| Sakyo | —I've averted my eyes from my dream for a long, long time now. |
| My mother raised me on her own.
We were so poor that I couldn't do anything that cost money, like club activities, or going out to play. |
| Every day, walking straight home from school, I would pass by the brand-new MANKAI dorm. |
| My mother was always out working late, so I would return to an empty home. That's why I was so intrigued by the happy voices coming from the dorm. |
| I would peek in through the entrance and see the troupe members practicing and doing vocal lessons here and there. |
| Before I knew it, I’d started secretly looking forward to watching their brilliance. |
| On my way home from school, for just a few moments before the sun set. I thought it was enough to just watch them from afar. |
| But one day, out of the blue, a little girl noticed me there and started talking to me. |
| "Onii-chan, don't you want to join us?" |
| I had never seen her before.
Everyone in the dorm was an adult, older than me. A little girl like her had never entered the dorms. |
| "Hey, come on in."
"No, I’m not..."
"But you want to come in, right? Hey, Father~!”
"Oi, stop!" |
| The man who showed up was the one who always instructed the other troupe members. I learned a little later that he was the head, Tachibana Yukio. |
| "This onii-chan wants to join us."
"No, I’ve been saying—"
"...Want to take a look inside?"
"....Eh?"
"Come on, onii-chan!"
"O-oi." |
| She took my hand, and for the first time, I stepped into the place that I’d watched from afar for so long. |
| At first, I wasn't particularly interested in acting, but the atmosphere at the MANKAI Company made me feel comfortable. |
| Everyone was kind; they taught me how to act or lectured me about theater, even when I didn't ask for it. |
| Eventually, I was stopping by and practicing at MANKAI Company every day—and I came to love acting more and more. |
| And before I knew it, I was dreaming about standing on MANKAI Company's stage one day. |
| I only spent one week with this girl, who was Yukio-san's daughter. She was just visiting Tokyo. |
| I took care of her for that week; so when she had to leave, she cried and cried. |
| I still can't forget the warmth of her hand that grabbed me and didn’t let me go. |
| Once I entered middle school and high school, I started working jobs as an underling of a yakuza. |
| I stopped dropping by to practice, because it somehow felt wrong—but I still secretly attended every single performance. |
| |
| I became a yakuza to earn money quickly, so I could help out my family. Even so, I could no longer allow myself to step foot into the company. |
| I understood that, but I thought that perhaps, one day, I could meet them again—that girl and Yukio-san—so I kept pointlessly dropping by the theater. |
| Because of that, I witnessed the troupe become more and more desolate. |
| I couldn't stand the thought of this place disappearing. If people no longer came to this theater, I felt like that would be the end of my connection with Yukio-san and the little girl, so—. |
| That's why I decided to lend money to the troupe. |
| I was no longer a child. My mother didn’t have to take care of me or pay for everything; I now had a huge sum of money at my disposal. |
| And if that wasn't enough, I decided I would bring this company back to life with my own hands if I had to. |
| Truth be told—I always, always wanted to act.
I wanted to stand on MANKAI Company's stage. |
| But this is the only way I can get involved now. |
| I couldn't support this company in its darkest time. I couldn't give back to Yukio-san. |
| That’s the biggest "regret" of my life—. |
| |
| Izumi | ..... |
| Sakyo | —Who is it? |
| Izumi | ...Guess you caught me. I won't get in the way, so please continue. |
| Sakyo | I'm finishing up. It's just individual practice, after all. |
| Izumi | Can’t you at least show me, your director? |
| Sakyo | It's not done yet. Deal with it. |
| Izumi | Eh~. |
| Sakyo | Don't "eh~" me. |
| Izumi | I'm looking forward to seeing your portrait, Sakyo-san! |
| Sakyo | (The day I met that young girl again, all grown up in front of MANKAI Theater—you’ll never know how surprised I was.) |
| Izumi | Why are you smiling? |
| Sakyo | It's nothing. |
| Izumi | It's naughty to smile at your own memories! |
| Sakyo | Who are you calling naughty. |
| ...Geez. You haven’t changed—you always have to get a word in. |
