| *the scene begins in Tasuku and Tsumugi's room* |
| |
| Tasuku | Morning. |
| Tsumugi | Good morning. You have practise today again, right? |
| Tasuku | Yeah, from morning 'til the end of the day. |
| Tsumugi | How is it going? |
| Tasuku | It's great. It's making me think a lot. |
| All the work including the behind-the-scenes stuff is as controlled as always, but the whole troupe feels completely different now. Maybe it's because of Reni-san. |
| There's a lot more discussion going on, and even the actors who are usually a bit nervous around Reni-san are able to speak their minds openly. |
| Tsumugi | Plus, their top actor Shifuto-kun's quite open with his thoughts, too. He's a very nice and easy-going guy. |
| Tasuku | Yeah. I do think that the top actor would have a bit of influence, too. |
| (Haruto, on the other hand, feels like he's not used to any of this at all, even though he's leading this time.) |
| Tsumugi | How's Haruto-kun doing as the lead? |
| Tasuku | Watching him made me realize that yeah, he knows GOD-za's acting better than anyone else. |
| He's the only one who's always perfectly pinning down what Reni-san wants. |
| He's got what it takes to lead this play. |
| Tsumugi | Yeah, he's amazing. |
| Tasuku | (But because he understands Reni-san better than anyone else, he's probably also having the hardest time keeping up with the new changes.) |
| (He's always put his all into bringing Reni-san's vision to life. It can't be easy just suddenly moving on from that.) |
| (I hope he can get over this hurdle...) |
| |
| *the scene moves to GOD-za's practise space* |
| |
| Reni | You can operate the projector from here. |
| Izumi | Wow, GOD-za sure is well-equipped. |
| Reni | The Mankai Theater does its job pretty well too, I'd imagine. I didn't have the biggest budget in the world building it, so I made sure that whatever I picked, it had to be useful. |
| Izumi | Oh, yes! Thank you for that. |
| Reni | I'm thinking of dividing the stage in two for the snow kingdom and the fire kingdom. |
| Izumi | Setting apart the frozen mountaintop kingdom and the fiery magma kingdom sounds like a good idea. |
| Having them split and staggered on top of one another would give them both a stronger presence. |
| Reni | Just like heaven and hell... |
| You sure have a lot of wild ideas, just like that man. |
| Izumi | You mean my dad? |
| Reni | Yes. I'll take your suggestion on board. |
| Izumi | Thanks! |
| (I haven't had many chances to discuss directing with someone else, so talking with Reni-san has been really helpful.) |
| |
| Yuki | Great work, guys. |
| Azami | Thanks. I didn't know you were coming today. |
| Yuki | The costumers all had a meeting, so yeah. Plus, I can take a peek at what you're all doing. |
| Azami | How'd the meeting go? |
| Yuki | It was great. I wanted to use a bunch of expensive materials, and everyone said yes. The money-grubbing yakuza would definitely have shot all my ideas down. |
| They said this kind of cost was all normal for GOD-za. I got excited for a bit, but then the difference between our budgets really hit me. |
| Azami | Yeah. Not gonna lie, I got a bit jealous looking at all the tools the makeup artists here use, too. |
| Yuki | I wish we had a bigger budget. |
| Azami | Same. I hate being poor. |
| Yuki | So, how's practise? |
| Azami | Hrm, I was a bit wary 'coz I've heard all sorts of stuff about Reni-san, but he's a lot more chilled out than I expected. I got all worked up for nothing. |
| Tasuku-san's driving me a little crazy, too. I've never been with him for this long before. |
| He's always stuck in character whenever we go on break. |
| Yuki | Yeah, we don't call him an acting junkie for nothing. How are the GOD-za guys? |
| Azami | It's kinda interesting seeing Shifuto putting so much effort into his acting. He's nothing like how he usually is, out here on the practise floor. |
| Yuki | I'll bet he's thinking the same about you, too. |
| Azami | Yeah, maybe. And the lead, Haruto-san, is kind of... |
| Yuki | Kind of what? |
| Azami | Oh, it's nothing. |
| (Haruto-san kind of reminds me of someone...) |
| |
| Reni | Haruto, your interpretation of Cain is too basic. Right now, he's just doing what he does for the sake of it. He lacks agency. |
| And Shifuto. You need to work more on conveying how Lutz feels about Cain. It's not coming across clearly enough. |
