Yuki Rurikawa/MANKAI Encore

Encore: Shiro

Backstage Stories

Part 1Part 2Part 3

Cat A	Meow~ Meow~
Cat B	Meow meow~
Misumi	There’s a lot of kitties! Hi guys~
Muku	Wah… They’re sooo cute.
Izumi	I’m surprised there’s an island like this nearby.
Kazunari	It’s a huge coincidence! I was surprised too when I found out about it, but then I thought that we definitely had to go!
Izumi	It seems like a good reference for you guys to become adventuring cats again for our encore performance... And it has a relaxing effect…
Kazunari	Totally!
Cat C	Meooow.
Muku	Can I pet you, Mr. Cat?
Izumi	They seem used to people so it’s probably fine. They’re so cute~
Cat	Meow!
Tenma	Hey! It doesn’t like anything!
Izumi	(That cat sure got away from him pretty fast...)
Yuki	You’re still pretty bad at holding cats.
Kumon	Tenma-san, you gotta be a little more gentle!
Yuki	You really have no talent for handling cats.
Tenma	What kind of talent is that!
Yuki	—Oh.
White cat	Mew?
Yuki	You look like Shiro.
White cat	Meow?
Yuki	...Shiro’s the name of the cat I play onstage.
White cat	Meow.
	……
Yuki	Why are you turning around? Do you need to go somewhere?
White cat	Meow.
Yuki	...Are you telling me to follow you?
White cat	Meow!
Yuki	Guess I don’t have a choice.
Kazunari	...Huh? Yukkii? Where’s he going…?
White cat	Meow.
Yuki	...What is this place, an empty lot...? There’s only junk lying around.
Kazunari	Don’t tell me, is this a secret base or something?!
Yuki	Woah!
	Don’t just shout all of a sudden. Actually, when did you…
Kazunari	Soz dude! I saw you following Shiro, so I followed along!
Yuki	Shiro….?
Kazunari	Doesn’t that cat remind you of Shiro? He’s all white and fluffy!
Yuki	…Oh, I thought the same thing.
Kazunari	For reals?! Our compatibility is on point today!
Cats	Meow.
Kazunari	Wow, there’s a lot of cats! Six, just like Natsugumi!
Black cat	Meeeow.
Yuki	Hmm?
Striped cat	Mew mew.
Kazunari	Umm…
Brown cat	Meow!
Yuki	I know they have something they want to tell us.
Kazunari	I don’t know what they want to say!
White cat	Mew….
Kazunari	Hmm…. Okay, let’s call Sumi!
Yuki	That was fast.
Yuki	Even though he went to call the Triangle Alien over, the rest of the members came too...
Izumi	Everyone got worried when you two disappeared all of a sudden.
Muku	Yeah! I thought the cat fairies captured you guys and took you away deep into the mountains….
Kumon	And then Yuki and Kazu-san, who became the fairies’ minions, were standing right in front of us…!
Yuki	You guys have some overactive imaginations. It’s not like that.
Izumi	Ahaha…
Muku	Anyways, to think there was a place like this.
Kumon	We found some cats’ secret hideout, that’s super exciting!
Kazunari	I think it’s more like they brought us here rather than us finding it~
Misumi	Hi kitties~!
White cat	Meow! Meow meow!
Kazunari	Hey, don’t you guys think these cats have the same patterns as the ones in our show?!
Tenma	Now that you mention it… You’re right.
Black cat	Meow.
Misumi	Hmhm, I see~ In that case, you can rely on these two!
Kazunari	Sumi, what did Shiro want?
Misumi	They’re troubled because they wanna decorate their secret base to be all cutesy but they can’t do it themselves~
Yuki	I see.
Kazunari	So the two people Sumi said they could rely on are…!
Misumi	Yuki and Kazu!
Kazunari	We gotta do this, we had a fateful encounter here after all!
Yuki	...Yeah.
Tenma	It’s fine… Just as long as it doesn’t get in the way of our performance.
Yuki	I understand. Besides, it’ll be fine if the two of us do it.
Kazunari	Yukkii…..!
Yuki	Kitties, can you guys give us some time? I wanna think about how we’re gonna do this.
White cat	Mew.
Misumi	He said it’s okay~!
Yuki	Nice.
Kazunari	We’re gonna decorate your base to be totally cute and hella exciting while we’re here!
Cats	Meow!

