS.
Kazunari	Yep, and so! As a special project this time, I propose we hold a solo InsteLive and selfie festival for 24 consecutive days!
Banri	A selfie festival?
Kazunari	It’d be even more hype if we took selfies during the live and upped the pics to Inste later, wouldn’t it!
Izumi	We’ve also discussed it with Sakyo-san, and he said we can do it as long as I keep watch to make sure no trouble occurs during the streams.
Kazunari	And so, the rest depends on you guys…
	How about it?
Sakuya	I’d love to do it! Of course I want to make everyone happy…
	But I’m happy for the chance to talk with all the fans through the screen too!
Tsumugi	I’d like to give it a try too. I feel like I’m getting more used to InsteLives, little by little.
Tenma	Hey, but, we can’t just idly chat, right?
Kazunari	On that topic, I thought it might be great to send out another survey to hear what they’d like each troupe member to do.
Banri	Seems like it’ll be a lot easier to handle in that case.
Izumi	Every InsteLive will turn out differently. That sounds interesting.
Kazunari	‘Kay then, it’s settled!
	Leave the form creation and tallying up to me!
Sakuya	Thank you very much, Kazunari-san!
Izumi	Alright then, leaders. Please share the InsteLive and selfie plan with all your members.
Leaders	Got it!
Kumon	Hmm~, what should I do…
	…Ah! Director!
Izumi	Kumon-kun. Welcome back.
Kumon	I’m back!
	You’ve got a lotta bags there.
	I’ll carry them!
Izumi	Thanks, that helps.
	These are snacks I got from the Theatre troupe I was just helping out with.
	Let’s eat them together once we’re home.
Kumon	Yay!
Izumi	That reminds me, have you decided on what you’re gonna do for your stream, Kumon-kun?
Kumon	I’m still fretting over that…
	Lots of people said they’d like to see me play baseball in the survey I received, so I was thinking I’d do that—.
	But Sakyo-san will get mad if I play something like baseball in the rehearsal hall.
	I was considering doing it outside, but it’s gonna be rainy that day…
Izumi	Hmm, I see…
	By the way, was there anything else that was highly requested on your survey?
Kumon	There was also… ah, some said they wanna see me as a high school student.
Izumi	That’s also pretty vague…
Kumon	Right~?
	It’s easy to just wear my uniform, but what I do is important too. What can I do that’s “like a high school student”?
Izumi	Like a high school student, huh…
	(It’s been quite a long time since I graduated high school, so I doubt I could help… ugh, that kind of hurts my heart.)
Kumon	…HA!
Izumi	Hm? What’s up?
Kumon	That person’s back I see over there…
	NII-CHAAAN!
Juza	Kumon, Director.
Izumi	Welcome back, Juza-kun.
	He was pretty far away, yet you still recognized him, huh?
Kumon	Hehe. Nii-chan’s back is super cool so I could tell right away!
	Oh, right! Hey, hey, Nii-chan. Director and I were just discussing my upcoming InsteLive.
	In my survey, there were requests saying they wanna see me as a high school student…
	So what do you think of when we say “like a high school student”?
Juza	High school… lemme think…
	Supplementary classes after school, dudes throwin’ hands with you outta nowhere, stuff like that.
Kumon	EHH!
	I mean, I do go to a lot of make-up classes after school. But I don’t think anyone’s ever suddenly picked a fight with me…
Izumi	Umm, yeah, I think everyone would be pretty shocked with the idea of supplementary lessons and fights.
Juza	Right… my bad.
	Kumon, you actually are a high school student. Why don’tcha think back to what you did today?
Kumon	What I did today?
	Umm, hold on…
	I wrote math and modern Japanese quizzes and they were rough~.
	But we played volleyball in gym class after that and it got really heated!
	Then I got hungry since I moved around a lot, so I ate two curry buns, two onigiris and a whole~ lot more…
	Azami scolded me saying, “eat some veggies too!”~.
	Then after our lunch break, I…
Juza	Hmph…
	Don’t those sound good?
Izumi	Yeah, I think so too.
Kumon	Eh? Things like that work?
Izumi	By saying they want to see you as a high school student, it means the fans want to see how you naturally are, not you as an actor. Isn’t that right, Kumon-kun?
Kumon	Ohhh, I see!
	Okaaay. I’m not sure if they’ll like it, but that’s what I’ll do!
	I’ve got this, and this too…
Friend A	You bought lots of stuff at the school store, huh, Kumon?
Friend B	Lunch is over but you’re gonna eat again~?
Kumon	Hehe! These are for my stream!

Izumi	Are you two ready?
Kumon	We’re good to go!
Izumi	Fufu, you sure bought a lot of stuff.
Kumon	I just ended up buying lots.
Izumi	Alright. Shall we get started?
Kumon	I’ll leave it in your hands!
	Hey there! It’s MANKAI Company Summer troupe’s Hyodo Kumon!
	Is everyone watching~?
Comment	“Hello!”
Comment	“We’re watching~!”
Comment	“Kumon-kun’s in his uniform!”
Kumon	I was really at a loss over what I should do today…
	But I figured I’d show you the regular me, not the actor me~. So I put my uniform on!
	But just doing that would be boring, so I’m gonna be streaming with the concept of how a regular lunch break of mine goes!
Comment	“That sounds awesome!”
Comment	“I can’t wait~!”
Kumon	And so… TAH DAH!
