Act 9/Episode 2

From A3! Wiki
+ INCREASE TEXT SIZE
- DECREASE TEXT SIZE
Act 9
Episode 2: A Man’s Note/Part 1
Previous Main Story Next
Spring, at 16 years old.
I met a devilish man.
Highschool 2nd year’s class change. Friends uniting, seperating, new classmates shuffling into new classrooms, glancing at each other with excitement yet anxiety.
Who I was with did not matter to me.
Whilst checking the seating arrangement on the blackboard and organizing my desk, suddenly someone spoke from beside me.
“Hey, Kamikizaka, is ‘Reiji’ your real name?”
At first, I wondered what in the world he was saying.
The one who’d struck up such a friendly conversation was a boy in the same class as me, Tachibana Yukio.
I had no intentions of becoming familiar with any of my classmates, I didn’t even plan on remembering their names. But he alone stood out among others, and despite myself, I couldn’t help but remember him.
He stood out, but not in a good way.
He would trip on nothing and scatter his things across the floor, or spill his bento all over. Each time, his clumsiness was unbelievable, and the class would laugh.
“It’s hard to write and hard to read, so can I just call you ‘Reni’?”
I ignored his inane question, but he stubbornly kept trying to talk to me.
Besides, you shouldn’t shorten people’s names without permission.
“What do you want. Besides, you won't even have much of a chance to my name.” I replied.
At that moment, Tachibana shoved a club creation form at me with the name “Kamikizaka Reni” filled in.
“Reni, Let’s do theater together.”
He said to me who was taken aback, and smiled widely.
After that, Tachibana followed me around.
When I tried to slip away from Tachibana after school and hurry home, he ambushed me in the school gate and followed me.
His persistence is to be feared.
A reason, he enrolled in this school after hearing that there was a drama club, but the club disbanded the year before he enrolled and he couldn’t do any club activities in his first year.
He had no choice but to join a troupe outside school to learn about theater, but when he became a 2nd year, it seems he had decided to take the initiative and start a new theater club.
“To do club activities, wouldn't it require a minimum of three people?”
“The other member is a go-home-club person that promised to lend me their name.”
“Is that kind of thing trustworthy?”
“His face is scary, but he’s not a bad guy.”
Gathering members and doing club activities with that reasoning, honestly that amazed me.
“I heard that in our class the only ones in the go-home-club are only you and me.”
When he reasoned that way, I understood.
“Alright fine. I’ll lend you just my name.”
Being followed around any more this is a pain, so I gave him such a reply.
“I don’t want you to only lend me your name, Reni.”
“Ha?”
“There’s a flower in you. If you stand on stage, surely you’ll blossom. I’ll show that you bloom in a Reni-like way.”
“What’s up with that…”
“You know, I don’t actually want to stand on stage, I want to make someone else stand on stage and bloom them.”
“In my own way…”
I heard the words of my strict father and grandfather in my mind.
To “kill” and reinvent myself, to hold up my body and soul, to live my life as a replacementーー The fate that was continuously inherited and imposed on me. To just…
“No interest?”
To Tachibana who mischievously laughed, I subconsciously nodded.
“My interest is not zero.”
When I think back, that was the grin of a demon.
I’ve let this whistling man derail the path of my life.
ReniIt’s already been 30 years since…
(Knock)
ーー.
Come in.
HarutoPardon me.
Reni...You came.
HarutoYes. Is there something I can do for you?
ReniCall Shifuto here.
HarutoTo this room…?
ReniHurry it up.
HarutoY-yes!
Reni...Hmph.
Haruto
(That safe… Reni-san opened it again. Inside there seems to be a notebook or some sort. I wonder what that is…)
Previous Main Story Next