Izumi	And just like that, it’s the final show of the encore performance of our second play!
Muku	How do I put this… It’s like it just flew past us!
Tenma	Whenever eyes pile up on me, it’s hard to speak cat language....
Izumi	Ahaha, it’s the same as before.
Yuki	——
	Our adventure this time was really fun too!
Kazunari	I agree… It’s fun being with Shiro and the gang on this adventure!
Tenma	It’s not over yet, y’know?
Yuki	I knyow that! Everyone, get in a circle~!
Kazunari	Meow!
Muku	Mew.
Tenma	Meow.
Misumi	Meeeow!
Kumon	Mew!
Yuki	——Nyatsugumi, fight on!
Summer Troupe	MEOW!
Izumi	(The story begins in a small town tucked away in a corner of the World of Cats.)
	(One day, Nora comes back to town unexpectedly and tells Shiro and Kuro about his travels.)
Nora	“I heard that there’s a great treasure somewhere in this world that will weaken any cat who takes one bite of it,”
	“And it’s called… ‘niboshi’.”
Shiro	“‘Nyiboshi’....”
Kuro	“It’s ‘niboshi’.”
Shiro	“‘Nyiboshi’.”
Kuro	“Shiro, try saying ‘na ni nu ne no’.”
Shiro	“Nya nyi nyu nye nyo.”
Nora	“He’s still bad with his N sounds.”
Kuro	“Never nab a nanny’s noodles”
Shiro	“Nyever nyab a nyanny’s…”
Kuro	“Then how about this?! Nine nice nyaight nymphs…. Wait.”
Nora	“Kuro can’t say it either!”
Izumi	(Yuki-kun’s and Kazunari-kun’s dialogue has a better tempo this time around.)
	(Muku-kun’s acting has improved since he’s also played a lead role in a performance. Nora’s gotten manlier compared to the first time he played him.)
Tama	“Sounds nice. I wanna go outside too.”
Mike	“There’s no way we can go outside though.”
Tama	“Yeah, we don’t even know how to do stuff like transfer train lines.”
Mike	“I think there’s nyapps you can use for transferring trains, but I can’t use my smartphone very well because of my paw pads….”
Guest A	*snrk*…. Ahaha!
Guest B	Hehe, so the World of Cats has stuff like smartphones and trains!
Izumi	(Tenma-kun and Misumi-kun always had stability since the beginning, but it feels like the range of their acting has expanded.)
Shiro	“Mew don’t need a nyapp to leave! We’re gonna go look for ‘nyiboshi’ together!”
Mike	“But we have work to do at this mansion....”
???	“Mike, Tama, come over here.”
Mike	“Chief!”
Chief	“All you guys ever do is slack off, so I don’t have any particular problems with you guys going.”
Mike	“We don’t slack off! Don’t say weird human stuff like that!”
Chief	“So your job is to play with the broom like it’s a toy and take siestas on top of the laundry?”
Tama	“Er… That’s…”
Mike	“He’s not even denying it....”
Izumi	(Kumon-kun wasn’t here when we originally performed the play, so we had him play the senior cat.)
	(It’s not the type of role he usually plays nor does he have a lot of scenes, but it’s good to have a presence.)
Tama	“Alright, I’m gonna go look for niboshi too!”
Mike	“Fur real, Tama?”
Tama	“Chief said it was okay, so you should come with us too!”
Mike	“Might as well...”
Chief	“Listen up, Mike and Tama. Be sure to listen to them properly and don’t slack off!”
Izumi	(After a long journey, the gang arrives at Fish Valley. However, Shiro manages to fall prey to a catnip trap….)
Tama	“Get a hold of yourself, Shiro!”
Shiro	“Get lost! This catnip is all mine!”
	“Hissー!”
Tama	“Ouch—!”
Mike	“Hey, what’d you do to Tama?!”
Kuro	“If you don’t cut it out Shiro, I’ll get really angry.”
Shiro	“Shut up! You’re always acting like some big brother and it’s annoying! I don’t need you Kuro, I can do this all by myself!”
Kuro	“——”
Nora	“Kuro’s just worried about you, Shiro.”
Shiro	“You’re so pushy! I don’t need ny’all to help me!”
Kuro	“——Have it your way then!”
Izumi	(They try to make Shiro return to his senses but have no success, so they go their separate ways….)
Izumi	(Having come to his senses, Shiro reaches the bottom of Fish Valley all by himself and finally discovers the “niboshi”....)
	(He then reunites with Kuro and the others.)
	(Shiro was going to give Kuro his niboshi in order to make amends, but the two of them compromise as Kuro was thinking the same thing.)
Nora	“In the end, you two really are alike. It’s nice to eat something when everyone gets along.”
Tama	“That’s right!”
Mike	“Since you guys made up peacefully, we can divide this equally neow.”
Izumi	(The five of them happily share the niboshi, savoring its deliciousness with happy smiles on their faces….)
Kuro	“Well, we should go home soon.”
Shiro	“But I wanna eat more ‘niboshi’!”
Tama	“I wish there was niboshi that you could eat and it’d never run out!”
Mike	“There’s no way that exists.”
Nora	“No, it’s possible that the other valleys have it.”
Shiro	“‘Niboshi’... Infinite ‘niboshi’...”
Kuro	“It’s like you’re muttering an incantation...”
Shiro	“Alright, I’m gonna go look for the infinite ‘niboshi’!”
Tama	“I’ll go too!”
Mike	“I’ll go if Tama’s going!”
Shiro	“Kuro, you come too.”
Kuro	“Good grief, guess I don’t have a choice...”
Guest A	That was so funny~
Guest B	It was cute! I laughed a lot!
Izumi	(Alright, the guests’ reactions are good too!)
	(Everyone has definitely improved since we first performed this play… They’ve become more resolute and enthralling in various ways.)
Yuki	Mew mew mew ♪
Muku	Meow meow ♪
Kumon	Mrrreow~! ♪
Guest B	Look, it’s a cat dance!
Guest C	Everybody’s smiles are so cute…!
Summer Troupe	Thank mew very much!
Izumi	(The final show’s a big success!)