| You need to rework it a little. |
| Haruto | Right. |
| Shifuto | Okaaay! |
| Reni | Tasuku and Izumida, I think your portrayal of the master and his vassal is working well. |
| You could probably be a bit more casual with each other, but you've got the base of it down. |
| Haruto | ... |
| (This is just like when Tasuku was still in GOD-za... He was always being praised left and right. I was the only one that came up short.) |
| (I made sure to never forget anything Reni-san said to me, and worked myself as hard as I could to meet his expectations.) |
| Reni | ...Haruto. Haruto? |
| Shifuto | Haruto-san! |
| Haruto | Oh, sorry. |
| Reni | I said you should discuss with Tasuku how you two want to approach your scene in the second act. Did you catch that? |
| Haruto | ...No. I'm really sorry. |
| (Oh my god, I can't believe I made Reni-san repeat himself...) |
| Reni | Well, no matter. Let's take a break and come back in twenty minutes to start on the second act. |
| Haruto | ...Okay. |
| |
| *the scene cuts to the exterior of the GOD Theater at night* |
| |
| Haruto | Haah... |
| (Reni-san didn't even get angry at me... Maybe he's completely lost hope in me already.) |
| (He's never held back with his frustration before, and I would always respond by pushing myself and practising more and more.) |
| (I even took note of what he criticized the other actors for so I wouldn't repeat the same mistakes.) |
| (I wasn't blessed with a physique like Tasuku's, and I don't have the crazy amount of concentration that lets others commit so much that they forget to eat and sleep.) |
| (Right now, I'm putting more energy into worrying about how others would see me, rather than becoming my character.) |
| (Am I graceful enough? Is my accent all right? Am I worthy of GOD-za's stage? I've always asked myself these questions, but I've also been able to overcome them with hard work.) |
| (It always boils down to committing yourself to it without worrying how you look to others.) |
| (I know that. And I always have. So this time...) |
| |
| *the scene moves to GOD-za's backstage area* |
| |
| Haruto | ...Huh? |
| (It's not locked...) |
| ... |
| |
| *the scene changes to the practise room* |
| |
| Tasuku | "Urgh, I can't stand that blockhead. Has his brain petrified in his old age?" |
| Haruto | Tasuku... |
| Tasuku | Hey, Haruto. Here to do some solo practise? I asked the staff to let me in because I wanted to do a little more practise myself. |
| Haruto | You have your own practise space, don't you? |
| Tasuku | Yeah, but this room is about the same size as the stage, so it's easier to get a feel for it here. |
| Haruto | Hrm. |
| Tasuku | Since you're here, do you want to go through the scene Reni-san— |
| Haruto | I just came to grab something I forgot. |
| Tasuku | Hmm, I feel like this has happened before. |
| Haruto | Really? Anyway, bye. |
| *he leaves* |
| Tasuku | ... |
| |
| *the scene changes to the Mankai dorm* |
| |
| Azami | Whew... |
| (Now that I've had my bath, I should go to bed. Wait, I should go through the script and think about what Reni-san said before I sleep.) |
| Tsumugi | Are you not going to put that in the fridge? |
| Juza | Nah, I'm gonna eat it right now. |
| Tsumugi | Ah! |
| Azami | Hey, show me what you've got in that bag. |
| They're all sweets! You'd better not be eating those right now. |
| Tsumugi | Oops. Our luck isn't very good tonight, is it? |
| Juza | Oh, right. We saw that guy on the way back today. |
| Azami | Are you just making something up to get out of this? |
| Tsumugi | No! We were actually thinking of telling Tasuku about this, too. |
| Azami | So, who did you see? |
| Juza | His name was Yamada, or somethin'? |
| Tsumugi | No, it's Haruto Asuka. From GOD-za. |
| Juza | We only saw him from a distance, but I think he was goin' through the play by the river. |
| Azami | What? But it's freezing out there. He's going to catch a cold. Why didn't he just use GOD-za's practise space? |
| Juza | Maybe he just felt like practisin' all of a sudden on the way home. |
| Azami | What? Who does that? |
| Tsumugi | Some of us do. |
| Juza | Yeah. Sometimes you just come up with somethin' and you wanna try it out right away. |
| Tsumugi | I often think up of how I should act while I'm out and about. |
| Azami | For real? |
| (Ha, that's the mark of a real actor, I guess.) |