	Here's my lunch for today!
	This is a big sausage bun, and this here’s a tuna mayo onigiri~…
???	Dude. I told you to eat some veggies, didn’t I?
Comment	“???”
Comment	“Is someone else there?”
Comment	“Could this voice be”
Kumon	Ah, I haven’t called you yet though!
Azami	You were takin’ too long.
Comment	“It’s Azami-kun!”
Comment	“Omg!? I’m so happy!”
Comment	“Azami-kun looks cool in his uniform too~!”
Kumon	It’d be boring just eating and talking by myself, so I asked Azami to come since we eat together all the time!
	This is how we actually spend our days!
Azami	Right.
	But we had lunch apart today since you said there’d be nothing left to talk about here.
Kumon	C’mon, Azami. Don’t expose me!
Comment	“They’re close~!”
Comment	“They eat together all the time, huh~”
Kumon	What do you have for lunch, Azami?
Azami	Salad, a mixed grain onigiri, chicken steak, and soup.
Comment	“Sounds like it’s good for beauty!”
Comment	“He’s really diligent…”
Comment	“I’ll learn from him too…”
Kumon	Okay, let’s dig in right away!
Azami	Itadakimasu.
Comment	“Eat up~”
Comment	“Kumon-kun’s really gobbling it down!”
Azami	What did you do today?
Kumon	So you see! I played baseball with my Assistant Language Teacher…
	And they told me I could make it to the major leagues!
Azami	The major leagues have a low bar, huh?
Kumon	Are you watching, Teach~?
Comment	“He plays baseball with his teacher~”
Comment	“Kumon-kun’s pro at baseball, right!”
Kumon	Ah, I heard there are teachers who wanna take a makeup course of yours, Azami!
Azami	For real?
Kumon	A teacher of teachers—you’re awesome, Azami!
Comment	“I’d love to take Azami-kun’s makeup course~!”
Comment	“He’s even popular with the teachers!”
Kumon	It’s amazing, isn’t it!
	Ah. Hey, hey. Can I open the potato chips?
Azami	Are these flavours new?
Kumon	Yep! They’re honey mustard and garlic shrimp!
	I like these chips, but I’ve never seen them outside our school store.
	Has anyone here seen them at another shop before?
Comment	“I’ve seen them before~”
Comment	“Honey mustard’s my fave!”
Comment	“The black pepper cheese one tastes great”
Kumon	Eh, I’ve never seen black pepper cheese! Sounds tasty though~!
	Hehe, it really does feel like I’m spending lunch break with all of you!
Comment	“It’s such a blast!”
Comment	“I’m glad we can spend lunch break together~”
Kumon	Oh yeah! If everyone doesn’t mind, try commenting like we’re students from the same school!
Comment	“Sounds fun!”
CHOICE 1: Let’s go home together after school [+] Comment “Let’s go home together after school” Kumon Sure, I’m down! Let’s go home together! Oh, and let’s drop by somewhere. We can head to the store or park and buy something to eat at a food truck. I’ll send you all the way home afterwards! Comment “KYAAA!” Comment “SOUNDS GOOD!” Comment “SWOON~!”
CHOICE 2: Kumon senpai! [+] Comment “Kumon senpai!” Kumon Huh? It’s rare for you to drop by the 3rd years’ classroom! Do you have committee errands? Or did you come to see me! …Hehe, just kidding! If there’s anything troubling you, just let me know. I’ll help you anytime, alright? Comment “KUMON SENPAI’S SO COOL~!” Comment “I’m happy I can feel like Kumon-kun’s kouhai!”
Kumon	Hehe, conversations like this are fun too!
	AH! It’s time already!
Azami	It’s about time to wrap this up.
Kumon	Was an InteLive like this alright with you guys?
Comment	“It was fun, just like we were calling with friends!”
Comment	“It felt like I was back in high school~!”
Kumon	I’m glad it sounds like all of you enjoyed it~.
	If you say so, then I’m happy too!
Azami	Don’tcha have to take a pic for Inste?
Kumon	Ahh, that’s right. It slipped my mind!
Azami	Geez, I’ll fix your hair.
Kumon	Thanks, Azami!
Comment	“As expected of Azami-kun who’s in charge of hair and makeup!”
Azami	…There.
Kumon	Alright, I’m taking it!
	*click*
	Okay!
	I’ll post it to Inste later.
	Thanks for today, everyone!
	I had such a blast~.
Azami	Thanks.
Comment	“Thanks!”
Comment	“See you!”
Kumon	Alright, see ya. Bye bye~!
Izumi	Great job!
Kumon	Good job! Thanks too, Azami.
Azami	We were just chattin’ though, really.
Izumi	But I think you showed everyone a charm that they can’t normally see on stage. It’s nice that they can feel closer to you this way.
Kumon	I was happy I got to talk with everyone too.
	…Err, ahh!
	That reminds me. I bought ice cream too, but I forgot about it!
	I couldn’t choose, so I bought 3 of them. Let’s eat them together, Director!
AzamI	Eatin’ again…
Izumi	Ahaha, he’s a growing boy.
Kumon	Alright, I’ll bring them over!
Izumi	Ah, hold on! Post to Inste before that!
Kumon	Whoopsies. Right!
	I took a few photos…
	Mmm, maybe this one?
Azami	This one’s nice, ain’t it?
Kumon	Alright, I’ll go with this one!
	Aaand… posted.

Anna