Izumi	(Now that the final performance is over, all that’s left is to decorate the secret base.)
Yuki	Put that branch over there.
Kazunari	Alrighty~
Yuki	So this cloth….
Kazunari	Goes over here!
Kumon	Yuki and Kazu-san have amazing communication!
Tenma	They sure are reliable at times like this.....
Yuki	Less talking, more working.
Izumi	Anyways, they did a good job thinking about decorations in such a short time.
Muku	They’re incorporating their individual ideas!
Kazunari	Right~? We thought we’d use the stuff the cats collected!
Yuki	Seems all the junk is pretty important to the cats.
Misumi	Okay, we’ll do our best to help out too~!
Kumon	Yeah!
Misumi	Kazu~ Can we use this triangular branch?
Kazunari	Ooh, nice one Sumi! Let’s put it over here!
Yuki	I’ll hang this cloth right over… here.
Izumi	Yuki-kun, how’d you get that cloth?
Yuki	I asked the hotel to give me any cloth they didn’t need.
Izumi	Amazing... Just what I expected from Yuki-kun.
Striped cat	Meow.
Yuki	.....Hm? Do you want me to decorate this toy too?
Striped cat	Mew!
Yuki	Then let’s clean it up like this… and put it here.
Striped cat	Meow~
Brown cat	Hiss—!
Tenma	Hey! Why are you mad?!
Kazunari	Oh Tenten, that goes over here!
Brown cat	Meooow.
Muku	His mood suddenly got better…!
Kumon	For someone who has no clue what the cats are saying, Kazu-san’s amazing!
Izumi	Maybe there’s something in the design they communicate with?
Yuki	So he’s even showing off his communication skills to cats?
Kazunari	We’re done~!
Cats	Meow meow!
Misumi	They said “Thanks everyone~!” They seem to really like it~!
Yuki	Naturally.
Kumon	I had fun~!
Muku	Yeah! It’s good to do something like this every once in a while.
Izumi	(Everyone looks like they’re done…. The cats seem delighted too, thank goodness!)
	It’s almost time for us to head back, so let’s return to the harbor.
Cats	Meow.
Izumi	The cats came to see us off.
Striped cat	Mew mew!
Misumi	“You helped us out, so it’s only natural!”
Tenma	I thought that cats were just free-spirited animals.... But they’re surprisingly faithful.
Muku	It’s kinda hard to leave when we’ve just become friends...
Black cat	Meow.
Misumi	“Come and play with us again!”
Kumon	For real?! Aw yiss~!
White cat	Meooow.
Yuki	….What is it?
Kazunari	Has Shiro fallen for Yukkii~?
White cat	Mew.
Yuki	….It feels nice.
Kazunari	Somebody’s happy~
Yuki	Shut up.
	You know, I was worried up until the last minute, but I’m glad we were able to do a good job decorating.
Kazunari	Yeah~ We did the encore performance and we also reached an understanding with the cat’s secret base, so I feel uber accomplished!
Yuki	……
	Hey, Kazunari.
Kazunari	Mm?
Yuki	…...You came up with a variety of ideas this time, too. It really helped.
	Thanks.
Kazunari	…..!!
	Yukkii! We really are a hella rad designer unit!
	*Kazunari tries to hug Yuki, but Yuki dodges*
Yuki	Yeah yeah, it’s time for you to shut up now.
Kazunari	You dodged again....! Can’t you give me a half-baked hug?!
Yuki	I refuse, it’s too stuffy.

Mae