| Kazunari | “Sigh~, the princess of Racoon Castle smelled so nice~.” |
| “I wonder what kind of man the young lord of Crane Castle is like? If the princess loves him enough to send him a love letter, I guess he must be handsome~.” |
| Misumi | “Sigh~, this perfume has such a nice smell~....” |
| Kazunari | “Woah!” |
| Misumi | “Who goes there!?” |
| Izumi | .... |
| (Huh? They’re both acting a little strange.) |
| Kazunari | “A shinobi...?” |
| Misumi | “Are you from Iga?” |
| Kazunari | “And are you a shinobi of Koga[1]?” |
| Izumi | (How should I put it—they seem out of tempo....) |
| (This is weird. Our most recent read-throughs have gone smoothly even on the first day.) |
| |
| Izumi | Let’s stop here for now. |
| (Hmm, we managed to make it through, but...) |
| Tenma | The tempo is horrible. |
| Misumi | .... |
| Kazunari | .... |
| Tenma | Kazunari, Misumi. What happened to your usual energy and momentum? |
| Kazunari | Eh? Uhh.... |
| Izumi | (Of course Tenma-kun noticed. They influenced the rest of the team, making for a poor tempo overall.) |
| Kazunari | Sorry. I’m just out of it right now. Wonder why. |
| Misumi | I’m sorry~. |
| Izumi | (If neither of them know why, then maybe it’s just difficult to read through.) |
| There’s a lot of action this time, so it might be hard to practice while sitting down. |
| Let’s start rehearsing early. |
| Tenma | ...Sounds good. |
| Kazunari | Agreed~. |
| Misumi | Got it! |
| Izumi | Then we’ll start tomorrow. That’s it for today. |
| Yuki | Nice work~. |
| Muku | Nice work. |
| Kumon | Hey, aren’t we gonna do something to practice getting into role this time? Last time we played baseball. |
| Izumi | Ah, everyone should train on their own to get into their specific role, just as always, but we could do something ninja-related together. |
| Kumon | Yeah! I wanna do something! |
| Tenma | We did that ninja-talk. Isn’t that enough? |
| Kumon | That was fun, but it ended up being pointless, so. |
| Muku | Hmm... There’s a lot of action, so maybe we should train to build stamina? |
| Izumi | Ah, that sounds good. You need to be physically fit so you won’t run out of energy during the performance. |
| Kumon | So does that mean running!? |
| Yuki | Geh.... |
| Tenma | Should we run in the morning or evening? I don’t mind doing both, either. |
| Kazunari | —Ah, if possible, could we keep it to one of those times? |
| Yuki | Agreed~. |
| Tenma | But you need stamina more than anyone else, Kazunari. |
| Kazunari | Umm, that’s true, but.... |
| Muku | Kazu-kun, are you busy? |
| Kazunari | .... |
| Actually, I was offered an opportunity to study abroad. |
| Izumi | Eh? |
| Kumon | Study abroad!? |
| Kazunari | ...Yeah. |
| |
| Izumi | (So it’s a three-month study abroad term. But...) |
| Yuki | “It is possible to extend the study abroad period if the student so requests,” huh. ...But. |
| Muku | It conflicts with the run of our performance.... |
| Kazunari | To be honest, I’m still not sure what I want to do, but I need to get started on the assignment for the interview right away or else I won’t make it.... |
| That’s why I want to at least work on it. |
| Izumi | I see.... |
| Misumi | .... |
| Tenma | ...Got it. It’s about your future; you should think it over and decide. |
| You guys supported me during our last performance. Plus, the artist may be like this, but his creations are the real deal. |
| Kazunari | Like what...!? But thanks. |
| ...So yeah. That’s the situation. I’m really happy that you guys told me to be the lead, but I think I should swap roles with someone. |
| Izumi | .... |
| (He has a point—playing the lead while working on his project might be too heavy a burden.) |
| (Most importantly, if he ends up going abroad....) |
| Tenma | No, we’ll stick with Kazunari as the lead. |
| Izumi | Eh? |
| Tenma | His acting is a total disaster as of now, but I still think Kazunari is the best fit for Kiichi. |
| Izumi | But.... |
| Tenma | —If he does go abroad, I’ll play Kiichi. |
| Kazunari | ——! |
| Kumon | Eeh!? |
| Tenma | We can adjust Hyuga’s lines and give his role to an ensemble cast member. |
| Izumi | Well, we might manage if we break down Hyuga’s roles and assign them to other characters, but.... |
| Muku | Tenma-kun can handle acting as a stand-in.... |
| Yuki | Well, he is skillful—when it comes to theater. |
| Tenma | Don’t emphasize that part! |
| Kazunari | But—. |
| Tenma | So you don’t have to worry about choosing either. Just relax and think it over. |
| Kazunari | Tenten.... |
| Kumon | I’ll do anything I can to support you! |
| Yuki | Well, it’s fine. We’re supposed to have each other’s backs in times of need, after all. |
| Muku | That’s right, Kazu-kun! |
| Kazunari | Thanks, everyone! |
| Yuki | But honestly, it’s pretty tough when you have to play the lead and work on a project. Being the leader really feels different, too. |
| Kazunari | Yeah... But I have time, so I’ll give it a go. |
| Yuki | Alright. Then good luck. |
| Kazunari | Yeah. |
| Izumi | What’s most important is what you want to do, Kazunari-kun. Take your time to think it over. We’ll support you. |
| But make sure you don’t overwork yourself. |
| Kazunari | Got it. |
| Misumi | .... |
| Kazunari | I’ll probably end up giving you a lot of trouble as my co-lead, Sumi~. I’m really sorry.... |
| Misumi | ...No! It’s fine, it’s fine~. |
| Yuki | Okay, so in order to lighten Kazunari’s workload, we’re going to cancel running. |
| Tenma | You just don’t want to run! |
| Yuki | It’s exhausting. |
| Tenma | Stop being so selfish! |
| Kumon | If we aren’t running, what else can we do? |
| Muku | Hmm.... |
| Kumon | Let’s come up with something else! |
| Muku | Sounds good. |
| |
| Kazunari | .... |
| ...Hmm. |
| ...Nope~. I can’t think of anything. |
| (What should I paint... Everyone was so good to me; I need to get started on this and decide what I want to do....) |
| .... |
| |
| Misumi | “Are you from Iga?” |
| Kazunari | “And are you a shinobi from Koga?” |
| Misumi | “I am, but I don’t intend to fight you. I’m in the middle of a boring job—delivering a love letter.” |
| Kazunari | “Huh~, where are you going?” |
| Misumi | “Crane Castle.” |
| Kazunari | “What a coincidence! I’m also headed to Crane Castle.” |
| Misumi | “Oh, really~? Then take my letter while you’re at it.” |
| Kazunari | “We can’t do that!” |
| Misumi | “Tch.” |
| Izumi | .... |
| (This is a lot better than our read-through, but I feel like they’re still not their usual selves.) |
| (Kazunari-kun might be having trouble because he’s working on his assignment, but I wonder why Misumi-kun is acting strange....) |
| Tenma | .... |
| |
| Izumi | Okay, that’s it for today. |
| Kumon | Hey hey! |
| Izumi | What is it, Kumon-kun? |
| Kumon | There’s something I wanna do after this to practice getting into role! |
| Izumi | Something you want to do...? |
